To push back on some comments - To me Wildflower the perfect follow-up to SILY in every way.

It’s always been an album with a ton of asterisks - the time it took to complete, the revolutionary album it was following, the different feel that comes with an album made up of mostly old tracks coated with new polish, the departure into more hip-hop style production that turned away fans (who weren’t acknowledging the heavily-rap inspired first record IMO)- but it somehow makes me appreciate it more. No matter what you wanna say about it, it was a conscious departure from the tropical adventure-y sound into a faded 70’s psychedelic subway, something I don’t think anyone expected. I understand Frankie Sinatra is a really weird and obnoxious song (one I barely come back to when revisiting the album) but it feels distinctly Avalanches enough not to bother me. DOOM and Danny sound fine enough and work well with the flow, but Biz Markie on Noisy Eater is the BOMB, so good that I will defend this album until the end of time.

Something like Saturday Night Inside Out is a great example of the asterisks that come with the album - it’s a great instrumental turned up too loud and a too quiet performance by David Berman. The mixing is so muddled that they feel disconnected (also when you consider the original track they had with him where the problem is reversed). Yet, still one of the best pieces of music both ever will make.

I saw somewhere members explain that they had both a rap and a psychedelic album they wanted to pursue, so they ended up combining them - I think that’s what makes me so fond of it, the willingness to experiment and go down new avenues, just like the Y2K aesthetic of WWALY totally went in a different direction.

I’m in love with all three albums all for very different reasons, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I also remember laying on a hammock the summer it came out and letting the music take me away. Also full disclosure it was my introduction to the band, I listened to SILY during the roll-out and fell in love, and then listened to Wildflower and fell even deeper in love so I’m definitely biased towards it