Cows on Hourglass Pond is the third solo album from Avey Tare, moniker of David Portner, co-founder of experimental noughties pop band Animal Collective. Cows has a rawer feel than his last offering in 2017, Eucalyptus, but continues Avey Tare’s well-established love affair with psychedelic folk. Despite the raw, fluid nature of this album, Tare has found clearer form in the last two years, creating a selection of songs which stand as well alone as a part of the whole.
The album opens slowly, with first track “Whats the Goodside?” meandering along for six and a half minutes before petering out. However, the album is well paced and seems to fine-tune itself as you listen along. By the time you reach the fourth track, “Saturdays (Again)”, the album’s ambient nature is given form, funk and direction. As though Jason Mraz dropped acid with Frightened Rabbit, the listener is carried along on a sea of instrumentals, countered well by the lyrical retelling of the mundane and everyday.
Another stand out track is “Remember Mayan”, which is a subtle and pensive addition to the whole, with themes of both nostalgia and anticipation. The song is typical of Tare and his love of mixing seemingly contrasting concepts to form a haunting whole. Indeed, the album as a whole is one of contrasts, of dark and light, as the singer explores the concept of ageing from many angles, most poignantly in “Taken Boy”, which explores Tare’s preoccupation with the path untaken, and the possibilities of life which inevitably get left behind. Interestingly, it is “Taken Boy” and “Saturdays (Again)” which were released as singles ahead of Cows in early 2019, both of which are the more polished offerings from the album as whole, capable of standing alone, while other tracks melt into the whole.
With a running theme of water and rivers throughout the album, Tare has done with Cows what Tare does best: created flow. Cows is a work which, instrumentally, truly carries the listener along. Sadly, some choppy waters are ahead, with clear high and low points to the album, and some underwhelming lyrics. Fans of Tare’s discography, and of Animal Collective, will be pleased with the latest addition, but if you are introducing his work to someone, it would be best to start elsewhere.
