So what’s new after 16 years of not having a new album by The Avalanches? Not much, but that shouldn’t be a detractor even if so much has changed since then. And when you think about it, what could change with their particular genre? There’re few advances in the genre of plunderphonics, so when you hear little difference between 2000’s fantastic "Since I Left You" and this year’s almost-as-good "Wildflower," do not be shocked.

The conversation hasn’t changed that much either. Plunderphonics is just another form of creative plagiarism. Plain and simple, but it needn’t be explained. But in case you’re out of the loop, all you need to know is that plunderphonics is the copying and pasting of other people’s original work to create something new…kinda. My general feelings are that this record sounds great, but it’s also hard to know how much credit to give to these guys. And to actually quantify The Avalanches’ contributions to music, I would need to go through each sample and revisit each song to see how original these mixes are. Unfortunately, you’ll find several hip-hop record’s worth of samples on here, so I see little need to go through so much just for one record. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that above all, these are colorful works and they mesh well together.

But on this record, there is a little bit of original work here. Obviously, it's the rapping over the instrumentals, but I still can’t tell if they distract or enhance the music. All I know is that the Danny Brown verses are pretty iffy and “Frankie Sinatra” is a silly song at best. Fortunately, The Avalanches have more to show than that disappointing return song. And while there are no standout’s like the highs of Since I Left You (including the fantastic title-cut), they’re pretty evenly balanced. And while it may never be better than its predecessor, it’s certainly more colorful. As Jamie xx’s In Colour was a kaleidoscope-like journey for rave music, this is almost the equivalent of that. It definitely wants you to get that feel, seeing as how there’re songs titled, “Kaleidoscope Lovers”, “Sunshine”, “Harmony”, “Colours”, “Zap”... you get the picture. A “road-trip” album? That’s what the group described it as, but an “acid trip” is more appropriate. It is no coincidence that a lot of these samples were extracted from 1960’s psychedelic music, circa Sgt. Pepper. And if you know your history, then you’ll notice that this record shares the same name with a popular Beach Boys record.

Will I ever respect them for doing what they do? Yes, but to an extent. This is essentially what hip-hop is, but with less original input. We’ll never really know how hard (or simple) it is to do this, but above all, it sounds great. And after all, it’s always good to assume that every original idea isn’t truly original. So in a way, everyone is already stealing from someone else anyways. Let's not let The Avalanches fall prey to our double-standards and disregard this great sophomore effort. Not many returns are this fresh, especially after nearly 2 decades. More props for making a successful comeback. A-

(Key Tracks: “Sunshine”, “Colours”, “If I Was a Folkstar”)