The misconception about long awaited new albums is that they actually took that long to create, with all the weight of expectation that years of absence amasses.
As with Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy, it’s far more likely that The Avalanches spent 16 years not making their second album than making it. The Australian producers were briefly responsible for the coolest sounds on the planet in 2000, the sunny flipside to DJ Shadow’s moody sample collages.
The intervening years have not inflicted radical changes on their style, which is still zany and hyperactive on Frankie Sinatra and warmly psychedelic on Colours. On The Noisy Eater, they manage to mix both Biz Markie rapping about cereal and a child’s choir singing The Beatles.
It’s all great, summery fun, if you can put down the idea that 16 years of work should equal a masterpiece.
(XL)
