Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Texas instrumentalists Explosions In the Sky make big, cinematic music with fairly basic instrumentation — mostly guitars and drums, a little bass — and their sixth studio effort, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, offers up a number of firsts for the quartet: a first official video (for the cosmic and beautiful opener, “Last Known Surroundings”), the first use of vocals (utilized as effects only), and the first appearance of electronic drums (used very sparingly). The band’s crescendo-heavy, dramatic v. pastoral post-rock is considered by many to be the reigning brand of the genre, with recent output by fellow post-rockers Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor! being both spotty and rare. Take Care may be the best EITS record since their first; they are meticulously fine-tuning the way their artful washes of sound are delivered, how their atmospheric collisions are painted. EITS maintain a hopeful, transportive tone, and while there is much to delve into here without trepidation, we point out the comparatively brief, faces-to-the-sky joy of “Trembling Hands” and the stellar, ten-minute stretch of bliss that is “Let Me Back In” as great places to start. Say yeah.

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