Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
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Artist: Explosions in the SkyBrand: Temporary Residence Limited
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-02-20
Music Label: Temporary Residence
Soundtracks:
- The Birth And Death Of The Day
- Welcome, Ghosts
- It's Natural To Be Afraid
- What Do You Go Home To?
- Catastrophe And The Cure
- So Long, Lonesome
Music reviews of All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Music Review: Explosions In The Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone 7/10
Rating: 3 Stars
When one thinks of places that would foster bands who specialize in seven-minute-plus suites of guitars, bass, and drums and no singing, probably one of the last locales that would come to mind is Texas. The world of instrumental music is not a very popular one and is dominated by only a few bands that can claim any amount of fame, the most well-known being Icelandic musical deconstructionists Sigur Ros.
However, Midland, Texas band Explosions in the Sky have been making a name for themselves in the post-rock world after rising from the Austin music scene with their widely-acclaimed sophomore album Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever.
Building their reputation on a powerful live show and an ability to harness pure instrumental rock to express emotions better than any lyrics could, they released another successful album and had their debut reissued in 2005. Perhaps their biggest breakthrough was the Friday Night Lights soundtrack, which was almost entirely composed and recorded by the band.
2007 sees the release of All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone, the band's fourth proper album and one that does not see the band straying from their chosen direction. There are only six songs on the album, but following the trend of their previous releases, the average song length is seven minutes.
Explosions in the Sky specialize in the art of the crescendo. Each of the songs present here is built around them, separating distinct musical passages and acting as a kind of catharsis for the tension that the band builds up on each track. While much of the work here is very effective at this, slowly rising to a climax that is not only anthemic and rocking but also musically intricate and sophisticated, some of the songs never quite lift off, or spend half the time meandering around various guitar licks and harmonics.
Opener "The Birth and Death of a Day" starts off with a screeching distorted guitar playing in a very high register and then proceeds into a guitar-and-drum beat that slowly builds up and then fades away, teasing the listener. Suddenly, a double-bass thunder and a barrage of toms hails a new wailing guitar line that is the climax of the song. This is what Explosions in the Sky does best, unleashing a momentous instrumental fury upon the listener that satisfactorily concludes the song and releases all the energy the band has worked up.
Following tune "Welcome, Ghosts" does pretty much the same thing, but rather than lead the listener around with ambient sounds and quiet, slow guitar lines, it leads the listener to its apex faster and ends with a satisfying roar of guitar and cymbals. Nevertheless, it's essentially a shorter version of the opener. This is the biggest problem with Explosions in the Sky, and instrumental post-rock in general; it can get pretty boring.
The best song on the album, "Catastrophe and the Cure," never lets the listener off the hook, beginning with an ominous guitar line before exploding into a rapid snare-drum-based rhythm and a jolting high-pitched guitar line and only intensifies from there. The ending of the song tops any other on the record by miles.
While the pinnacle of each composition is a truly inspiring musical payoff, the minutes in between can stretch pretty long on some of the songs. Songs like "Welcome, Ghost" and the (relatively) short closer "So Long, Lonesome" mitigate this by creating interesting interludes and keeping them short while still summoning a considerable amount of musical tension.
The 13-and-a-half minute-long magnum opus of the disc, "It's Natural To Be Afraid," suffers the most from the "boredom" problem. It spends its first six minutes in a reverb-saturated echoic guitar haze before finally evolving into an interesting rhythm with an insistent tom beat, but then the song drops back into a simple bass line and wandering guitar. The climax of the song is indeed rocking and meant to be played at the loudest volume possible, but the ten minutes it takes to get to it are excruciatingly boring.
Then again, music like this is meant to be background music, and for that task, few other bands can do a better job. Explosions in the Sky bring the vast desert landscape and rugged beauty of their native Texas to the stereo with unerring precision and musical skill. Few bands can make listeners recall certain times and places and even emotions without singing a single word.
And it helps that they also happen to be pretty damned good at bringing out some straightforward burning Texan rock and roll at the appropriate times.
Description of All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
The long waited fourth studio album from the moody and intense Texas instrumental band Explosions In The Sky. Known for bringing an emotional heft and sense of hope to a usually placid genre, Explosions In The Sky have experienced the kind of meteoric rise in popularity that flies in the face of music industry convention. Their songs run well past a length suitable for radio play or commercial music videos; they avoid performing in LiveNation/Clear Channel venues; they didn't jump to a major label; and they don't sing. They're also the very rare band that fans of Sigur Ros, Sufjan Stevens and My Chemical Romance can all agree on. EITS are not just an anomaly, they're a gateway. Recorded by John Congleton (The Roots, The Mountain Goats) at Pachyderm Studios in rural Minnesota, the album is a massive leap forward, showcasing a broader instrumental range and their most focused, efficient songwriting. Bella Union. 2007.Sometimes Explosions in the Sky start with a whisper and end with a scream, but on "Birth and Death of the Day", they begin with a scream and proceed into a symphonic odyssey that Aaron Copland might have composed if he'd played electric guitar. Like Copland, EITS are cinematic, but with more kinetic drive than any film--except maybe Koyaanisqatsi--could match. Compositions like "It's Natural to Be Afraid" take you on epic journeys that roar like a Harley Davidson one minute and slip into taut contemplation the next, using the slow-tension build that EITS have perfected. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone was produced by John Congleton, who has worked with lo-fi groups like the Roots and the Mountain Goats. That might explain why the album lacks the atmosphere of EITS's monumental The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place and their Friday Night Lights soundtrack. Instead, they rely even more on the arc of their compositions and the integral twin lead guitar lines that never solo but always drive the songs. They can shift from power-chord aggression to the sound of plucked mandolins in an instant. This is progressive rock for people who weren't even born when prog reigned supreme. It's the sound of King Crimson, transmuted through punk and grunge aesthetics. --John Diliberto
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