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One Fresh Spin, One Old Gem
By Marc Stephens
Artist: Explosions in the Sky
Album: All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Released: Feb. 20, 2007
Label: Temporary Residence Limited
Online Track to Try: “What Do You Go Home To?”
Legend has it that
post-instrumental quartet Explosions in the Sky got its big
break when the American Analog Set — an indie act not exactly
known for power or incendiary bombast — submitted the band’s
initial demo tape to Temporary Residence Records with a succinct
four-word summary: “This totally f***ing destroys.” In the time
since, these four kids from Texas have filled what was
apparently a pretty substantial niche, considering their
sweeping appearance on the Friday Night Lights
soundtrack, not to mention that everyone who’s anyone touts them
as up-and-coming indie rock saviors. All of a Sudden is a
logical next step for EITS, and if it fails to break much new
ground, that’s only because they were already so good at what
they did before.
Without meaning to sell this latest record short, there’s simply
no way around the fact that EITS absolutely outdid themselves
with their last proper effort, 2003’s miraculous The Earth Is
Not a Cold Dead Place. Earth was a dynamic,
magisterial piece of melancholic wonder, one that the somewhat
formulaic All of a Sudden doesn’t quite match.
Nevertheless, these six lingering instrumental symphonies are
utterly rewarding in and of themselves, and lest we accuse EITS
of running in place, they’ve also added a piano to their
repertoire, which takes center stage on a good amount of the
material. The piano adds an affecting counterpoint to the band’s
traditionally muscular bravado, especially on the ringing “What
Do You Go Home To?” and poignant closer, “So Long, Lonesome.”
It’s hard to say what goes through these guys’ heads while
they’re composing such wistful highway melodies; the nice thing
is, what goes through the listener’s own head is completely up
to you.
Artist: Lake
Album: Lake II
Released: 1978
Label: CBS
Online Track to Try: “Love’s a Jailer”
Take one part Supertramp, one part REO
Speedwagon and three parts pre-“How Much I Feel” Ambrosia, and
what do you get? Germany’s Lake, that’s what — yet another
art-inflected late ’70s Europop act, easily overlooked in their
time but well worth checking out if only for this, their
irresistibly radio-friendly second record. Friendly, yes, but it
never did manage to close the radio part of the deal, at least
not here in the States ... which of course to my ears makes it
all the more appealing.
Lake is one of those “type-O” bands whose music sounds like an
agglomeration of much of what was happening on the pop charts at
the time. Yet such bands, while not jaw-droppingly original, can
still energize the mind and ear if their writing is strong
enough. Almost without exception, the rest of the band’s
releases were plagued by persistently weak songwriting, but
Lake II rocks in an adult vein like a mid-’70s Elton John
show, with a spirit of confident piano-driven immediacy they’d
never match again. Each song starts slowly, FM-style, building
up from there with a consistency even Elton might admire. And
the harmonies! On this lone album, Lake showed a real knack for
knocking out cheesy keyboard-driven choruses, one after another,
like those found on “Red Lake” and the sing-along anthem “Love’s
A Jailer,” which sounds like something REO might’ve cribbed for
their Tune a Piano record that same year. One mix-n-match
iPod recommendation: Scratch lame finale “Scoobie Doobies” and
replace it with the stirring “Time Bomb,” a cut from Lake’s less
impressive 1976 debut that would’ve fit much better on this
release.
Marc Stephens
is a Web consultant by day, writer by night. Comments? E-mail
sunpostmusic1@bellsouth.net. |
