Audio By Carbonatix
Explosions in the Sky doing the soundtrack to a jock flick? Makes about as much sense as Korn scoring a Merchant-Ivory film. And yet the ethereal Austin-based ensemble contributes the majority of the aural backdrop to Billy Bob Thornton’s new football fable, Friday Night Lights. Like Explosions’ earlier work, these Daniel Lanois-produced instrumentals harness an orthodox rock-band setup to deliver rich swaths of echoing melancholy, akin to the epic tones of Mogwai or even U2’s The Unforgettable Fire (a record that Lanois coincidentally also worked on). But just as the testosterone levels start to flat-line, up pops Free’s “Seagull,” showcasing the classic-rock behemoth’s tender, entrancing side that’s been overshadowed by a million radio plays of “All Right Now.” Whether Lights is any good as a movie remains to be seen, but if this disc is any indication, it’s going to bulldoze all over Varsity Blues.
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