Explosions in the Sky "All the Sudden, I Miss Everyone" and Updates about Updates

Nowadays, I am rarely excited about any new records. I have become extremely jaded after a string of profound disappointments (i.e. Flamings Lips "At War With the Mystics", everything by Mount Eerie, etc.) and found myself dreading the possibility that bands i love will soon be jumping the shark as opposed to creating their next best record. The last record I loved, and I mean unequivocally, was Broken Social Scene's S/T release. Although on immediate listen I was thrown into sense of confusion and uncertainty - I was able to acclimate to the muddles of sound and find the most consistent and innovative record I had heard in a long time. The album came out less than 2 years ago but since it came out, almost every album following in its wake has attempted to reinvent the production style to mixed results. There have been some other great albums of late, but they are few and far between; Final Fantasy's He Poos Clouds, Animal Collective's Feels, and Fennesz's Venice to name a few.

Explosions in the Sky's new record "All the Sudden, I Miss Everyone", was for me, at least something to look forward to, albeit, with a bit of trepidation. The "Post-Rock" movement is flat and mostly dead to me. Mogwai is boring sans a few songs - Godspeed, although the reining master of genre, hasn't put out an album since 2002 and that album was mediocre at best (that's being kind)- and I can't even hear Tortoise anymore because it sounds like being in an elevator. But Explosions in the Sky is an anomaly to me because they embody almost all of the negative and redundant traits of the genre while super ceding them with a sense of evocative and visceral power that is almost unique to them in their earnestness, but they also embody the teeth gritting power of the "rock moment". Suffice to say, I freely admit that their albums and songs are, too a degree, fairly interchangeable and although I see this as a fair criticism, I see their albums more as classical movements then as song based albums in which you skip around. But how many records can one hear before the soft/loud, build to the climax sincerity overstays its welcome?

The new album, more or less, is a subtle but definitive move in a new direction, without losing their "sound" or making any dramatic changes that would alienate their base. I must say that although I am not disappointed by any means, I am hardly blown away either. Where on the other albums I would listen through from beginning to end and then endlessly repeat for months on end - the album hardly ever leaving the player. The new record, despite the fact that it comes across more like one long song - tracks blending into one another - it also lacks a certain punch. This is because they are no longer interested in building to a moment (some might argue the whole album builds to the subtle climax at the end but in my humble opinion, eh) as much as they are beginning with a climatic moment, dropping it, coming back to new sound and moving on. Although the album is more interesting in concept, even implementing piano to an almost superfluous result, and is more dynamically produced, it is also missing some of that earnestness that made them so compelling in the first place. If anything, it's the most "post-rock" record they have recorded, seemingly less reliant on climax, you can now see the song writing as opposed to feeling it.

Yet this isn't a negative review by any means, it's one of the better records I have heard in awhile, but as I said above, that's not necessarily a bold achievement given the circumstances.

To digress, starting Monday I will be shooting a film for 5 days straight, working 12-16 hours days so I won't be able to post that week and I have some upcoming plans that make the next couple of weeks look grim for those of you who casually and silently read this here blog thing. That being said, this weekend, I am going to bombard the site with post so that there is enough material to last you a couple a weeks, this includes, but is not limited to the long awaited Bowling Vernacular post, Frank Lloyd Wright in AZ, and a string of pictures representing different neighborhoods and areas of Southern California and beyond. I hope you enjoy.