[rayword45]

Day 556: Cows on Hourglass Pond by Avey Tare

This is very much the next step to Tangerine Reef, except this time there are actual songs instead of just soundscapes. And the fact that it's not under the Animal Collective banner. Avey sings with the same inflection he always does, which comes off as fittingly strained and borderline-childlike when it works, plain stupid and dopey when it doesn't.

Chilly Blue is gorgeous and is a surprising highlight despite being basically an interlude. It's not the best track, but it has a certain quality that a lot of these songs don't, which is a singular direction. That... might not be the best way to compare it to the rest of the songs, as this is certainly a lot less splatter-y than Centipede Hz or any Black Moth Super Rainbow in its approach, but a lot of tracks here tend to take their time to grow and develop. Sometimes it works, like the first two tracks, sometimes it doesn't, like the dumbass ending to K.C. Yours. The only other songs that seems to be pretty stagnant in their development are Our Little Chapter minus some overlays towards the end, which is a sucky track, and , which is better than the last song I mentioned.

Overall though, this is the best Animal Collective release in a long while. Not GREAT, but not bad at all.

Best Track: Eyes On Eyes
Rating: 7/10