Turn it up – Explosions in the Sky, “Trembling Hands” (Single, Temporary Residence)
Texas’ post-rock visionaries Explosions in the Sky’s “Trembling Hands,” opens to the sound of something the band’s fans aren’t accustomed to hearing: a voice. The vocals on the usually-instrumental band’s single are minimal – the song doesn’t sport full-on sung verses, folks. Instead, there’s a hummed melody that takes the place of one of the band’s many guitars, which are always stacking too-beautiful melodies on top of each other.
“Trembling Hands,” the first single from Explosions in the Sky’s newest album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, will feel familiar for EITS fans because of its beautiful, melodic guitar work and the always spot-on pitter-patter drum beats.
But the single also leaves an open door for new fans and critics who say the band relies too much on the same formula. The band is exploring new territory in a fast-paced, three-minute song backed by electronics and vocals. You still feel like you’re listening to the same band from 2007’s All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, but the “Trembling Hands” is light years away from the building twelve-minute mini symphonies the band has been writing for the last decade on albums like All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone and The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. “Trembling Hands” is a quick taste of what will hopefully be another great album from Explosions in the Sky.
Turn it down – Avril Lavigne, “I Love You” (Single, RCA)
In an interview with Digital Spy, a U.K.-based entertainment blog, Avril Lavigne bit the hand that fed her. She had some strong words to say about the direction her record label, RCA, was trying to take with her new album, Goodbye Lullaby.
“[They were] trying to get me to go in a different direction,” Lavigne told Digital Spy. “I had to fight with them over and over. I was like, ‘No, this is a really special record to me and this is what I’m doing.’”
Unless RCA won the battle over Lavigne’s album’s direction, it is pretty unclear what she was fighting for. The album’s single, “I Love You,” sounds like any other radio-friendly hit; it will surely send young people in the target-age group of nine to 15 sprinting to the mall, toting their parents and their wallets behind them.
It will be another one of those records these young people will be embarrassed to try to sell at a used record store a decade later, like our generation’s Fush Yu Mang or the self-titled Third Eye Blind or Chumbawumba albums. “I Love You” is a blast of sugar to the ears. And like any cheap piece of candy, “I Love You” sounds like a great idea at first, but leaves you feeling dirty, bloated and sad. I would have felt bad for Lavigne if she lost her fight with her record label, especially if “I Love You” was a by-product of that loss. But if “I Love You,” was what Lavigne was fighting for all along, she’s picking fights with the wrong people.
