The Wilderness

Soundtracking “rousing sport montages” was not an ambition for Texan instrumental rockers Explosions In the Sky with their sixth album. We’re not sure they’ll avoid that honor entirely—“The Ecstatics” and “Tangle Formations” are spine-tingly enough to accompany most last-second heroics—but this panoramic, foreboding set certainly hits harder than previous work. “Disintegration Anxiety” is a fuzzy, muscular work-out, the ambient and glitchy “Losing the Light” haltingly unsettling, while “Colours in Space” cycles through the band’s full range of melodic shades before allowing “Landing Clifs” its gorgeous comedown.