ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERYONE

There's experimental music, and then there's post-rock. Post-rock can sometimes be very pop sensitive - something that may even warrant radio-play. Explosions in the Sky is one of the most pop-sensitive post-rock bands. They're the kind of band your sister will buy you, and then listen to all the time, or steal from your CD collection. Sort of in the style of Sigur Rós, where the main focus is beautiful melodies and such, this band's aim is to create some genuinely uplifting music (only, without the heavenly vocals). Unfortunately, as we all know, when anything tries to hard to be something specific, it sometimes sounds forced or insincere. Luckily, this album is mostly earnest, but sometimes, the pretty textures get too straining, and a bit more diversity would not have been overlooked.

For the most part, the band manages to keep things fresh and passionate, but when they don't - things fall apart: the melodies don't click, the rhythm seems to be wrought of synthetic passion, and the whole affair seems dreary. Fortunately, that is rarely the case. The problem with this album - the main thing that got to me, was the fact that there's little dark atmospheres, hardly anything experimental, and very little powerful riffs. It's a bit static, and doesn't evolve very much at all. But because this is a "pop-sensitive" album, it makes for a great starting point in post-rock, and for prog in general.