All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone

I am a musician, first of all. I've felt like the music I once knew, and loved dearly, the feeling I always tried to hold on to, was beginning to slip through my fingers these past few years of my life. Living in a world of gears and levers, this record suddenly made me remember that there is fluidity, that air and water still hold onto a motion that remains relative. The jerky, choppy movement of a tire over worn, cracked pavement, or the harsh rhythm of the highway being beaten down into the soil beneath it has become the soundtrack of my life for quite some time. I forgot what it felt like to have a feeling pushing out from the center of my chest, something there were no words for, a drive and a motive, giving me an undefined but very real purpose in what I am doing with my life. This record came directly at it from the outside and started pulling, reopening the once closed space between my heart and my breastplate for my emotions to rush in and fill again. How do you make yourself remember, Explosions in the Sky? Every day that you wake up and pick up your instruments again, how do you keep from forgetting that the world is beautiful? That we do not live on a "cold, dead" planet? I don't know the words to spell out the formula you use to achieve this day in and day out, but this record is certainly helping me to understand. Thank you, and steady the course boys..what it was you wanted, from the time you were young, before you could visualize it, before you knew there was anything it couldn't be, before you could imagine that there was anything else that couldn't be it, that place in your soul that leaked into your mind and gave you something words were never meant to name, the intangible feeling thats was aways more than a feeling, the thing you always tried to make into a bubble..you're achieving it now. Run with it.

When one thinks of places that would foster bands who specialize in seven-minute-plus suites of guitars, bass, and drums and no singing, probably one of the last locales that would come to mind is Texas. The world of instrumental music is not a very popular one and is dominated by only a few bands that can claim any amount of fame, the most well-known being Icelandic musical deconstructionists Sigur Ros.

However, Midland, Texas band Explosions in the Sky have been making a name for themselves in the post-rock world after rising from the Austin music scene with their widely-acclaimed sophomore album Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever.

Building their reputation on a powerful live show and an ability to harness pure instrumental rock to express emotions better than any lyrics could, they released another successful album and had their debut reissued in 2005. Perhaps their biggest breakthrough was the Friday Night Lights soundtrack, which was almost entirely composed and recorded by the band.

2007 sees the release of All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone, the band's fourth proper album and one that does not see the band straying from their chosen direction. There are only six songs on the album, but following the trend of their previous releases, the average song length is seven minutes.

Explosions in the Sky specialize in the art of the crescendo. Each of the songs present here is built around them, separating distinct musical passages and acting as a kind of catharsis for the tension that the band builds up on each track. While much of the work here is very effective at this, slowly rising to a climax that is not only anthemic and rocking but also musically intricate and sophisticated, some of the songs never quite lift off, or spend half the time meandering around various guitar licks and harmonics.

Opener "The Birth and Death of a Day" starts off with a screeching distorted guitar playing in a very high register and then proceeds into a guitar-and-drum beat that slowly builds up and then fades away, teasing the listener. Suddenly, a double-bass thunder and a barrage of toms hails a new wailing guitar line that is the climax of the song. This is what Explosions in the Sky does best, unleashing a momentous instrumental fury upon the listener that satisfactorily concludes the song and releases all the energy the band has worked up.

Following tune "Welcome, Ghosts" does pretty much the same thing, but rather than lead the listener around with ambient sounds and quiet, slow guitar lines, it leads the listener to its apex faster and ends with a satisfying roar of guitar and cymbals. Nevertheless, it's essentially a shorter version of the opener. This is the biggest problem with Explosions in the Sky, and instrumental post-rock in general; it can get pretty boring.

The best song on the album, "Catastrophe and the Cure," never lets the listener off the hook, beginning with an ominous guitar line before exploding into a rapid snare-drum-based rhythm and a jolting high-pitched guitar line and only intensifies from there. The ending of the song tops any other on the record by miles.

While the pinnacle of each composition is a truly inspiring musical payoff, the minutes in between can stretch pretty long on some of the songs. Songs like "Welcome, Ghost" and the (relatively) short closer "So Long, Lonesome" mitigate this by creating interesting interludes and keeping them short while still summoning a considerable amount of musical tension.

The 13-and-a-half minute-long magnum opus of the disc, "It's Natural To Be Afraid," suffers the most from the "boredom" problem. It spends its first six minutes in a reverb-saturated echoic guitar haze before finally evolving into an interesting rhythm with an insistent tom beat, but then the song drops back into a simple bass line and wandering guitar. The climax of the song is indeed rocking and meant to be played at the loudest volume possible, but the ten minutes it takes to get to it are excruciatingly boring.

Then again, music like this is meant to be background music, and for that task, few other bands can do a better job. Explosions in the Sky bring the vast desert landscape and rugged beauty of their native Texas to the stereo with unerring precision and musical skill. Few bands can make listeners recall certain times and places and even emotions without singing a single word.

And it helps that they also happen to be pretty damned good at bringing out some straightforward burning Texan rock and roll at the appropriate times.

Without words Explosions in The Sky manage to take you on incredibly lyrical and emotive journeys. This loud band from Austin Texas have always done this, have been smothered in critical praise for doing so, but are now doing it better than ever before. With merely guitars, bass, drums and a little piano, the symphonic majesty of their compositions feel like the odyssey of a great culture hero passing through an ordeal that promises rewards as great as salvation itself. Homer would surely have considered it a fine accompaniment to his epic tale. They tell us that it usually takes them months to compose even a single track, and after a few years work, even an album of a mere six songs is ample reward for all their conscientious efforts. This really is a remarkable piece of work, and news of its release was a day of wondrous anticipation for me. My immediate purchase was also further rewarded by an additional album of remixes by the likes of Four Tet, Adem, Jesu (aka Justin Broadrick who first rose to prominence with Godflesh in the late 80s), Mountains and Eluvium, every one of which works with, rather than against, the original material, staying true to the ethos of its original creators. This album really will enrich your life, and without it you'll be condemning yourself to spiritual impoverishment!

Ambient instrumental post-rock at it finest, I do believe... It has melody, groove, atmosphere... it can't dissapoint in my mind. This is my favorite EITS CD that I've heard, although I admit I haven't been a fan for very long.

Explosions in the Sky are easily the greatest post-rock band existing today (yes I know that "post-rock" is a stupid term, but when I use it you know what I'm referring to, right?). "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone" is six tracks of instrumental bliss. The songs are structured mainly around the intricate dual guitar work. These guys are great at creating highly emotional "build-ups". Songs will start slowly and quietly and eventually explode into a cathartic release of sonic righteousness. The lack of vocals doesn't matter; these songs speak volumes without the use of lyrics.

I must respectfully disagree with the reviewers who casually dismiss the bonus remix CD as nothing but a mere novelty. The remixes RULE, especially the Jesu remix of "The Birth and Death of the Day". I used to listen to that song everyday for about three months straight while I was getting ready for work. This whole album is thoroughly fantastic.