Avey Tare to soothe our shredded souls/throats with cool new solo album Eucalyptus

Avey Tare to soothe our shredded souls/throats with cool new solo album Eucalyptus
Photo: Atiba Jefferson

Although he’s probably still best-known for yelping, howling, barking, screeching, honking, grunting, and even cock-a-doodle-doo-ing his way through most of his band’s more raucous and visceral moments since their rise to prominence in the early 2000s, Animal Collective’s least-ursine member Avey Tare (née “Alfonzo Taretorelli”) has always been, at heart, a tender romantic with the moon in his eyes and a simple yearning for a little peace and quiet.

So, while it’s TOTALLY AMAZINGLY OMG BOW WOW WOW AWOOOOO-GAAAAAH YAHOOOOOOO ZOO ZIP ZAP CALAFRAGILISTIC CAPTIAL “S” EXCITING to learn that he’s just-this-minute announced a new solo album entitled Eucalyptus for the Domino label, it’s not surprising in-the-least to hear the album’s press release describe the affair as:

Recommended listening for dawn or dusk. An electroacoustic movement through leaves, rocks and dust. Written on sunlit bedroom afternoon in Los Angeles, practiced in the dark early hours of the California twilight, and slept on under Big Sur skies.

But although Tare could only have conceived, gestated, and birthed the cool, spacious, and minty new album after taking his lonesome psyche on several romantic, candle-lit dates, it was nonetheless (as per 2014’s Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks) midwifed into the world with more than a little help from his friends. Specifically, it was recorded with Animal Collective’s second-least-ursine member Deakin (née Jesse Dibbkinovich), and it features plenty of romantic-yet-tasteful “chamber orchestration, arranged by Eyvind Kang and musicians Angel Deradoorian and Jessika Kenney.”

The resultant Eucalyptus is out to sooth our collective chest congestion on July 21, but you can pre-order the album now from Domino’s Animal Collective store on your choice of CD or a deluxe double vinyl — the “deluxe” part consisting of “a limited edition LP pressing of the album available on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl” and a 16-page, 11 x 11-inch lyric booklet featuring “marbled artwork by Paige Cleveland of Rule of Three Studio.”

I’ve also been told to tell you to visit Avey Tare’s website, which features an online jigsaw puzzle that allows you to hear snippets of the album. But if you don’t feel like doing that, watch this amazing video instead. I can’t be entirely sure, but I’m willing to bet it’s equally soothing:


Eucalyptus tracklisting:

01. Season High
02. Melody Unfair
03. Ms. Secret
04. Lunch Out of Order Pt. 1
05. Lunch Out of Order Pt. 2
06. Jackson 5
07. DR aw one for J
08. PJ
09. In Pieces
10. Selection of A Place
11. Boat Race
12. Roamer
13. Coral Lords
14. Sports In July
15. When You Left Me

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