Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

• Words: Patrick Sisson
• Label: Temporary Residence
• XLR8R Rating: /10

In 2004, this Austin instrumental quartet scored Friday Night Lights, a movie pulsing with the shoulder pad-crumpling hits and kinetic drive of young Texans high on testosterone. (A predictable move, since the band's careening, quiet-loud-quiet cacophony sounds tailor-made for the movies.) On All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, the band seems like it's in soundtrack mode again. More restrained and less explosive, Everyone finds the group delicately dropping a few guitar-based nuclear blasts and pulling back instead of pushing the damn button, bringing forth everything they've got and letting God sort it out. There's more color and gentler build-ups, as if the band is stretching out and refining its ideas, which makes the more extreme moments-like the neck-snapping crescendos of clipped guitars and the glittering clusters of piano melodies on "What Do You Go Home To?"-that much more intense.