Explosions In the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (2007)

In the 00's, a bunch of bands appeared, that started playing instrumental music where electric guitars were used in completely new ways. The guitars were spiced up with a variety of effects and the songs had dramatic changes from minimalist and beautiful chiming to full blast huge guitar walls of overdrive. I feel like there were two bands that started all this and at the same time they were the best bands in this genre. Namely, the Scottish band Mogwai and Explosions In the Sky from Texas. Explosions in the Sky didn't use quite as aggressive sounds and use of volume as Mogwai, but instead, they focussed on drama between quiet and loud. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is probably my favourite album by Explosions in the Sky. I didn't own it for a long time, because it seemed to be so expensive everywhere, but finally this May I found this album on vinyl in a record store in Chicago and I bought it.



Like many other post rock bands out there, Explosions In the Sky makes very long songs. There are only six songs on this album, but it's still easily a full length album. It's quite difficult to tell any songs apart from each other and the whole idea is to listen through the whole album in one go and just dive into this magical otherworld of sound.

Last year, I had the pleasure to also see this band live at one of the greatest music venues in the world, Royal Albert Hall. Their light show was amazing and it was beautiful, how the growling guitars filled the old concert hall. I guess it was a right choice of venue also because post rock seems to be a modern equivalent of classical music. It's mostly instrumental and it's all about melodies and composition. The instruments are just different. The electric guitars, bass and drums are all you need to make amazing music and with a use of guitar effects, you can really make it sound amazing.

There were lots of these post rock bands in the 00's and after a while it started to feel like everyone was just copying Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky and no-one seemed to come up with anything different to the genre. Well, there were also the heavier bands that leaned towards metal, but I was never that much into them. Anyway, I think it was actually very appropriate that Explosions in the Sky would be the band that kind of changed the game finally a couple of years ago. They started using a lot more of electronic instrumentation in their music and thus they were able to take their sounds in a new direction. It sounds a bit mathematical to my taste, so I do prefer the original sound to the new sound and that is why it's such a pleasure to listen to this album.

This album also has a fantastic album cover. I feel like it really captures the mood of the album. In that sense, I think it's appropriate to say that the post rock bands today are among the few bands that can really make good concept albums anymore. The time for album as a ultimate concept for music has somewhat passed as with streaming services the focus tends to shift towards singles and individual songs again. For bands like this, however, it's all about the album. With a great album cover and unified sound, you can create amazing concept albums that work better than the individual songs on them.

I feel like the golden age of post rock is already past us, but I'm hopeful that someone will come up with amazing new ways to renew this musical genre to make it magical and new sounding once more, like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky did around the turn of the millennium.

Listen to the album on Spotify.