xplosions in the Sky’s mission is to twinkle your ass off. While their contemporaries endlessly preoccupy themselves with soundtracking the memorial service for the Universe, Explosions in the Sky holds a rather curious affection for major key epics; it’s their rule rather than their exception, fueling their sweeping suites with optimism and intricately intertwined melodies spiraling ever-upward.

But it’s a double-edged sword, usually resulting in the sublime emotional eruptions of “Your Hand in Mine,” or “Greet Death,” but every now and then an unfortunate tendency to drift into the stuff Coldplay codas are made of. Not a good look. And in as much as The Rescue is, yes, a transitional record and, yes, a surprising departure, this fact still holds true.

The Rescue finds EITS tapped by their label, Temporary Residence, to record eight songs in eight days for the label’s mail-order only Travels in Constants series. Can’t get this one in stores kiddies! Each song is listed accordingly—“Day One” Day Two”—loosely-based around the concept of a stranded vessel. I hope it’s a submarine!

Coming off the surprising success of The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place and the subsequent score for Friday Night Lights, it would appear EITS have used The Rescue as an opportunity to expand their sonic and structural palate, experiment with shifts in tempo (read: playing relatively quickly for once in their lives), and focus their scope before they head in for the proper follow-up. And in all three instances they deliver. With the eight tracks clocking in at just under a half-hour that doesn’t give the group much time to develop its usual epic pieces according to the time-tested post-rock formula. Instead, EITS find new ways to explore a piece rather than simply waiting for the appropriate moment of tension to swell to its predictable eruption.

This much is clear from day one: though it’s the closest thing The Rescue has to a typical EITS piece, “Day One,” opens with the once unfamiliar sound of a plodding piano. The relatively not-sky-exploding instrument figures significantly throughout the record and stands as clear indication the band still has some territory to explore. “Day One”’s chiming guitars never reach their fated crescendo: the piece simply weaves its way across a handful of crystal escalator melodies and pulls over to the side of the road to stretch (not because it ran out of gas). So, too, the rather stately hymn of “Day Two,” which prominently features (gasp!) the human voice, a chorus of angelic howls floating through the song’s final minute.

But following the conversation-laced atmospheric reversed e-bowed guitars of “Day Three” things get tricky: “Day Four,” with its shuffling beat and skyscraping melody, is simultaneously vintage EITS and a startling departure, but structurally, melodically, rhythmically, it’s the closest an instrumental band has ever come to a three-minute pop song.

But for all the praise in support of taking a different approach, this would seem a regression, would it not? Probably just being paranoid. The band is simply demonstrating its versatility, right?

But maybe, “Day Four” reveals something about Explosions in the Sky perhaps we’ve known all along: they are a gifted singerless pop band masquerading as instrumental post-rockers. Their melodic approach is deceptively simple, engaging, and almost, dare I say, catchy, which would go a long way toward explaining the band’s popular appeal and its aforementioned curious affinity for the major key given its genre of choice. I mean, have you ever whistled a Mogwai tune? The Rescue is the sound of a band in flux, plotting its next move, but just as likely a sly mail-order confession.