SOUNDTRACK: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY-Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011).
I found out about Explosions in the Sky because of the events of 9/11. Back when everyone was looking for albums to point fingers at in some kind of hysteria (that’s also how I found out about I am the World Trade Center who are not as exciting as Explosions…).
EITS make beautiful epic instrumental music (as well as the soundtrack for Friday Night Lights). They play music in a similar vein to Mogwai, but they take their epic instrumentals in a different direction. And this album is perhaps their most commercial to date (as commercial as you can be when you write 10 minute instrumentals). And while “commercial” is not usually an adjective that I give as praise, for this album it is indeed.
Take Care, Take Care Take Care is a terrific album. It ‘s not as visceral as past releases; rather, it seems like a more experienced band playing with their sound and tweaking it in subtle ways to make it less obviously dramatic but somehow more powerful.
On “Last Known Surroundings,” there are soaring guitars that give way to simple, pretty guitar riffs. Martial drums propel the songs forward, even if they lead to unexpected places. It’s soundtrack music that’s not background music.
Perhaps the biggest difference with this album and previous ones is that this album doesn’t quite live up to the band’s name. There’s no major explosive crescendos. There are noisy bits but they’re not climactic per se. “Human Qualities” slows to a quiet drum beat and while you’d expect to come out of that with a cacophonous explosion, it doesn’t. The explosion does come later, but only after it has worked up to it again.
“Trembling Hands” features “voices.” Or maybe just one voice. It’s on a loop that becomes more of a sound than a voice. The song is only 3 minutes long, but it’s an intense 3 minutes–more great drum work on this one.
“Be Comfortable, Creature” has a beautiful delicate guitar opening that drifts into a kind of solo. After 3 minutes it settles into the main riff, a winding guitar line that send you on a journey. “Postcard from 1952” is a great song. It begins as quiet intertwining guitars and slowly builds and builds into a gorgeous rocking conclusion. 7 minutes of steady growth with a nice epilogue at the end.
The final song, “Let Me Back In” also has kind of spooky voices that appears throughout the song (distorted and repeated). But you know this song is a winner from the get go (even if the opening chord structure is a bit like Duran Duran’s “Come Undone.”) It’s a slow builder, a cool, moody ten minute piece. When you get to the beautiful descending guitar riff that shoots out after about 2 minutes, it’s an ecstatic moment–air guitars are mandatory.
And let’s talk packaging. The album comes in a gate-fold type of cardboard. If you open it up all the way it can be folded into a little house (with windows and a door and a chimney). That’s pretty cool, guys.
If I have one compliant about the album it’s that the quiets are really quiet and he louds are really loud. That makes this a very difficult album to listen to say, at work, or basically anywhere where other people will be blown away by your speakers. The middle of “Human Qualities” for instance, is really quiet, you feel like you need to turn it up to hear the drum beat–there’s too much volume fiddling (listening in the car by yourself negates any reason for this complaint, of course).
Keep it up, guys.
More “controversy” from the band
[READ: September 10, 2011] New Yorker essays
Ten years ago, The New Yorker published several short essays by famous and (to me anyway) not so famous writers. They were all written directly in the aftermath of the attacks and they were moving and powerful. I was going to wait until today to re-read them and post about them, but for various reasons, I decided to do it on May 12.
Now, ten years later, The New Yorker has published several more essays by famous and (to me anyway) not so famous writers. I note that none of the authors are the same (that might have been interesting) although Zadie Smith does quote from John Updike’s piece of ten years ago.
The strange thing to me about these pieces is that ten years seems to have hindered the writers’ ability to focus on the incident and to talk about What It Means. In this collection of essays, we have a few that talk about an individual and how his life has changed since 9/11. These are pretty powerful, although it’s odd that they would talk about another person and not themselves. We have a couple of essays that talk about the writer him or herself, but these seem kind of unfocused. And then we have ones that talk about the state oft he world; honestly, what can you say about that.
It’s possible that I’m jaded or in a bad mood and that’s why I didn’t appreciate these essays. Or perhaps I’m just facing the futility of things.
This is not to say that I think that writing about 9/11 is easy (you’ll notice I’m not doing it). Indeed, I think talking about it in any kind of meaningful, non-strident, non-cliched way is nigh impossible.
