For a band that doesn't use any lyrics—save one song which reproduces a war movie—Explosions in the Sky has a lot to say. Entering the music world in 1999, the Texas-based group built a style of post-rock instrumental pieces that practically induce a meditative state. It's a skill that has carried them through four studio albums and an original film soundtrack (Friday Night Lights) and has now matured for their entrancing yet depressingly-titled effort All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone.
Explosions in the Sky's greatest strength is in the lush orchestral psychedelia their music generates—similar to the Flaming Lips and Coldplay in terms of full-on intensity—but without words the band needs to keep this feeling in melody alone. They do this by crafting each of their songs as condensed rock opera, working in instrumental rises and falls like a complicated sine equation.
All Of A Sudden doesn't break from that tradition, telling a story by giving a track name and letting the cadence do the rest. The opening track, ""The Birth and Death of a Day,"" has all the mood shifts of a typical day, beginning with a buzz of distortion to jar you awake, building vibration as you become conscious and eventually fading onto quiet guitar as you wander off into sleep.
Even more than their previous albums, All Of A Sudden shows the band's development by focusing on a specific instrument to drive each track. ""It's Natural to Be Afraid"" is a 13-minute epic that tries to put the fear into listeners with a melancholy guitar line bookended with distortion. ""What Do You Go Home To?"" is built around a striding piano chorus and low guitar notes that seem to ponder all the reasons to go home, while ""Catastrophe and the Cure"" relies on rapid drums that fade away and rebound as crisis is averted.
It's also worth the time to check out the bonus disc. Each of the six tracks has been remixed by a variety of alternative artists, ranging from fellow Texas group The Paper Chase to ambient recording group Eluvium. The remixes don't depart heavily from the originals but offer some interesting twists, lightening up ""Welcome, Ghosts"" with chimes and bells and intensifying the bass on ""What Do You Go Home To?""
Even more than other Explosions in the Sky albums, the listener should be ready to be left completely exhaustedA-—45 minutes of no discernable breaks between songs and a borderline bipolar set of mood shifts takes a toll on anyone.
Unlike some long albums, the drain after All Of A Sudden isn't from boredom but emotional overload, like a tumultuous romantic affair ended by mutual agreement. The final track ""So Long, Lonesome"" is the embodiment of that breakup, lingering piano notes weaving into a solo that forces listeners to shut their eyes in sympathy. It's a beautiful close to a beautiful album.
