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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“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”