Avey Tare albums

2023

7s - 84%

       The album 7's is probably the best thing Avey Tare has spear-headed in a while. Each member of Animal Collective have had solo albums recently, and they have toured together that fashion (I got to see them last month here in Chattanooga) but also they made an album as a group this year, the special Isn't It Now? 7’s is by far my favorite of these projects though. There is sublime confidence in songs like " Invisible Darlings" and whole new worlds of primal, synthy oddness found in "The Musical" which is let’s face it- what Animal Collective did the best.

           The artistry involved never over does it or outstays its welcome, and Tare’s confidence in longer songs shine through in the hugely trance including nearly nine-minute "Sweeper's Grin" and the more challenging "Hey Bog". The slower and more elaborate "Lips at Night" reveals layers and layers of depth; ditto for "Neurons", a rock song like only he can make- truly he exists in his own genre. Much of this recalls Animal Collective’s beginnings on Spirit They’ve Gone Spirit They’ve Vanished (2000) and he's finally, in my opinion with this record, matched what Panda Bear did with 2007's Person Pitch though in his own style.

Best Songs: The Musical, Sweeper’s Grin, Invisible Darlings