12/11/20: The Avalanches, Avalon Emerson, Burial/Four Tet/Thom Yorke, and more
Welcome to the December 11th edition of First Listen Friday!
The Avalanches released their new LP We Will Always Love You today. The Avalanches make music that seems to always get described as kaleidoscopic. The new album comes four years after 2016’s comeback album Wildflower (a relatively short wait compared to the 16 years to took to get that album after 2000’s Since I Left You). On first listen I think this album compares favorably to Wildflower. As with the new Gorillaz collection Song Machine earlier this year, this album has a lot of great variety and features so if you enjoyed that project you may like the vibe here as well. The LP consists of 25 tracks though many of the tracks are minute-long interludes. The “main” tracks here are excellent throughout. The list of featured artists here is impressive and includes Blood Orange, Leon Bridges, MGMT & Johnny Marr (“The Divine Chord”), and Denzel Curry (“Take Care In Your Dreaming”) among others. I really enjoyed this release, give it a listen.
Burial, Four Tet, & Thom Yorke have collaborated once again on Her Revolution / His Rope which was released on streaming today. I love all these artists and look forward to anything they release on their own let alone in collaboration. You can really hear each of their influences on the tracks.
Avalon Emerson released 040 today. I really enjoyed this electronic EP. Avalon Emerson popped up on my radar after her entry in the DJ-Kicks DJ mix series. I’m digging the synths on this EP, particularly on “One Long Day Till I See You Again”.
Ben Browning of Cut/Copy released single “I Concede” this week.
Grandbrothers released single “What We See” in advance of their new album All The Unknown out January 15th, 2021 on City Slang.
Hayley Williams performed a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR this week (Becca Mancari whose album I featured earlier this year is playing in the band as well).
Lastly, here’s a cover of Rage Against The Machines “Killing In The Name Of” in the style of Michael McDonald.
And here’s the Spotify playlist for this week, enjoy!