Tracks
Explosions In The Sky: "Welcome, Ghosts"
(2007)
By Joel Elliott | 29 January 2008
While much of Texas post-rock quartet Explosions in the Sky’s latest full-length harks back to the more aggressive sounds of Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever (2001), “Welcome, Ghosts” might fit better on their more recent venture, The Earth is Not A Cold Dead Place (2003), which saw them turning down the distortion and provoked critics to find more uplifting metaphors to describe their music. “Welcome, Ghosts” primarily features high, ringing notes on two heavily-delayed guitars, with slow, thundering drum beats acting as accents to give the song a sense of epic grandeur.
At just under six minutes, this is one of the shorter tracks on the album, and it’s possible that the song just doesn’t have time to stretch out and shift its dynamics more organically. By the first minute the drums have already signalled two distinct soft-loud progressions and, with the exception of a relatively meandering plateau, the song mostly flips between one mode or the other. These sudden shifts into harder or softer terrain have worked for the band in the past but here they seem rushed-out and predictable; the band seems to have lost its sense of spontaneity (perhaps while sound tracking films like Friday Night Lights?). The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place succeeded on the basis of interesting intertwining guitar melodies; “Welcome, Ghosts” mainly features simple chord changes whose rhythm seems predetermined by the speed of the delay pedal. Because the tone of both guitars is fairly consistent the change in volume doesn’t really signal the emotional shift that it did in the past; plus, since they happen so frequently, the song doesn’t have any narrative arc to it.
Explosions in the Sky did develop a distinct sound from similar influences (Mogwai, Slint, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), but they’ve been less successful in expanding their own. This track suggests they may have become too comfortable with their monopoly on this kind of raw, passionate intensity. A retread of previous material might be forgivable, but “Welcome, Ghosts” feels like a severely truncated, diluted form of the band’s best work.
At just under six minutes, this is one of the shorter tracks on the album, and it’s possible that the song just doesn’t have time to stretch out and shift its dynamics more organically. By the first minute the drums have already signalled two distinct soft-loud progressions and, with the exception of a relatively meandering plateau, the song mostly flips between one mode or the other. These sudden shifts into harder or softer terrain have worked for the band in the past but here they seem rushed-out and predictable; the band seems to have lost its sense of spontaneity (perhaps while sound tracking films like Friday Night Lights?). The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place succeeded on the basis of interesting intertwining guitar melodies; “Welcome, Ghosts” mainly features simple chord changes whose rhythm seems predetermined by the speed of the delay pedal. Because the tone of both guitars is fairly consistent the change in volume doesn’t really signal the emotional shift that it did in the past; plus, since they happen so frequently, the song doesn’t have any narrative arc to it.
Explosions in the Sky did develop a distinct sound from similar influences (Mogwai, Slint, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), but they’ve been less successful in expanding their own. This track suggests they may have become too comfortable with their monopoly on this kind of raw, passionate intensity. A retread of previous material might be forgivable, but “Welcome, Ghosts” feels like a severely truncated, diluted form of the band’s best work.