Post-rock shares more with prog rock than six letters. Both are rock music that doesn’t want to rock, be rock and are beyond quotidian rock. Of course, these labels are never self-defined. But post-rock is what Austin Texas’s Explosions in the Sky are lumped in with. Unlike prog rock, it’s not about flash technique. A guitars-and-drums four-piece, their instrumental music is about texture, rather than melody or verse-chorus-break structures. Sixth album Take Care Take Care Take Care doesn’t take them to new places though. It restates who and what they are.
The last Explosions in the Sky album, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, was issued in 2007. Beyond touring, the ensuing four years have seen the band pursue normal lives: having kids, studying classical guitar, messing around with computers. They also recorded demos of 50 songs. Take Care Take Care Take Care distils all that recording.
It’s a hard album to concentrate on, possibly due to its non-spontaneous creation. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone was immediate, the layers of twinkly guitars ebbing and flowing above insistent drums with a heavy metal-like power - Philip Glass with a muscular makeover. Take Care Take Care Take Care is chock-full of texture, which has partly led to Explosions in the Sky being regularly chosen for TV and cinema sound beds. But here, elements to draw you in are often missing. Opening cut “Last Known Surroundings” sounds enormous, motors through serial crescendos but doesn’t resolve after eight minutes. The softer “Human Qualities” is more soundscape than drama, while “Trembling Hands” has the jitters of Arcade Fire. Album closer “Let Me Back In” hits home most, its layers and tension combining for maximum effect.
Take Care Take Care Take Care needs perseverance. But – in common with prog rock – it feels more about sonic architecture than the music itself. The real test of whether it’s an album to live with will be how it comes over live. We’ll see in May when they play here.
Watch Explosions in the Sky’s introduction to Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
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