If indie rock has become a noisier place lately — higher on gurgles and buzzes, fog banks of reverb and distortion-steeped yelps — Animal Collective deserve credit. Their gift, though, is for crafting noise into something pretty, warm and wet, and you can imagine much of co-frontman Avey Tare's solo debut playing at a very hip spa. "Laughing Hieroglyphic" pairs a pulsing accordion with gently chuckling drums, while "Lucky 1" sets a shimmering field of glinting chords against Tare's nasal but airy harmonizing. Those lyrics that aren't unintelligible are inscrutable: half-formed riddles about umbrellas and undertows. At best, the songs nudge around the furniture in your skull. At worst, they burble, drift and pleasantly fade away.
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