But these writers do give it a try. And I am grateful for that.
DAVID REMNICK-When the Towers Fell
Remnick relates the story of the Towers to the previous biggest New York disaster the General Slocum. He makes the very good point that the tenth anniversary is not an end to the events of terrorism, just a marker. And that people will always be recasting the events for their own use–see Dick Cheney’s new memoir, for instance.
IAN FRAZIER-Passengers
Usually a humorist, Frazier’s piece was very moving. He knew a New Jersey bus driver whom everyone loved (there’s a very moving story about his passengers surprising him with a cake on his birthday). This bus driver was on his way into the City in his bus when the towers fell. He turned around and brought everyone home. He knew one of the men who was killed. And even though he’s retired, he still talks with the passengers when he sees them around town. It’s a very moving story.
COLUM McCANN-Dessert
McCann relates a story of watching a woman eating a very decadent dessert only days after the towers fell–outside, while the ashes were still floating around her. He’ll never forget that moment and he can’t decide if it was crass or an audacious act of grief.
ZADIE SMITH-Monsters
Zadie tries to contextualize the history of terrorism since 9/11. I am normally a big fan of Zadie’s writing, but I didn’t feel anything from this essay.
NICK PAUMGARTEN-All Together Now
Another personal story, this time of a sculptor who makes iron cross replicas of the one found at Ground Zero. Unlike the bus driver story, I didn’t care to finish this one.
LORRIE MOORE-Wizards
I disliked this essay because it begins by talking about her brother, who was in the subway when the first tower was hit and then it morphs into a kind of mild criticism (if that’s the right word) of kids who find Harry Potter to be an important piece of literature to them. I’m not sure what to read into her mentioning of Rowling, but it seems petty. And it seems like a strange thing to focus on given what the essay is ostensibly about.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER-Speechless
This is a personal story in which Safran Foer wonders how his young sons will learn about 9/11–he hopes it’s from him and not elsewhere [which to me makes it sound like a learning about sex]. However, the more intense part of this essay is about reaching out to people; how many of the victims in the towers reached out to their loved ones. When words should have been most impossible to find, there were words of grace and dignity and consolation.
EDWARD CONLON-Paying Attention
Conlon is a former detective and writer. He helped in the evacuation of ground zero. Strangely he also mentions Harry Potter (the tagline for the final movie: “It All Ends 7.15”). When Conlon retired from the force he was given an exam where they found a blockage near his heart–something they never would have found had he stayed.
EDWIDGE DANTICAT-Flight
Danticat also talks about digging up bones, but in the rubble of a school in Haiti after the earthquake. Although she notes we should never compare tragedies it is impossible because we view them all with only our own mind. She also talks about the images from 9/11 of people trying to fly from their buildings. The essay ends with her thinking about flying and how when she gets on an airplane, like those people who leapt to their death, she hopes they land safely.
DANIYAL MUEENUDDIN-Power Grid
This is a look at the state of Pakistan throughout Mueenuddin’s lifetime
IAN PARKER-Oral History
Parker talks about a play that is to be performed which was comprised solely of oral history of people from around Ground Zero. It sounds incredibly moving, especially when you learn that over 900 hours of audio were available.
ELIF BATUMAN-In the World
Batuman was living in San Francisco in 2001. She had moved back to Istanbul for a job. And she learns that something catastrophic and destabilizing can lead to unexpected results that were waiting for you all along.
HISHAM MATAR-The Light
Matar talks of life in the Arab Mediterranean and the Arab Spring and the desire for a better future.
~~~~~~~
I don’t know what I expected from these essays but none of them gave me the catharsis I hoped for. And perhaps it was unfair of me to look for catharsis in a group of essays. Indeed, I get more catharsis from Explosion in the Sky.
I Just Read About That... 
Elif Batuman is a woman.
Thanks for the post, I still can’t bring myself to read on this topic when it’s near the anniversary. And EITS is indeed cathartic music.
Thanks for the correction. It’s so hard to know sometimes. I could do research and all, but that would take like real work. It’s a tough topic. I immersed myself in 9/11 writing right after the event, but as time gives me more distance I’m reluctant to open up the wounds again.