The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (album) by Explosions In The Sky

From Brad1770 02/13/2019 10:17

What?: A fully instrumental album that is 5 tracks and 45 minutes long . It's a great example of Post-Rock with soundscapes and textures created with only electric guitars (3 I think) and drums , the songs start slowly then gradually build to a crescendo

Who?: Explosions in the Sky (Texas) have been around since 1999 and are considered Post-Rock pioneers. This is their 3rd album . The band gained mainstream attention by sound-tracking much of the Friday Night Lights movie and TV series

Do I Need To Hear This Album ?: If your looking to discover Post-Rock absolutely , just make sure you check out Sigur Ros as well . To the casual listener the tracks can sound very similar how ever album closer "You Hand In Mine" is rather beautiful and clear album standout. This album is NOT on the major streaming services so apart from buying the CD YouTube is your best bet to hear it

From Antonio-Pedro 04/04/2017 20:33

Silent poetry, Instrumental colored record

From Graeme2 03/24/2017 20:07

They certainly did/said everything they possibly could with this record, leaving them nowhere to go after. Diminishing returns with every release since. People can take shots at it because of any reason they want but I just want music I can feel. Job done for me, sorry. It's an album that I've always thought is kind of perfect in the way nothing seems overdone or even underplayed, just the exact amount every time and they seem to manage to pull that off the whole record. Certainly a high point of the genre along with the obvious suspects.

I understand criticisms of this record, especially as a precursor to the unfortunate plateau Explosions in the Sky faces with their more recent work (exemplative of the greater state of post-rock as a whole). It follows a rather typical format of instruments building upon each other until a climax is reached, at which point it settles down.

I don't think people who approach it that mechanically are really listening to this record correctly, however. The timbre of the sounds produced range from triumphant, to mournful, to somewhat ominous, especially in later tracks on the record. The opener and the closer are the best points found on this album, with some of the overlaying melodies being downright catchy, which is a trait not usually emphasized in post-rock music.

A lot of my love for this album comes from it being one of the first vinyl records I ever bought. It is a concept album about the value of importance, and your significance despite the universe telling you that you don't matter. Engraved on Side D on the vinyl edition is no music, just engravings of birds accompanying the words 'because you are listening, because you are breathing, the earth is not a cold, dead place'

Fine instrumental rock ideal for a rainy day. Only criticism the tracks are somewhat indistinguishable from one another.

Starts off with an amazing track. Then starts to go down. Solid album that introduced me to post rock, but there are better post rock albums out there.

From sethzzzzz 06/29/2015 20:26

Predictable at times and I found that I loved the track titles more than the content. Still a calming record.

From PsychologistHD 10/26/2014 19:50

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From JoaoMoreira 07/31/2014 01:39

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it's decent