The Avalanches - Wildflower

Wildflower is the second studio album by Australian electronic music group the Avalanches. It was first released for streaming on Apple Music on 1 July 2016, and saw a full release a week later on 8 July. It was issued through Modular Recordings, Astralwerks, XL Recordings, and EMI. Production of the album was led by Robbie Chater with assistance from Tony Di Blasi and lasted nearly 16 years, commencing shortly after the release of their debut album, Since I Left You, in November 2000 and not concluding until March 2016. The album features multiple guest collaborators providing vocals and live instrumentation across its 21 tracks. Wildflower also features extensive sampling, especially from 1960s psychedelic music, and relates to the era through themes of counterculture and anti-establishment. Chater described the album's structure as a road trip from a hyperrealistic urban environment to somewhere remote and far away while on LSD.

After the release of Since I Left You in 2000, the Avalanches toured and continued to produce music. For over a decade, the group worked on a wide variety of projects, producing new tracks while also collaborating with multiple artists. The album was described in 2005 as "ambient world music", and by early 2007, the band was considering over 40 tracks for an album which had become mostly hip hop-oriented. The album's production was stalled due to Chater being ill for three years, and the group had also become more involved in separate projects which pulled them away from the album. Some of their most time-consuming work included the score to a musical, King Kong, and an animated musical film described as a "hip hop version of Yellow Submarine" which lost funding and was never completed. Wildflower features many remnants from these projects and was compiled using these tracks in a similar fashion to making a mixtape.

Teasing of the album began in April 2016, and it was formally announced in June alongside the release of its first single, an extended mix of "Frankie Sinatra". Upon release, Wildflower received critical acclaim. Critics praised the production of the album although most compared it less favourably to Since I Left You. The album was also a commercial success; it was a number-one album in the band's home country of Australia and a top-ten album in Scotland and the UK. The Avalanches had to leave out many tracks which did not fit with the theme of the album, including some written with guest collaborators. They plan to release these tracks "within a year" of the album's release in order to provide a fresh start to produce new material.

Tracklist

1. The Leaves Were Falling

2. Because I'm Me

3. Frankie Sinatra

4. Subways

5. Going Home

6. If I Was a Folkstar

7. Colours

8. Zap!

9. The Noisy Eater

10. Wildflower

11. Harmony

12. Live a Lifetime Love

13. Park Music

14. Livin' Underwater (Is Somethin' Wild)

15. The Wozard of Iz

16. Over the Turnstiles

17. Sunshine

18. Light Up

19. Kaleidoscopic Lovers

20. Stepkids

21. Saturday Night Inside Out

Digital edition bonus track

22. Frankie Sinatra (extended mix)