Explosions in the Sky built a post-rock (read: instrumental rock) reputation on soaring highs and skillfully employing the soft-loud dynamic. But the Austin quartet’s newest album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, is starkly calm, failing to hit the same emotional chords that thrust the band to prominence.
Take Care is best described as even-keel. The guitar wails that come in during the opener, “Last Known Surroundings,” drone on rather than building up the excitement. “Human Qualities” stays stagnant for five minutes before finally adding a playful guitar line for color. “Be Comfortable, Creature” attempts to break the boredom with an impressive array of layers: tender strings to start, a walking bass riff to build on in the middle, and the peeling of church bells and smooth sax (or at least a some guitar effect to inmate those sounds) to wrap up the number. Still, the feeling it evokes is more one of appreciation than enthrallment.
The only track with any sense of excitement or urgency is “Trembling Hands,” which works at a much quicker pace then the rest of the material and even features some backing vocal yelps for texture (virtually unheard of for Explosions in the Sky, though some ghostly vocal sounds also appear in the intro to “Let Me Back In.”)
The album pales in comparison to the band’s previous efforts. Nothing on Take Care is as captivating or epic as The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, and the album lacks the jarring and unexpected moments found on All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone.
While EitS play many pretty notes on Take Care, the album as a whole is too one-note to stand out.
Review Score: 5.2
*Expanded from a review in The Pacific Northwest Inlander*
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