Explosions in the Sky's Forthcoming Album Kills It

In a nutshell....
Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is Explosions in the Sky at its best: soaringly sensuous, occasionally heartbreaking, instrumental post-rock.
Rating: 8/10
What It's Missing: Something to distinguish it from EITS's previous sensuous/heartbreaking albums
For fans of: Mogwai; Godspeed You Black Emperor

Cemeteries, one might think, have a pretty limited number of uses. In fact, cemeteries pretty exclusively serve only two groups of people: dead ones, and drug-dealers. But on 23 April, one of post-rock’s most revered groups will transform a Hollywood cemetery into an art gallery to celebrate the release of their latest triumphant studio effort.

Such a dramatic venue seems only appropriate for Explosions In The Sky’s intensely emotive album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. Whereas other post-rock establishments like Mogwai have controversially evolved their sound in recent years, Take Care… shows that EITS is sticking to what it does best: sensuously sweeping symphonic soundscapes.

Take Care… weaves melodic riffs through a canvas of reverb-slathered guitars, with a narrative ebb and flow that validates the band’s description of their music as “cathartic mini-symphonies.” “Trembling Hands” covers a chaotic concoction of distortion with a delicately-crafted lullaby, while “Last Known Surroundings” is a narrative that begins with the sleepy sounds of echo-harnessed guitars, before building to a joyous crescendo saddled with excitedly thumping drums.

“Let Me Back In” is a stand-out track for its melancholic layering of fuzzy female vocals that sound like spectral musings in a foreign language, which eventually dissolve into defeated guitars and the frenetic sounds of a bee-swarm. Take Care…’s most stunning track, though, is “Human Qualities,” in which a gingerly fluttering guitar accompanies a pattering percussion reminiscent of the playground hand-clap games of pigtailed girls, before exploding into densely noise-shrouded drums.

With Take Care…, EITS unequivocally remains faithful to the sound that has inspired its cult following (not to mention several film and television features) since the Texas four-piece’s late-90s beginnings. Veteran fans will be satisfied that EITS’s swan-diving guitars continue to infuse post-rock with sensationally graceful anthems. Enchanting, elegant, and epic.

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care will be released 18th April in the UK, 25th April in Europe, and 26th April in the US/Canada.