October 12, 2004 - Friday Night Lights Soundtrack

A day after my last release and a year since "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place", Explosions in the Sky wrote the majority of the soundtrack to the film "Friday Night Lights", released on October 12, 2004. There are a few songs off this soundtrack that aren't by Explosions, but I only have the Explosions songs and they are still playing their same post-rock style. Let's check out their first (of many) soundtracks!

Things start off with "From West Texas" and as usual I'm not sure who is playing what with three possible guitarists, but one of them starts us off with a nice light riff that is on the lower end, then another light guitar riff joins in the higher end. A third riff joins the light fray and they combine all these guitars very smoothly for a light but epic little opener. Up next is "Your Hand In Mine (With Strings)" and as the name suggests this is actually the same main riff as the sing of the same name off their last album, only this version is much shorter and has the addition of a strings section! The guitars sound just like the original, which isn't a bad thing at all, and the strings perfectly complements things adding another epic layer to this already solid Explosions tune. Track 3 is "Our Last Days As Children" and one guitarist takes the lead with an interesting back-and-forth sort of riff. Eventually some more guitars join the background and we have a sort of symphony of light guitars that sounds a little trippy and pretty cool. This is a quiet song with no drums, but it was still an interesting little tune. The next track is "An Ugly Fact Of Life" and as seems to be the template for this soundtrack things start off very quiet with just one guitarist as he establishes another light but interesting main riff. Eventually we get another light guitar riff and some more orchestral elements that really spice things up! The horns and strings add a perfect epic touch to things and it's no surprise that orchestral music works beautifully with Explosions post-rock style. Track 5 is "Home" and it follows the template, but the second guitar riff takes over as the lead riff, and then the third guitarist eventually takes over the lead again, but nothing clashes, each riff working seamlessly with the last one. This song is somehow sappy despite having no lyrics and although it's still very smooth and decent it's a lesser one for me off this album. Up next is "To West Texas" and two guitarists are combining right away on this one with a lower main riff that keeps the pace, but also some trippy light guitar in the background. There's all kinds of epic guitars on this track and we even eventually hear some drums for the first time in a bit, although only some super light ones. It builds very slowly but surely and by the end things are a little louder and sounding pretty cool. Track 8 is "Your Hand In Mine (Goodbye)" and it draws from a different part of the original 10 minute song (I believe towards the end, hence the goodbye in brackets). It's got the same slow guitar riff and I guess it's cool that this part of the song fit the mood of the movie, but as someone who heard the original this version isn't really adding anything. The next track is "Inside It All Feels The Same" and one by one the three guitarists quickly come in: all with different riffs that never clash and work together very smoothly. We hear some more orchestral bits as well as things sound quietly epic and while the orchestral parts keep things softly interesting, the guitars settle into a smooth but pretty forgettable background and this song probably didn't need to be as long as it was. Track 11 is "Lonely Train" and one guitarist keeps the pace with a main riff while another plays some trippy stuff in the background. The third guitar eventually adds another little extra layer but while things sound slightly psychedelic they also sound very repetitive and there's not a whole lot going on. The third guitar riff does change and spice things up a little, but nearly seven minutes is a little too long to keep jamming out roughly the same thing. Up next is "The Sky Above, The Field Below" and it's got a lot of long-held droning notes going on with at least 2 guitars and possibly some bass all playing very long, droning notes. This pretty much sums up the first half of this near six minute track, until finally a light actual guitar part starts and some cool other guitars start to play behind it. Then they very slowly fade out of this mostly pretty bland song. The final song on the album is "A Slow Dance" and right away we get a light drum beat and some good old, regular bass; something atypical for this album, but a welcome sound that is more reminiscent of studio Explosions. A coop guitar riff then joins in and things are sounding louder and more interesting while still being very light. Once the second guitar riff joins they play off each other very nicely with the two riffs combining very smoothly. This was a solid little way to wrap things up.

That is the end of the "Friday Night Lights" Soundtrack and I thought it was a decent, but definitely not great album. Explosions in the Sky brought all their light epicness to this soundtrack, but there is no loud parts really at all and it's that contrast that helps to make Explosions' studio efforts so cool. I won't compare this album to their studio works, but if I did it would rank pretty low I'm sure and this is my only soundtrack by Explosions despite them making many, many more. I look forward to their next studio release though!