The Avalanches announce their new album

The Australian sample-pop titans, The Avalanches, are back with a new offering that dives deep into the strange alchemy of memory, advertising, and pop culture. Following the success of their Karen O collaboration Blue Shadows, the group has officially announced their fourth studio album, No Bad Memories, set to arrive on October 16th through Modular Recordings.

This new project isn’t just a collection of catchy tunes; it’s an intellectual deep dive. The band states that No Bad Memories explores the simultaneously magical and insidious ways that name-brand technology wraps itself around our recollections. It examines the blurry line between genuine nostalgia and the meticulously engineered emotional pull exerted by corporate culture.

“It’s been interesting as adults to reflect on this often stunning period of marketing — the creativity, filmmaking, photography and music — but which was also… selling a completely unobtainable dream,” the group reflects. They found that revisiting childhood imagery and jingles, flipping those fragments into their own kind of joyous pop music, led them exactly where they are now.

The album is built on an expansive tapestry of sound, featuring a whopping 31 tracks, promising a rich journey for listeners. To offer a taste of this forthcoming masterpiece, the group released previews like “Can’t Get Over Losing You,” which features the talents of Baton Rouge producer and singer Portraits of Tracy.

The chemistry between The Avalanches and their collaborators is palpable. Group member Robbie Chater recently praised Portraits of Tracy as a truly generational talent, emphasizing how fortunate they feel to share musical space with her. Their work together has already yielded incredible results, with Portraits of Tracy noting that the collaboration felt perfectly right from the start.

This collaborative spirit shines across the record. Alongside preview tracks, the album includes singles such as “Blue Shadows” (“Every Single Weekend”) and “Together,” featuring contributions from artists like Jamie xx, Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza, and Prentiss. The resulting sound is a perfect blend of their signature sampling prowess and contemporary pop sensibility.

With momentum building, the band is gearing up for a major tour. Following recent appearances, The Avalanches are set to return to New York on October 22nd at Terminal 5 before heading to London’s Roundhouse to headline the Pitchfork Music Festival in November. They also have a busy slate of European dates lined up, including appearances at Dare’s Freakquencies party in France and various events across Italy and Belgium.