Music Review:"No Bad Memories"by The Avalanches
The Avalanches vs. Social Media
The Avalanches made arguably the most acclaimed experimental album of all time with the release of “Since I Left You” in 2000. The album, made entirely of samples, feels like it was completely and utterly engrossed in 1960s and 1970s culture while still having a modern touch. It helps that the album has some super catchy hooks as well.
Their latest album, “No Bad Memories,” modernizes the concept of looking back in time through a modern lens in a way never seen before by the band. While their method is still unconventional, they find a way to engage with modern and older samples never seen in their music before.
“No Bad Memories” seems like it was supposed to cater to and satirize the nature of newer music. Throughout, The Avalanches put in some of these interludes and mini songs that explore ideas in a more direct way and break up songs. These range from messing with TV commercials (“El Dorado TV Spot,” “Superfun!™ TV Spot”), showing the plain absurdity of advertising (“3D Glasses Not Included,” “Break Out Corporate Tag”) or being more traditional interludes that break up songs with differing energy (“Friends Forever,” “Logoland”). None of these songs ever disrupt the flow of the album or feel out of place, either, fitting right into the soundscapes they’re placed in.
Even the non-interlude tracks are shorter on average as well, repeating self-contained themes and samples. Some of these songs, like “I Give Everything I Have 2 U” keep up these themes until they’re ripped away from them in the song, bookending with various sounds and samples unrelated to the rest of the song. Some songs, like “One More Fantasy,” have a nostalgic sheen to them, being obviously inspired by the 2000s, 1990s and in this song’s case, the 1980s.
The Avalanches also fit multiple electronic music genres within the album as well, with some genres like footwork and juke (“Like Clockwork/Hit By Traffic,” “Watch Out! It’s Cloudy”) sticking around in short moments throughout and wider genres like house (“All The Time in the World”) making appearances as well. Some genres, like drum and bass in the song “Far Away,” only make one fleeting appearance, ripped away and replaced with a new thought as soon as the song is over.
The Avalanches fill these songs with samples of advertising, music taken from numerous decades and (on occasion) popular TikTok audios while juxtaposing them and clashing different messages and vibes of these samples. While at first the clashing samples can seem unpleasant together, the listener finds that The Avalanches do this specifically to address the way people try to mask their sadness and insecurities on social media through layers and layers of videos and messaging on top of each other.
Some less chaotic moments slip through, though, with “Highfield” presenting a more somber and low-energy moment, allowing the listener to breathe in between taking in the massive amounts of samples. The title track in the back half of the album also allows the listener to breathe through a moment that feels like they’re genuinely happy and feeling alright for once.
All of these elements build up “No Bad Memories” into a monster full of surreal and borderline insane moments that feel jarring in the best way possible. The Avalanches do this by presenting every element in a choppy, sound collage style that almost directly calls out the way we consume advertising and media today.
A lot of the jarring nature and vapid-ness of the samples confront the listener to similar circumstances to consuming short-form content and experiencing information overload. The longer songs here bring in a feeling of slapping a band-aid to overstimulation as well by forcing happiness through performative-sounding nostalgic music and advertising.
I wouldn’t have known that the feeling of information overload could be represented in music in such a visceral way if I hadn’t listened to this album. I wholeheartedly recommend it for people that enjoy chaotic-sounding music in general and fans of music that uses samples in a unique way. If you like this album, listen to the Computer Trilogy (“Computer Death,” “Computer Decay” and “Computer Afterlife”) by Infinity Frequencies. These albums similarly use samples of commercials and old music but focus more directly on sadness and melancholy.
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