A Valentine to the Avalanches

Damn, I’m old.   It’s been nearly 13 years ago that an album was released by an Australian group, in Australia, that has brought me nothing but pleasure every single day since then.

The band was called the Avalanches, and the record was called “Since I Left You.”

It remains perhaps the most joyous, ecstatic record ever produced in the history of pop music – probably because it was made from pop music – thousands upon thousands of samples had been used to make this masterpiece – a collection of jubilant mindbending melodies that create pure, heavenly delirium.

When I first heard it back when it was released, I didn’t get it. I only digested punk and metal. I needed anger and darkness. Not light. Light was for wussies.

In weeks however, I realized what was going on in my brain. This record had hijacked my synapses through ecstatic repetition, and thirteen years later, I still listen to it EVERY DAY.

I am not kidding. Every day I put this on, and it makes me happier than a hand job from a unicorn.

If you don’t own it, then there might be something wrong with you.

No – there is something wrong with you.

You don’t own this record.

Here’s the full album, from You Tube. Turn it up and let it play, while you do your laundry, or the dishes, or a loved one. I struggle with the concept of a higher being every day (mostly at night), but I cannot believe something so pleasurable could have been created in a godless world.

Have a taste. You might dismiss it, initially. But give it a week, tops – and get back to me. The best way to describe it: imagine arriving from a night flight to some exotic city where the party is only beginning. Someone takes your bags, and hands you a drink and a bag of whatever. And all your friends are there. There might even be a puffin, or two. You stay awake for three days. 

I don’t care if the Avalanches ever do another thing. They did one thing. Awesomely.

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