Explosions in the Sky — The Wilderness
What may turn out to be Explosions in the Sky’s last album, The Wilderness is an electronic laden take on Explosions classic dynamic.
Releasing five years after their last LP, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, Explosions came back with an updated sound. Featuring further implementation of electronic sounds, this album stands apart from their earlier work. The album received positive reviews and reached no. 24 on the Billboard charts.
Beginning with “Wilderness” the band begins to flex their modulated electronica sound. The soundscape of this track encapsulates the vast emptiness of the wild, but also the flourishes of life inherent within. “The Ecstatics” further pushes the band into the synth realm with, but as one of the shorter songs, this feels more like a segue than an actual track. The piano led “Tangle Formations” plays more like the band’s core music as a Side A closer. The brutal and intense “Logic of a Dream” plays more like the sounds of nightmares at times. The track builds and explodes into a crash of drums and tonal strings before fulfilling the promise of the title and becoming a lullaby for a dream. The lead single from the album “Disintegration Anxiety” is the perfect combination of their old and new style. Beginning with disparate electronica sounds, the drums soon kick in and a heavily pedaled guitar riff comes through. The pace of this song is relentless in its simulation of anxiety, but the track never feels imposing. The Side B closer “Losing The Light” is the most experimental track on the album with long drawn out droning and sparse instrumentation. The shortest track on the album kicks off Side C. “Infinite Orbit” is an unremarkable song besides leading into the longest track on the album. “Colors in Space” feels like an entire symphony. A slow and subdued overture builds as synthesized keys wail in the background. A steadfast guitar and drum beat are interlaced, before a stark segue of tonal electronica. This leads to another quiet build up before breaking into a drum driven crescendo. This all leads to a tension building outro which takes us to our final song “Landing Cliffs.” This song is a soft farewell from an unique album.
Must Listen To: Colors in Space
On a personal note, I was traveling through Europe alone when this album came out. In many ways it comforted me with a band I knew for years but challenged me with their expanding sound. I was taking a taxi from the airport to my airbnb in Barcelona. It was late evening and there were few lights on the outskirts of the city. “Colors in Space” came on and played as the perfect soundtrack. Its outro even led into Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Run Away With Me” in perfect time as I entered the city proper. It is a special memory of a beautiful song.
