Explosions in the Sky
All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Rating: 7.8 (out of 10)
All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone - Bonus Disc
Rating: 7.4 (out of 10)
It has begun. The start of a new year of incredible music releases, and after somewhat disappointing and downright ugly new albums from indie rock bands CYHSY and Bloc Party, respectively, Temporary Residence has kicked February off with a bang with this double-disc release from Explosions in the Sky, along with the new Eluvium CD Copia, which is also quite good. But EITS is where their bread is buttered, and they have made a great, if not incredibly original, album and paired it with a six-song re-mix disc by artists Jesu, Adem, The Paper Chains, Mountains, Four Tet, and the aforementioned Eluvium. All in all, it's 90 minutes of majestic, glorious post-rock brilliance that elevates the genre and delivers on its high expectations. Just a great collection of music.
It's tough to review an Explosions in the Sky record, since there is certainly a sameness to the individual tracks, and they intentionally all run together, supposed to be heard as a group. I can compare it to their previous releases by saying it's certainly not as good as The Earth is Not a Cold, Dead Place, and probably not quite up to the brilliance of Those Who Tell the Truth, but it is not far off. At the least, it is a return to the style of those two landmark records, moving away from the more quiet and spare tracks that soundtracked Friday Night Lights, both the movie and the television series.
Opener "The Birth and Death of the Day" is certainly an amazing song, up there with the band's classics and the leaked months ago "Welcome, Ghosts" follows, almost equally good. Exploding drums and a cacophony of guitars in an ebb and flow of melodious post-apocalyptic rock -- you know, you've heard it all before -- but it is simply wonderful. Pitchfork gave a very tepid review, complaining essentially about the lack of originality in the release, and they do have a point. Personally, I don't mind. I still think it's great.
"It's Natural to Be Afraid" is the longest track on the album, at over 13 minutes, which is a departure from their previous albums, which had several songs flirting with the 10 minute mark. Unfortunately, it is not up to the standards of a "Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean" or "The Only Moment We Were Alone." It is probably the weakest song on the album, and at nearly twice the length of any other track, it definitely keeps the release from being a pure masterpiece.
"What Do You Go Home To?" is short and not very memorable, but the following track, "Catastrophe and the Cure" is perhaps the best song on the album, pure genius EITS in all its glory. "So Long, Lonesome" mixes things up a bit, with a quieter, guitar-tingling piano-based tune that works well as a closer. All in all, an excellent album, just not quite up to the standards of their previous works.
The bonus disc features remixes of the same tracks by a bunch of post-rock artists, who have somewhat mixed results. Jesu does the best job, in my opinion, with an amazing version of "The Birth and Death of the Day," which you can download above. A band I never heard of, called Adem, also does a wonderful job with "Welcome, Ghosts," expanding and changing the style of the song quite well. Four Tet's version of "Catastrophe and the Cure" is also well-done, and Eluvium's even quieter version of "So Long, Lonesome" is a strong capstone to an amazing 90 minutes of music. The two songs that didn't work so well on the original have similar problems for me here, especially a band called Mountains' very long and somewhat tedious mix of "What Do You Go Home To?" I got the disc as a preorder, and I'm not sure you can buy it anywhere, but while supplies last, the disc gets sent from the Temporary Residence website with every album order (along with a nice sampler from the label). At least that's according to their "news" section. So hurry up and buy it while supplies last. Hurry, I say! 2 discs for the price of one!
Final Note:
I haven't spent much time listening to Eluvium's new CD yet, but I do absolutely love the beautiful track "Radio Ballet." Enjoy. And buy his CD here.
I really love this new EITS record. I don't agree with the Pitchfork review. Do they expect them to become something they aren't. They produce sublime moments of beauty and I am happy for them to continue. I agree its probably not quite as magnificent as their last 2 records, but still great in its own right. I have ordered the Eluvium record too, as I am a big fan of his.
Posted by: wayne | February 21, 2007 at 06:05 AM
Have to disagree about this EITS album. First two were great but this just screams of the same old stuff to me. Where's the innovation? Anyone else think most new music is sounding too similar? These guys need to branch out and give us some new sounds.
btw great site, don't understand half of it but the music stuff is cool.
Posted by: Brett Goldstein | February 21, 2007 at 01:27 PM
Thanks for reading, Brett. I don't understand half of it either. I tend to side more with Wayne on EITS, but I'm a little biased into thinking everything they do is brilliant. I probably would have liked them to throw a curve ball in there, but even though it's more of the same, it's a really good more of the same in my opinion.
Posted by: Bill | February 21, 2007 at 11:16 PM