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| Track list: 1. The Birth and Death of the Day 2. Welcome, Ghosts 3. It's Natural to Be Afraid 4. What Do You Go Home To? 5. Catastrophe and the Cure 6. So Long, Lonesome Running time: 43 minutes Released: 2007 |
I am not sure I have ever listened to this album properly before. I used to have it in my library twice, once ripped, once gifted, but removed the duplication a while back. I have vague inklings of not getting on with EitS in the way I did with Mogwai or This Will Destroy You or, more recently, Jakob, who operate in similar spheres. Interesting to give this a chance again.
When starting the listen, I am immediately turned off by a screeching to the guitar-driven wall that hits my ears. Thankfully the wailing sound abates and more melodic tones emerge, swell then fall before another wall of more gravelly sound hits. I am not really getting on with The Birth and Death of the Day. The melodies are nice enough but not demanding, and the fuller sounds when they come in are less musical than they might be. The percussion is too loud for my liking and overall the tunes when they come through from the rest are just a little too... plain?
Not sure what I feel is missing here... maybe a layer effect? Perhaps the genius line to draw in my ear? Whatever it is I am perceiving this album as somewhat removed from me. Maybe it is just that I do not have a context for the tracks - they are not generating mental images for me, they have not been on the road with me and I am simply less familiar with them than other "post rock" from my library. Whatever it is, I am not getting something from this listen that would, ideally, be there. There are some nice sections in the tracks, but also periods where either I find the sound uncomfortable (like the opening of the album) or bland. Without something to root these tunes and cement them in my mind's ear, they are washing over me and falling to the ground like rain off a plastic mac.
Then we hit a movement in It's Natural to Be Afraid - from about 4 minutes into the 13+ minute piece - and I hit a bit I like. I can see what people like about Explosions in the Sky... it is very reminiscent of This Will Destroy You (who, coming later, were probably influenced by EitS rather than the other way around). This reminiscence, this familiarity, is engaging. I find I like this track, whereas the two before I could happily leave. I still cannot put my finger on what specifically makes the difference, and the ending of the track ruins the positive impression a little but this will be kept, even if the rest gets junked (as seems possible).
There is a busyness to the keyboard in What Do You Go Home To? which obliterates the calm of the pace and the serenity of the rest of the sculpted sounds. I am not a fan; I can hear some nice lines behind it but whilst the contrast is assuredly deliberate I feel too much is lost in its application to make the track an interesting listen. Actually that might be a thread here: there is generally a little too much going on for my liking. When one player goes quiet, the others do not necessarily follow. Deliberate contrast is imposed in a number of cases. One instrument staying strong or persistent where otherwise we might get some space to breathe. Trying to put this another way... it feels like guys bouncing off each other a little more than constructively working together to construct the final work. That can be awesome when it comes off - and I suspect many folk would see this album as coming off very well.
I do not fit in that camp. The songs here just fail to touch my soul enough and only two will be kept, with So Long, Lonesome being the second. I like title, I like the "chorus" refrain and the rest of the instrumentation does not do any of the small things that somehow unknowingly combined to make the majority of these songs just fall flat for me. I would not say that I think All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is a bad album; it is just one that I cannot find a place for. Other works exist to fill this hole and without that magic something that commends music to my heart, this disc falls short of appreciation.
When starting the listen, I am immediately turned off by a screeching to the guitar-driven wall that hits my ears. Thankfully the wailing sound abates and more melodic tones emerge, swell then fall before another wall of more gravelly sound hits. I am not really getting on with The Birth and Death of the Day. The melodies are nice enough but not demanding, and the fuller sounds when they come in are less musical than they might be. The percussion is too loud for my liking and overall the tunes when they come through from the rest are just a little too... plain?
Not sure what I feel is missing here... maybe a layer effect? Perhaps the genius line to draw in my ear? Whatever it is I am perceiving this album as somewhat removed from me. Maybe it is just that I do not have a context for the tracks - they are not generating mental images for me, they have not been on the road with me and I am simply less familiar with them than other "post rock" from my library. Whatever it is, I am not getting something from this listen that would, ideally, be there. There are some nice sections in the tracks, but also periods where either I find the sound uncomfortable (like the opening of the album) or bland. Without something to root these tunes and cement them in my mind's ear, they are washing over me and falling to the ground like rain off a plastic mac.
Then we hit a movement in It's Natural to Be Afraid - from about 4 minutes into the 13+ minute piece - and I hit a bit I like. I can see what people like about Explosions in the Sky... it is very reminiscent of This Will Destroy You (who, coming later, were probably influenced by EitS rather than the other way around). This reminiscence, this familiarity, is engaging. I find I like this track, whereas the two before I could happily leave. I still cannot put my finger on what specifically makes the difference, and the ending of the track ruins the positive impression a little but this will be kept, even if the rest gets junked (as seems possible).
There is a busyness to the keyboard in What Do You Go Home To? which obliterates the calm of the pace and the serenity of the rest of the sculpted sounds. I am not a fan; I can hear some nice lines behind it but whilst the contrast is assuredly deliberate I feel too much is lost in its application to make the track an interesting listen. Actually that might be a thread here: there is generally a little too much going on for my liking. When one player goes quiet, the others do not necessarily follow. Deliberate contrast is imposed in a number of cases. One instrument staying strong or persistent where otherwise we might get some space to breathe. Trying to put this another way... it feels like guys bouncing off each other a little more than constructively working together to construct the final work. That can be awesome when it comes off - and I suspect many folk would see this album as coming off very well.
I do not fit in that camp. The songs here just fail to touch my soul enough and only two will be kept, with So Long, Lonesome being the second. I like title, I like the "chorus" refrain and the rest of the instrumentation does not do any of the small things that somehow unknowingly combined to make the majority of these songs just fall flat for me. I would not say that I think All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is a bad album; it is just one that I cannot find a place for. Other works exist to fill this hole and without that magic something that commends music to my heart, this disc falls short of appreciation.
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