“Charlemagne” is an astounding single, justifiably getting a lot of accolades from the media. But I think the band really comes into its own on the second half of the record. In fact, if you were to divide Blossoms in two with “Onto Her Bed” as the midpoint, I think you’d have two halves of a record that reflect a band still gripping with its identity.

That’s normal for a debut full-length record, but it’s also necessary for a band with the influences Blossoms has: how can you mine bands like Abba, Hall & Oates, Duran Duran, Pet Shot Boys, and The Wombats while coming up with your own identity?

The answer, I think, lies in how you mix guitars and synths. (And I think Blossoms agrees with me.) There’s no genre better at straddling the lines between pop and rock than ’80s disco/rock/pop. The genre had a history of blending these instruments and sounds together into a single undefinable mass, and Blossoms is trying to find their place in that.

The second half of their debut feels much more intent on finding the upbeat place where these things blend. “Blown Rose” blends guitar sounds and pop noises in a remarkable Beatles-esque way, and it works swimmingly. “Texia” is full-blown rock, despite its instrumental trappings.

When people rave about how much they love “Charlemagne”, they mean they love the sound of Blossoms when the band comes into their own. “Charlemagne” is easily the track that sounds most like the second half of the record. While the album’s first half is great (“At Most a Kiss”’s fantastic vibe comes to mind), the second half is where the band really comes to life. I can cheer for a band that writes songs as great as “Smashed Pianos” or the astounding “Cut Me and I’ll Bleed”.

Blossoms is separated from their peers because you can cheer for them. They have a confidence that reminds me of the way Oasis barged onto the scene. Unlike Blossoms’ oft-referenced peers, The 1975, who often (despite the quality of their music) feel like punk kids unaware of their context, Blossoms feel like a band that want you to cheer for them. They know what they’re doing. They’re not purposefully writing throwback music — it feels like they were entrenched in that era’s sound for so much of their lives that it comes naturally and authentically for them.

Blossoms is restoring your faith in guitar-based rock and pop: the band is aware of their history and having fun with it at the same time. They have swagger and soul, and their debut record has me cheering. You couldn’t ask for more.

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Wildflower has been in production since 2005, and shares much of the same spirit of their 2000 debut. The plunderphonics style, where the band makes their music almost entirely out of samples, is still alive and well — although the band is definitely relying on it a little less this time around. But the tracks where they stick by that style are among their best.

I love Because I’m Me and Frankie Sinatra (the first single). I think the hip hop styles on the record are really fun, and it reminds me a lot of Beastie Boys — but in a positive way.

Unlike Since I Left You, Wildflower feels like it’s largely based on the 1960s counter-cultural movement, with a lot of samples dating from that period. (At one point, The Avalanches were reportedly making a Yellow Submarine-inspired video, but the funding fell through and the music never saw the light of day. The closest we might get to that sound is Livin’ Underwater (Is Somethin’ Wild).) Even If I Was a Folkstar, which samples Queens of the Stone Age, feels suitably retro.

If Wildflower has a single flaw, it’s its length. At twenty-one tracks (twenty-two if you include the extended mix of Frankie Sinatra), the album isn’t easily digestible. With albums of this running time, I always feel that the band could have done some trimming — and I still feel that’s the case here, even if the trimming would have amounted to cutting the briefer interludes.

When The Avalanches aren’t making interludes, there’s a sense of forward movement to the record that’s absolutely delightful. The Wozard of Iz has a really great sample, and an undeniable sense of momentum.

By the time the album concludes with Saturday Night Inside Out (which samples Father John Misty), I feel both exhausted and enlightened. The Avalanches have made a statement with Wildflower: one that says they’re still the kings of samples and partying, but one that also says they’re aware of where they come from. It’s essential music from one of Australia’s best bands.

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At the same time, that familiarity is likely because she’s spawned so many imitators. People fell head over heels for Youth Novels when it was released, and she’s been raising the stakes with every album since, developing on how fully-realized Youth Novels was.

So the easiest way to describe her is saying that she sounds at once foreign and familiar, comfortable and difficult to grasp, predictable and also unknowable. In the world of pop music, these lines are thin and easy to cross. Lykke Li straddles them, taunts them, and draws new lines in the sand. She’s everything I wish Feist sounded like after The Reminder.

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