Avey Tare Offers Yet Another Quintessential Conceptual Album With ‘Eucalyptus’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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True to form, Avey Tare has returned with yet another quintessential conceptual album, making up for 2012’s flat Animal Collective release, Centipede Hz. Veering closer towards AC’s 2005 release Feels, and playing off 2015’s perfectly odd ‘FloriDada’, the album is a quiet reminder of the glory Tare is capable of. Quickly defying genre with a mix of electric sequences, eclectic sounds, acoustic touches, Eucalyptus is the epitomy of his signature questioning of what music could or should be.

Opening with ‘Season High’, we get a subtle entry into what is essentially well-crafted art installation, meant to defy sight with sound. The warbling effects paired with Tare’s paramount vocals drone softly along with an acoustic guitar; a reminder of musical heritage. Moving through to ‘Melody Unfair’, Tare continues that experimental psyche rendering, reminiscent of the opening movement to Feels’ ‘Banshee Beat’. Before you’re allowed to get too wrapped up, ‘Ms. Secret’ begins with a quick, harmonic glory.

It isn’t until fourth and fifth tracks ‘Lunch Out of Order Pt. 1’ and ‘Lunch Out of Order Pt. 2’ that Tare allows his listeners to fully immerse themselves into his world. Relying heavily on a neo-psych element, it’s the quiet moments that seem to matter. The sound of cicada’s chirping through a guitar being tuned. Drum machine beats, and what sounds like a Chinese Zither transition into the next movement of the work, culminating in an experimental pop beat with ‘Jackson 5’. Nothing is what it should be; the momentum at which Tare rushes through each evolution is wildly tantalizing. And yet, if you listen closely, time seems to stand still.

Summer sounds and spoken word intrinsically dominate the latter part of the album, acting as a conduit for what was and what will be in the mind of Tare. With a suspected resolve, it’s hard not to get caught up in every tortuous sound. Water hitting rocks, a wood block, the sound of a heart breaking might/do/could all easily play roles in Tare’s intricate web. You get the sense that nothing matters, though without it the very existence of everything held dear by the world and beyond is at stake.

Eucalyptus is beautiful and horrendous all at once, culminating in the gut wrenching finale, ‘When you left me’. “When you left me, when you flew from my eyes. I said oh well and I fell, Any world can die.” It’s a disastrous heartbreak that could very well be the first or last you’ll ever feel. Tare has taken a moment in time that every single person will experience, whether it be mutual or unrequited, and turned it into a musical ode to humanity.

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