Explosions In the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care [Temporary Residence]

7.5

Typically, to get the best effect of a post-rock album, you must be relaxed with no distractions to take you away from the noise and beautiful landscapes post-rock takes you to. Explosions In the Sky are no exception for this delicate ritual my friends and I have towards the enjoyment of the genre of post-rock. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, Explosions' latest effort, succeeds and fails in varying categories.

When I first delve into an Explosions in the Sky album, I always take a look at the track listings to see what epic titles they come up with this time. "Last Known Surroundings" and "Be Comfortable, Creature" are my personal favorites in the aspect of song titles. As well as making epic song titles, Explosions have a knack for choosing the appropriate song title for a track; for example, "Be Comfortable Creature" has that instruments that are like trying to comfort a unstable, miserable creature with the wailing, ambient guitar tones being the creature's wails with the very "Explosions in the Sky-esque" guitar plucks being the "tamer". Explosions In the Sky do have a knack for creating fun, insightful imagery in your head while you listen to them equaling making their music very emotionally draining.

The downfall of Take Care is the lack of any guitar diversity. Explosions have been doing the same epic long toned clashes against the subtle guitar picks for ages now. Though it is enjoyable to an extent, the guitar moments go down as unmemorable. The one member that really stands out on Take Care is the versatile drummer Chris Hrasky. His use of build up and intuition with the rest of the band member’s sound is absolutely spot on. Hrasky’s entrance in “Postcards From 1952” simply puts a smile on your face with a simple guitar beat that works to magically with the attitude of the rest of the album.

Any Explosions In the Sky fan will find something pleasing in Take Care. It is simple Explosions In the Sky, nothing more, nothing less; which is good and bad, but mostly good. No expansion in ambition holds back Take Care from really “exploding” to an instant classic. With the spot on drumming to the imaginative imagery the sounds create.

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