Avey Tare’s second solo album starts with a simple strum and ends, via reflections on the qualities of coral, with strange whirring sounds and a cry of rage. Audacious, cryptic and meandering, Eucalyptus is both brilliant and infuriating, thanks mainly to the Animal Collective man’s refusal to ditch the half-formed workouts that litter this LP. When Tare reins in his more outlandish instincts, as on Melody Unfair’s rococo folk and the jumpy tribal pop of Jackson 5, he shows he is capable of producing songs as good as any in his band’s oeuvre. Best of all is the candid When You Left Me, in which raw emotion supersedes sonic quirks.
