To attempt to personify the newest release from Animal Collective’s Avey Tare would be futile, and a disservice to the music itself. Tare is gearing up to release his first body of solo material in four years, 7s was recorded in the shadows of mountains down in Asheville, North Carolina. Tare would rise out of his secluded home studio and make the drive over to Drop of Sun, a studio run by Adam McDaniel. The two would take Tare’s blueprints and manipulate them into what we hear on the album, arrangements so spaced-out and complex it’s almost shocking they came from this planet. Through its nine songs, Tare shoots us into the atmosphere only to snap us back to reality with bungee-chord-like intensity through the album’s lyrics of realization and woodsy melodies.
Tare’s recording environment seems to have taken an effect on his creative process. The album plays on the juxtaposition of endless imagination and physical reality, using ambiance to its advantage to create the same feeling of endlessness felt when looking out at a starry night sky. All the while, Tare reminds us to bring that same level of awe inward, using bleak yet beautiful lyrics to create a centerpiece for the album. The way Tare is able to fit so many opposing ideas and concepts into just 45 minutes and have them play off of each other with ease speaks volumes to his headspace when working on these songs; focused yet morbidly curious, appreciating the world around him without feeling complacent.
The slow burn of these songs may feel like they’re dragging on upon first listen, songs like “Hey Bog” and “Sweeper’s Grin” play like conversations with strangers that go on just a little too long. Much like a conversation, the more you listen, the more you might learn. The two aforementioned songs are two of the strongest performances on the LP. The chilling echos used on “Sweeper’s Grin” and the warping synths from “Hey Bog” are just two of the off-kilter sonics used to form the album’s personality. Their lengthy intros giveaway to arrangements that feel nostalgic and alien all at once. The magic of the album comes in its structure, Tare seemingly left nothing on the cutting room floor. He allowed his ideas to continue to grow without coming off as boisterous or cluttered, the textures achieved on 7s play on psychedelic folk tropes while seemingly redefining what said fusion can sound like.
Tare achieved something magical on 7s. The collection of music presented on the album changes with every listen, almost like watching a plant grow. The more your surrender yourself to the album’s intensity, the more you find solace in the hecticness. Tare toyed with the ideas of nostalgia and self-analyzation and filtered them through fuzzy guitar progressions and electronic elements that still feel human. Tare took a snapshot of his headspace and built an entire universe around it, swallowing every little moment and spitting out fully-realized breakthroughs that manifest themselves through dense arrangements and poetic lyricism.
