New Release: Explosions In The Sky returns with All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone

We have waited two and a half years for another album to satisfy our hunger of new songs, new cover art, a new shiny jewel case, new sounds to sit by the speakers and today is that very day. Today is the day you are going to walk yourself to a record store and pick up All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone. It isn't only this particular album that will make anyone in the vicinity of the speakers immediately realize they have found true {music} love, but it is this particular band that will truly change your life.

No Natalie Portman you got it all wrong, the answer is not The Shins. It is Explosions in the Sky! Now this band is made up of only four people armed with only the basic two guitars, one bass, a set of drums, but they can create a cinematic-like sound that seems to fill up the Milky Way and beyond into the infinite, endless space.

Their music climbs, crashes, burns and then gets smothered quietly into soft strokes of lullabies...have you ever heard a guitar whisper? It is as if they reached out with gigantic hands and waved across the sky, blurring the blues, reds, yellows, whites of clouds, those gray days, those rainy days, those Sundays, the sunsets, the sunrises, the many lunar phases, all in all smudging reality, filling the empty spaces left with pieces of their own dreams. They show us what will be the loudest and the quietest moments of our lives. They re-create planet Earth for an hour or two. You'll find when listening to them, time will become irrelevant since they seem to have found the power to make the hands of a clock slow or speed up and in the most heart-wrenching moments...they'll make time stop.

So now that I have either embarrassed myself or enticed some sort of curiosity...let's talk about their new album.

All Of A Sudden I Will Miss Everyone has a theme of solitude and the songs represent that theme for the most part, what I mean is don't be surprised when the first few seconds of their album makes their grand entrance by a towering, looming distortion storm cloud. You can't recognize the quiet parts without knowing what loudness sounds like anyways. This is their fourth album and is the follow-up to their 2003 album, The Earth Is Not A Dead Cold Place. Their new album was produced by John Congleton (The Paper Chase). The album was written in their hometown, Austin and recorded in the summer wilderness of Minnesota last year. The beautiful artwork is done by Esteban Ray who is not a stranger to their music, he drew the artwork for their first and third album.

What makes this album different than their last three? The melodies are allowed more time to elaborate, uncovering new ways to manipulate the main melody. There is also a new instrument welcomed into the fold, a piano is used frequently throughout the album, but it's more prominent in "What Do You Go Home To?" and "So Long, Lonesome". They use the piano just as a good post-rock band should, playing the piano as a way to make a sound have a texture. The soft falling of the notes sound like raindrops drumming on the pavement or pitter-pattering against your bedroom window. That softer sound contrasts with the harsher instruments such as the crashing of the cymbals or Chris's flurried drumming. On "Catastrophe and the Cure" there is a 'chorus' or rather frequent melody in it, in which they synchronized the drumming with the ascending guitar notes and it's breathtaking, like watching a flower bloom or an airplane takeoff.

If you want more info about Explosions In The Sky's current tour read our Anticipate: Explosions in the Sky's gearing up for a long tour for new album post. There's also another post titled, Why You Should Listen To: Explosions In The Sky, which is like an introductory post to anyone new to Explosions In The Sky, it summarizes their last three albums, talks about the history of Explosions, a bit of information on their new album, it's basically me trying to again, explain their 'greatness'.

For anyone who is in Houston and subscribes to the Houston Chronicle, flip to today's Entertainment section, I wrote a short review of their new album on the Yo! page. The Yo! page is all written by teenagers and is in the Entertainment section every Tuesday.

I will also be attending their Houston show at Numbers on Wed. March 7th with Eluvium opening. So if you haven't bought your tickets, you should probably do that before they sell out!

***Someone tell Pitchfork they made another mistake by giving this album a mere 6.0 when it really deserves a 9.0+, preferably the big 10.0, but I'm not going to be that demanding. Really Pitchfork...a 6.0? Not exactly sure why Explosions would reinvent their sound when it works so well and anyways even that is your reason, they did change a few things with this album.***


Stream + Download + Purchase:

{Click on play button to stream, song title to download & band name to purchase}

Welcome, Ghosts| Explosions in the Sky

Links:

>>> Explosions in the Sky's Official Site
<<< Buy All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
>>> Full list of tour dates and links to buy tickets
<<< (great) Explosions in the Sky fansite (footage&audio of live shows, frequent updates)
>>> Interview w/Michael & Munaf on new album, 2004 tour by A Slice of The Shiny
<<< Eluvium's Official Site

~anne