Explosions In The Sky
Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

THE REVIEW

Four long years of nothing. Four years spent revisiting the melancholic and liquid atmospheres of "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" and "All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone." The Texan Explosions In The Sky had not shown themselves again, except for some live performances around the world: but only fleeting news of the new album. So what is in the latest work by the Americans?

In "Take Care, Take Care, Take Care," the sixth album of their career, there is an ensemble of everything the band has played since their debut "How Strange, Innocence." A refined and melancholic mix that draws from an instrumental post-rock influenced here and there by Mogwai and God is an Astronaut, yet never forgetting that perpetually wandering and dreamy, almost sad soul that Explosions have managed to infuse and cultivate in their music.

Their instruments paint rainy days in the largest American metropolises: they have the ability to musically describe the typical leaden curls facing the Atlantic, despite coming from a decidedly more colorful and sunny state like Texas. Their long devotionals to post-rock sublimate into feelings that evoke memories, bygone times. There is no apparent happiness in their compositions, but rather reflection, understanding of man. The four members achieve this without the use of vocals: two guitars, a bass, and a drum are enough. Rayani, Smith, James and Hrasky lay down crystallizations of notes in perpetual motion, towards a distant and fantastic world. Guitar phrases and architectures that for the first time also allow space for more rarefied moments of vaguely ambient extraction: there is room even for light vocalizations as in "Trembling Hands," although it's the least successful of the batch. The band gives their best in long tracks, those where the member's freest and most dreamy spirit emerges, expressing themselves in touching yet powerful and impactful scores. These find space right from the initial "Last Known Surroundings" where more reflective moments alternate with abrasive lashes as pulsating as they are brief. Flowing ghosts emerge in the walk "Postcard From 1952," where long-lost feelings and the "cold" sweetness of Smith and Rayani's six strings emerge forcefully. Finally, the concluding "Let Me Back In" elevates emotional peaks to become the sentimental and (instrumental) apex of the CD.

The four years of silence served the band to think and create an album that confirms their skill and elevates them even more within the now overcrowded post-rock scene. "Take Care, Take Care, Take Care" is perhaps somewhat uniform and "standardized," but it contains all the creed of the four Texans: few have their ability to dream and make others dream through instruments. Even fewer are those who manage to maintain these levels while sticking to a genre that seems to have limited outlets. It is here that class, refinement, the desire to amaze come into play...

1. "Last Known Surroundings" (8:21)
2. "Human Qualities" (8:09)
3. "Trembling Hands" (3:30)
4. "Be Comfortable, Creature" (8:47)
5. "Postcard From 1952" (7:06)
6. "Let Me Back In" (10:07)