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Apr 7, 2016Textured, ornate, and somehow seeping into the deepest parts of you. Notch it as the best Explosions in the Sky album since their previous high-water mark, 2003's The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place.
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Apr 1, 2016A beautiful record; you just wish the vocabulary existed to do it justice.
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Mar 28, 2016It has been five years since their last studio album proper, and with The Wilderness, Explosions In The Sky have created something very special indeed.
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Mar 30, 2016The album is thrillingly foreign yet familiar in its finest moments.
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Apr 5, 2016It’s warm, engaging, and possesses incredible aural imagery. This is a band that has truly resurrected themselves, having climbed out of a pool of stagnancy to craft what can only be considered one of the most creative and immediately likeable albums of the year.
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Apr 1, 2016Explosions In The Sky have crafted an updated version of themselves that’s ready for 2016 ears without sacrificing the band’s identity. The record might divide some longtime fans, but it’s a necessary risk to take to ensure the band’s continued relevance.
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Mar 30, 2016The Wilderness proves that Explosions in the Sky aren’t stuck in any creative rut.
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Jun 2, 2016This album is like you're setting fire to your soul. And there's no better feeling in the universe. Because it has you feeling awake.
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Apr 19, 2016Though their trademark dynamics of rise and fall, and tension and release are firmly in evidence, there remains a mesmerising sheen throughout that’s utterly hypnotic.
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Apr 7, 2016The Wilderness is the perfect title, too; the album’s nine songs exploring an expansive, evocative range of sounds, grooves, peaks and valleys. Which is to say, this is something really quite special.
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Apr 6, 2016The wilderness and going off the map might seem like a frightening concept, but after a little exploration, there’s beauty to be found everywhere.
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Mar 31, 2016Tangle Formations and Infinite Orbit are terrific tunes, and the elementally softly rocking Landing Cliffs makes a spectacularly pretty climax to another beautifully understated epic.
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Mar 30, 2016On The Wilderness, Explosions in the Sky deconstruct and rebuild their sound from the ground up, giving it a revitalized sense of urgency and resulting in some of their most dynamic work yet.
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UncutMar 28, 2016There's something bleak about this music, but it is spacious, often epic, too. [May 2016, p.73]
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Mar 28, 2016These songs feel personal. They tug at important moments. It's a quietly masterful, emotionally rich work. Of all their records, it's ultimately the one that sounds the most like the image their band name evokes.
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Q MagazineMar 28, 2016All told, the grand old men of post-rock still rock. [May 2016, p.108]
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Mar 31, 2016It lacks the game-changing element of The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place or Those Who Tell the Truth. Instead of pushing into new universes, they’re content to find a quiet corner in one they’ve already built. That being said, the craft involved is evident, and there’s an assuredness and polish to the compositions; the fingerprints of a veteran group.
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Mar 31, 2016The result is a record that sounds less like the remaking they billed it as and more like an explorative sidestep.
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Apr 13, 2016There are times when this stuff can feel like precious melodrama. But if it hits you in the right mood of pillowy existential bumfuzzlement, its power to distract and even transport is pretty undeniable.
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Apr 4, 2016All in all Explosions In the Sky still retain their vitality in strong melody and melodramatic disposition, it’s just at times you wish they were a little more daring.
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Mar 29, 2016There aren’t many explosions here, but there’s plenty of dynamic songwriting, which is more than enough for a rewarding listening experience.
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MagnetApr 15, 2016The Wilderness maintains the group's signature sound but imbues its widescreen soundscapes with a newfound patience. [No. 130, p.57]
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Apr 6, 2016The album's nine-tracks offer an auditory embrace so richly layered and fully realized that it nearly reaches the point of tangibility. It perfectly marries tranquility and aggression, light and dark, and the ethereal with the earthly.
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Mar 30, 2016Though wholly pleasant to listen to, The Wilderness occasionally dips into background music territory. And while it features some of Explosions' most exploratory music to date, the record is dragged down by passages that, despite the astro-nautical theme of the track titles, occasionally fail to reach the stratospheric heights Explosions are known for.
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MojoMar 28, 2016Although recognisably, and powerfully, the work of Explosions In The Sky this is now a band whose music undulates. [May 2016, p.92]
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Mar 31, 2016The Wilderness, though, is Explosions hitting autopilot when they enter uncharted airspace, rather than exploring the potentially limitless universe beyond.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 34 out of 41
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Mixed: 5 out of 41
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Negative: 2 out of 41
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Apr 1, 2016
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Apr 2, 2016
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Apr 17, 2016