New Music Review: Explosions in the Sky; “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” (MUSIC VIDEO)

Tuesday, April 26, was a good day in U.S. music; there were some really awesome albums that came out that I was excited to buy. Explosions in the Sky’s sixth studio album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care was no exception. The band has not put out a record since All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone back in 2007, but I have to say, their newest release was worth the wait.

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care delivers on all the swirling instrumentals we’ve come to expect from the Texas quartet–those epic build-ups and “explosions” are pleasantly present on each track of the new album. This effort, however, seems to achieve more than the band’s previous releases. There is something haunting and ethereal going on here, and its power grows as each song flows into the next, picking up some sort of soulful momentum on the way. Take Care boasts a more personal approach than Explosion’s previous releases, and it does so purposefully with tracks entitled, “Human Qualities” and “Let Me Back In.” The band seems to be reaching out to its listeners in a more emotionally connected way. It’s definitely an album to listen to on headphones if you’re really going to absorb all the nuances and layers that exist on each track. Smart, beautiful, eerie, and short, Take Care clocks in at only just a little over 45 minutes long, but oh boy, what a lovely 45 minutes it is.

There is a poetic ebb and flow you can feel, and the guys in Explosions seem to have mastered the fine line between guitar escalation and melodic restraint. The album’s not perfect by any means, and the third track, “Trembling Hands,” is trite and overwrought. Repeated thumping vocals detract from the album’s thus far cohesiveness, while in contrast, super-creepy-lady speaking over the pattering guitars and drums in “Let Me Back In”, seems a masterfully spun closing.

After multiple listens, I’ve decided that I want to live in the haunted, abandon circus world where this album exists. It would be one experienced through only sepia and antique tones, and you might wind up riding some old-school merry-go-round very, very slowly at some point while there. Explosions in the Sky has succeeded if the band’s hope was to achieve a human quality with this album. Listeners are only left to decide whether they want to transport into the world where Take Care exists or whether they’d rather that world be transplanted into the quilting of their day. The album is equally capable of both. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care feels like a cascading journey that Explosions in the Sky invites you to take with them, and I’m thinking, you probably shouldn’t say no.

Let Me Back In

Picture taken from amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Take-Care/dp/B004QIUGOM/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1

Comments