After the formidable Time Skiffs of the Animal Collective-mother ship and the great ones Panda Bear-Collaboration Reset lets himself Dave Portner alias Avey Tara no slouch and served with what has matured over the pandemic years 7s without further ado the strongest solo album of his career.
In order to reach this conclusion, one must of course share the assessment that the members of the Animal Collective are always at their best when they put a more conventional, tangible approach to songwriting ahead of whimsical weirdo experiments beyond shot-down traceability – and they do just that Avey Tara on his fourth solo effort: neo-psychedelic pop dominates the kaleidoscope of electro-acoustic soundscapes, with melodies and hooks hallucinating everywhere.
Right at the start of 7s the sun really rises when there are three (at least measured by the New Yorker’s traditional MO) relatively flawless catchy tunes in one piece, exemplarily accessible and openly inviting, bright and warm to the exultant Strawberry Jam retrieve. Invisible Darlings clatters and clicks underwater around a playful piano loop, emphatically optimistic, catchy and lovable, typical and yet a bit more accessible before Lips at Night follows a contemplative dozing groove with his guitar to where the grandiose The Musical relaxed in summery yacht mode full of pleasant melancholy and, as a final twist, makes a careful stop.
Which creates the space for the more casual middle section in which Hey Bog (for a long time an ambient hybrid being in texture mode on the electrically whistling dub, which is slowly taking shape, the melodies emerge as if meandering randomly and thus captivate with a nonchalantly strolling hypnotic) and Sweeper’s Grin (which scrapes across an almost orchestral ocean, whereby only the surface seems to act in a monotonously repetitive manner and the background acts like an organism that lets the events at times even mutate subversively stomp strings into the waves) also clearly take up the longest playing time and thereby demonstrate that even the avant-garde odysseys simply produce more captivating gravitation this time than Avey Tate that so far mostly wanted.
Even if it is perhaps the last bit of the euphoric energy of the best Animal Collective-strokes of genius missing, moves 7s up to here also due to its fantastic flow close to the ideal.
However, the last quarter of the Pandemic record no longer brings these strengths to the floor quite so convincingly – or at least still cultivates a few recognizable blemishes. Neurons fascinates fundamentally as a tripping symbiosis of noise pop shades and Texmex-like horn illusions, tempting the dance floor, but then repeats its title as a simply tricked refrain at the latent risk of nerves. And Cloud Stop Rest Start may be darker and synthesized harpsichord aesthetically reminiscent of Thom Yorke’s solo excursions, but is oddly underwhelming through chanting and segmented structure; sovereign, but in the end also hanging latently in the air.
That threatens 7s to almost give such a reverberation that one is inclined to classify the record as undervalued – but in the end the (admittedly not necessarily huge) expectations are exceeded to such an extent that rounding up the points in the final rating is just about okay and the rating applied is left a hair’s breadth behind: Solo sounded Avey Tara never better – also because this time he’s acting closer than usual to the greatest phase of his band.
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