A Fourth Chapter Built From Echoes of the Past
No Bad Memories is the fourth studio album by electronic trio The Avalanches, a sprawling, nostalgia-driven project that reworks childhood advertising sounds and branded jingles into new, sample-rich pop songs while continuing their long-evolving shift toward guest-heavy, emotionally resonant electronic music.
The key story is not that The Avalanches have announced another album; it is that they are turning the noise of commercial culture into something tender and humane. The Avalanches album No Bad Memories, due on October 16, positions memory as raw creative material rather than comfort food. In their own words, this is about revisiting “imagery and jingles from childhood” and flipping those corporate fragments into “joyous pop music”. That intent gives the No Bad Memories release a sharper edge than simple retro worship. It suggests a band interrogating the dreams they were sold and the sounds that shaped them, and then rebuilding those fragments into a 31-track world that feels both familiar and strangely new.
‘Can’t Get Over Losing You’: Grief Wrapped in Glitter
If No Bad Memories is a world, “Can’t Get Over Losing You” is the doorway. The latest single is described as jubilant, built on punchy drums and ethereal vocals from Baton Rouge producer and multi-instrumentalist Portraits of Tracy, who also helped shape the melodies. On paper, that sounds like classic Avalanches—bright, sample-friendly, rhythm-forward. In practice, the track feels like a quiet emotional pivot. The title alone frames the song as loss rather than mere nostalgia, and that tension between upbeat rhythm and aching subject matter gives it bite.
The collaboration has been years in the making; Portraits of Tracy notes they started the song in 2024 and finished it in 2025, calling the final version “lovely”. That long gestation shows. The track feels deliberate, not a quick feature for streaming playlists but a carefully built conversation between the trio’s collage-like production and Tracy’s fragile, heart-on-sleeve performance. It hints that No Bad Memories may care less about clever pastiche and more about how those old sounds can carry present-tense pain.
A Guest-Heavy, Collage-Driven Evolution
No Bad Memories continues a pattern The Avalanches have been refining for years: the album as ensemble piece. The LP’s guest-heavy approach follows the path laid down on Wildflower and We Will Always Love You, and the rollout makes that clear. Before “Can’t Get Over Losing You”, they previewed the record with “Together”, “Every Single Weekend” with Jamie xx, and “Blue Shadows” featuring Karen O.
Some will argue that this many voices risk diluting The Avalanches’ identity. The opposite feels true. Their core personality now lies in curation—taking “sound sources from within the heart of this kinda corporate framework” and reframing them in a new context. Inviting distinct collaborators into that framework does not erase their voice; it sharpens it. The Avalanches’ signature is no longer just a crate-digger’s ear but a director’s sense of casting, matching each guest to a specific emotional shade inside their nostalgic, sample-based universe.
Momentum, Memory, and What Comes Next
This release is not happening in a vacuum. The band’s fourth-album announcement lands as they keep building their presence on stages and festival lineups, fresh off a Primavera Sound Barcelona appearance and with headline shows booked at London’s Roundhouse in November and New York’s Terminal 5 in October, plus more DJ sets around Europe. In other words, No Bad Memories is arriving with live infrastructure already in motion, not as an isolated studio artifact.
Pre-orders are open for the 31-song project, which suggests a characteristically expansive listen rather than a tight, minimalist pivot. That scale could be a liability if the record were only about recycled nostalgia. But by centering collaborators like Portraits of Tracy and reframing advertising ephemera as emotional fuel, The Avalanches seem intent on proving that memory, even when tangled with marketing, can still be turned into something humane. If “Can’t Get Over Losing You” is any indication, No Bad Memories will not be about escaping the past—it will be about confronting it, dancing through it, and deciding which echoes are worth keeping.
