Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Like their home state of Texas, Explosions in the Sky are all about wide-open spaces, preferring to leave the landscape as it is rather than trying to fill every last bit of empty space just for the sake of doing so. It’s this aesthetic that sets the band apart from the busier bands in post-rock and, really, rock in general. Doing more with less, the band continues to deliver rousing, lonely epics on its sixth album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. While the album features the quartet's reverb-heavy, guitar-oriented sound, there’s a definite shift in mood. Rather than a steady train of buildups and triumphant crescendos, Take Care has a warmer, more consoling feeling, acting like the soundtrack to the aftermath of some unknown event rather than the climax, bringing brightness to relive the emotional fallout. It feels as though Explosions in the Sky have developed an even greater sense of patience, allowing songs to build up more intricately without rushing their way into a huge moment of distortion-filled catharsis. This allows the album to build steadily in intensity over the course of its six tracks, with each song pushing the envelope further and further until the whole thing comes to a head in the closing track, “Let Me Back In,” giving the album a more cohesive feeling. More so than some of their earlier albums, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care can’t be skimmed or rushed, but instead requires the listener to let it unfold on its own terms, giving it time to flower and bloom when it’s ready. While this may not make it the most immediately exciting album of Explosions in the Sky's career, it easily stands to be one of their most rewarding. ~ Gregory Heaney