Today in music videos: Explosions In The Sky channel The Tree Of Life in "Postcard From 1952"

Since most songs by Austin, Texas post-rock band Explosions In The Sky are much longer than a traditional single, the group's music videos can easily take on the form of a short film. The new clip for “Postcard From 1952” —the standout track from last year’s Take Care, Take Care, Take Care—is an appropriately hypnotic and pensive expansion of tiny captured memories, paired with undulating guitars and the epic scope typical of the band’s work. Inspired by found photos, the video begins with a mother taking pictures of her child while blowing a soap bubble. That fragile, fleeting bubble is the metaphor for the other moments captured in other pictures brought to life, from childhood through to old age. If it seems incredibly similar to the style of Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life, that’s because co-director Peter Simonite was the second unit cinematographer on that film. There’s a lot of slow-motion and some wonderful match-cuts, from blown-out birthday candles to a lit cigarette, and a spinning top on Christmas to a twirling sprinkler head in summer. It’s a fittingly majestic rumination on the way a camera can capture what is easy to forget.