TAKE CARE, TAKE CARE, TAKE CARE

Four years since the release of their previous album 'All Of A Sudden, I Miss Everyone', the Texas post-rock band Explosions In The Sky makes a return. Four years is a long time for any active band to wait between albums, so there's been a lot of tension and anticipation as to what the band's work would look like after such a long time on the dressing board. Personally, I have considered Explosions to be the peak of the standard post-rock scene ever since I heard their masterpiece 'The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place', and with this latest album entitled 'Take Care Take Care Take Care', I am hearing many of the same sounds that made this band a winner in my eyes initially. However, what small experiments they have made with their sound often make me wish that that the band could have left out the painful details in the sound.

Emotionally dynamic compositions, drawn out instrumental builds and clean guitar soundscaping is what is most greatly heard here; something that listeners will already have been familiar with, should they have listened to anything this Texas post-rock quartet has released in the past. As with all good bands however, there is certainly a development one can hear in the sound, especially when compared to the minimalism of 'The Earth...'. First among these is the use of much background ambiance and atmospherics, be they strange effects, or dazed vocals droning on behind the guitars. Whether the band was trying to pull a Radiohead and come off a bit experimental in their sound, it is not something that the band orchestrates well here. The distorted feedback of the guitars adds tension to the lighter moments, but many of the electronic nuances feel as if they only distract from the main attraction here; being the guitars. 'Be Comfortable, Creature' only makes the Radiohead comparison more apparent, using weird electronic loops under the guitars, which does work well to some extent, but robs the band of what I consider to be their signature, minimalist style. Another fairly weak aspect of their sound here is the adoption of ambient vocals, as can be heard most frequently on the third track 'Trembling Hands'. Hearing a slightly off-tune 'uh, uh, uh, uh' being sung throughout longer sections of the song can get fairly tiring and really take away from what is otherwise a really great Explosions album.

Of course, the focus here is on the guitars and central composition of the music. Although still with alot of the same mellow sound they have had with earlier work, it does feel in parts as if they are trying to trim the fat off at cut to the point faster. In a genre that's becoming quite notorious for taking ages to say something simple, this works in the band's favour. 'Last Known Surroundings' builds the album up for a minute or so, and then really gets started with an optimistic and beautiful riff over the beating of drums and backing guitars. The 'single' (also a lower point of the album) 'Trembling Hands' takes only a few seconds to start going full force. What makes the music here great though, is that we are given the same beautiful dose of melancholic, soaring attitude that the band has built itself on, but with a greater maturity to it. Things here are not so well intentioned as they were on 'The Earth...' but the music here is filled with beautiful riffs that really gives the impression of love embodied through sound.

A last note worthy of mention for 'Take Care Take Care Take Care' is that the long moments of silence throughout the album, at times taking up to a minute to get back into music during a fade-out. For the music that is here though, Explosions In The Sky is really proving what I thought of them all along; that they are always capable of making something beautiful out of quite little.

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