Explosions In The Sky : All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
Looks like Explosions in the Sky has a new album out, All of a sudden I miss everyone. Like their other albums, it has about half the tracks of a standard album made up for by songs more than twice the length of standard tracks.
From the cover art of a man in a canoe going facing a sunken city, it looks like the album is conceptually based on the New Orleans disaster. The song titles also reflect this to some degree: “The Birth and Death of the Day” could be before and leading into the disaster, “Welcome Ghosts” once the disaster has passed, “It’s Natural to Be Afraid” the shock of everything destroyed, “What Do You Go Home To?” the disillusionment of having nothing left, “Catastrophe and the Cure” rebuilding, and “So Long, Lonesome” the final emotional healing. At least that’s the way it seems from the titles. I’m sure the music itself is symbolic of the different events, but as is the case with instrumental music, these connections have to be explained by the artists.
The album is certainly less boring/monotonous/pretentious than its predecessors. By tying it conceptually to a theme, their esoteric song titles actually make some degree of sense. There are fewer extended sections of a single repeating melody or rhythm, making it more of an interesting listen without the monotony.
Musically, I’m glad to see them using other sorts of instruments than their standard guitars/bass/drums. I heard a piano and bongos in “What Do You Go Home To?”, and a few different percussion styles throughout, some even venturing into the realm of more traditional rock and metal.
On a whole, the percussion is a lot less chaotic than their previous work. Though most of their drumming is in the same style as previous work, it blends with and complements the other instruments much better in this album than their others.
Explosions In The Sky for the most part isn’t music to put on shuffle with the rest of the music library - their song lengths alone can make them get old fast. More than anything, it sets an atmosphere: it’s something to listen to in order to create or satisfy a mood. With this album more than any of their others, I have to say that would be a pretty good mood.
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3 Responses
Feb 24 at 10:41 pm
Excellent point on the Hurricane Katrina/Song Order connection.
May 12 at 8:06 am
Wow on the connection of the cover and songs to the hurricane. It makes sense as you said it. Btw, good review too, seems like youre quite knowledgable in music.
May 27 at 10:56 am
Very interesting interpretation on a fantastic album.
You say that unlike other albums they have centered this one around a theme. I think they have done this with their previous albums as well though. Those Who Tell The Truth was centered around contradictory forces in the world (war and peace, love and hate etc.) and The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place was a collection of love songs.
An interesting read and a good review. Thanks :)