ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERYONE

I've always thought that the members of Explosions in the Sky were more artists than they are musicians (which is not necessarily a bad thing), and I think this is most apparent on this album. Unfortunately, where the band was able to successfully create artistic scenes through beautifully crafted melodies in EARTH..., I'm not as taken by the melodies here. Instead, the album all-too-often comes across as overly artistic, seemingly sacrificing great music for artistic expression.

It's Natural to be Afraid, the attempted epic of the album, epitomizes the work for me. Starting with naggingly paranoid guitar notes backed by a muddied guitar track that rises into almost overwhelming noise after four minutes, the song finally breaks into calmer guitar mingling that elicits pictures of black clouds dissolving into brighter blue skies. Only the music is simply not as interesting as it should be. And this is exactly my point. I get it: the song is supposed to show us how even the most despairing fear is all part of something larger and more beautiful, but can't I get this with more captivating melodies?

Maybe it's just a matter of taste, but I just can't seem to find much to grab onto in this album. I won't say it is uninspired, because the guys are clearly still passionate about their art, and it shows at many points throughout this work. But at the end of the day, ALL OF A SUDDEN... comes off sounding too much like a soundtrack and not enough like a stand-alone musical work.