The Avey Tare Albums Ranked

As one part of the experimental electronic/pop/freak folk group Animal Collective, Avey Tare (David Portner) first worked with Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Geologist (Brian Weitz) in high school, eventually resulting in the earliest works that would retroactively be assigned to the band name. I’ve ranked the Animal Collective albums before, but now I’m taking the opportunity to explore the “solo” (there are some distinctions I’ll get to) work of one of the group’s main creative forces. While everyone in Animal Collective is of course wildly experimental, I’ve always felt that Avey Tare was the more avant-garde and unsettling force, while Panda Bear skewed a bit more poppy. In his work under his own moniker, Avey Tare has variably fit into that reading and countered it across the six albums released in the nearly 16 years since 2007. Not ranked here is the EP CONFERENCE OF BIRDS/BIRDS IN DISGUISE (2019), but it’s worth listening to as well.

#6 — DOWN THERE (2010)

Favorite track: “Lucky 1”

Technically the first truly “solo” album, as it came with only his name as the credit (although he worked with bandmate Deakin on it), Avey Tare’s DOWN THERE nevertheless synced up with what he was doing with Animal Collective at the time. This record is of a kind with the group’s visual album ODDSAC (2010) as a murkier, sludgy-er electronic experiment. There’s a definite tone and sensation of intended subaquatic immersion, but even still or perhaps because of that, DOWN THERE is somewhat formless. What I mean by that is there isn’t really tight songwriting construction present on the album; final track “Lucky 1” is the closest it gets. Perhaps because I’m a shallow person when it comes to music, that makes the record at times hard to engage with. But there is a communicable vibe spewing from DOWN THERE, one that isn’t always pleasing but certainly isn’t ineffectual in bringing a darkness to bear on its listener.

#5 — EUCALYPTUS (2017)

Favorite track: “Melody Unfair”

Notably made in collaboration with Animal Collective member Deakin once again, EUCALYPTUS shares some traits with DOWN THERE and inverts others. EUCALYPTUS too is more space-y but in a more ascendant manner than DOWN THERE. This album, centered on acoustic guitar with swirling, ethereal accents, is lighter and brighter than its cousin. That makes it a more pleasant listen, one with a bit more value for me as a record to veg out to. But because of that vegetative potential, the album also can be hard for me to fully dial into. EUCALYPTUS is an occasionally moving work of experimentation, but not really electrifying in singular track moments.

#4 — COWS ON HOURGLASS POND (2019)

Favorite track: “Nostalgia in Lemonade”

I almost hate to measure Avey Tare album success in terms of how conventional they are, or how closely they approach conventionality, but I am a victim of mainstream or mainstream-adjacent songwriting hooks. And the Animal Collective member, as much as I appreciate his mind-bending and -expanding capabilities, mostly intentionally rejects musical expectations. That being said, COWS ON HOURGLASS POND more effectively blends the avant-garde with recognizable song structure than the previous two albums on this list. That elements lies principally with Avey Tare’s vocal delivery across the album. It is certainly spacey and reverberant, but it drives the blooping of a song like “Nostalgia in Lemonade” with more vigor. COWS ON HOURGLASS POND is lush in a way that DOWN THERE and EUCALYPTUS aren’t quite, making a steep in its weirdness more affecting.

#3 — PULLHAIR RUBEYE (2007)

Favorite track: “Sis Around the Sándmill”

PULLHAIR RUBEYE was the first of Avey Tare’s records not ultimately associated with the Animal Collective name. And yet it was made and credited in conjunction with his now-ex-wife Kría Brekkan (credited on her most recent works as Kristín Anna). And most of my comments about how I need more definite songwriting structure in my music to really enjoy it kind of go out the window when referring to this album. PULLHAIR RUBEYE does not have songs that progress like even the few standouts on DOWN THERE, EUCALYPTUS, and COWS ON HOURGLASS POND. But as an album-length experience, the idiosyncrasies of PULLHAIR RUBEYE are investing, warped, and beautiful. Opener “Sis Around the Sándmill” is the perfect example with its ethereal vocals from both Brekkan and Tare. And while the rest of the record that follows doesn’t quite match the standalone heights of track one, the descent into PULLHAIR RUBEYE’s oddly bright and airy world is a really transformative one.

#2–7S (2023)

Favorite track: “Neurons”

7S is Avey Tare’s latest album at the time of this writing, the impetus for this piece, and the record following the biggest gap (one month shy of four years since COWS ON HOURGLASS POND) between those with Avey Tare’s name on it. It also happens to be great. 7S certainly has the songwriting structure absent from most of his albums, but it never concedes to overt pop sensibilities and instead blends moving repetition with odd noise. This is best heard on “Neurons,” which features a sunny synth motif that calls to mind some ’90s summer hits paired with percussive static. The rest of 7S’ songs similarly pair catchy instincts with busy sonic accents, never allowing a complacent groove to set in to remarkably entertaining yet thoughtful results.

#1 — ENTER THE SLASHER HOUSE (2014)

Favorite track: “Little Fang”

As with PULLHAIR RUBEYE, calling ENTER THE SLASHER HOUSE a “solo” album is a bit of a stretch. But this record, the only one so far from band Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, does indeed bear the musician’s name. And it’s too good to discount amid Avey Tare’s non-Animal Collective work. In contrast to its name, ENTER THE SLASHER HOUSE is without a doubt Avey Tare’s poppiest and most straightforward album. And yet, because it’s him, it’s not like this is Top 40 work. ENTER THE SLASHER HOUSE calls to mind some of the work of Sparklehorse, not so much in instrumentation, but in how it presents a warped view of uplifting music, humming with an undercurrent of darkness. That’s best represented by “Little Fang,” the album’s best track and my favorite for all of Avey Tare’s solo career so far. The songs that surround “Little Fang” don’t slouch either, certainly receding from that song’s overt catchiness but still deftly blending the artfully strange and the simply fun. Consider this your invitation to ENTER THE SLASHER HOUSE, a great, punk-ish record of psychedelia, electronic warbling, and pop hooks, and Avey Tare’s best album.