The Avalanches began promoting something cryptic on social media last week. The Australian electric duo posted images of billboards with questions like, “After we die, what then?” The group has finally revealed what the messages were about. No, The Avalanches didn’t unlock the secret to the afterlife. Rather, the group unveiled the collaboration with Blood Orange‘s Dev Hynes, “We Will Always Love You.”
The soulful track features layered production and a steady, rolling backbeat. Hynes’ tender vocals craft a warm harmonization with fuzzy samples from Smokey Robinson and ’70s group The Roaches. The track arrives as The Avalanches’ first-released song since their 2016 effort Wildflower and the band wanted the single to be meaningful. In a statement, The Avalanches explained the track is meant to be a love letter to fans who have had touching experiences with their music:
“Sometimes we receive a message. Telling us our music has been there; through dark times, loneliness, loss. There are no words to express how moving or profound this connection with you is. Because the music was born out of such moments itself, and so it is felt, by those with open hearts, on the same wavelength it was first created. Morse Code beamed and received by hearts and hearts alike. Our new record is about such journeys, from darkness to light. About life after (all kinds of) death. About the transcendent nature of music itself. Every voice ever played on the radio over the last 100 years now exists in the stars; the transmissions of these singers are forever floating around out there, lost in the cosmos, endless traveling. Tonight Smokey Robinson duets with Dev Hynes and The Roches. Those spirits are out there. We are each a tune, floating in space. And this one’s for you.”
Listen to “We Will Always Love You” above.
