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

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions In The Sky
Year: 2003
Release date: 2003-11-04
Overall rank: 660th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 522 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 2003 (10th)
Award Top albums of of the 2000s (101st)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (660th)

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Explosions In The Sky bestography

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place is ranked as the best album by Explosions In The Sky.

Explosions In The Sky album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (660th)
The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
Lower ranked (2,846th) »
Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 86 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Track pick (870 - 117 votes)
Average Rating: 87 (117 votes)Comments: View 1
2.
Track pick (860 - 109 votes)
Average Rating: 86 (109 votes)Comments: View 0
5.
Track pick (890 - 141 votes)
Average Rating: 89 (141 votes)Comments: View 2

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place rankings

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place rankings summary
Overall rank: 660th | 2000s rank: 101st | 2003 rank: 10th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 5 hours ago).
Filter Filter
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026 imacgillTop 100 Music Albums of 200337/1003
2026Rm12398Top 100 Greatest Music Albums17/10084
2026stangetzawayTop 27 Music Albums of 200318/272
2026 PurplepashTop 59 Music Albums of 200334/592
2026TastyandTemptinTop 100 Greatest Music Albums1/10096
2026 RockyRaccoonTop 43 Music Albums of 200322/433
2026 ExTeaSeaTop 100 Music Albums of 200322/1004
2026 NowhereManTop 15 Music Albums of 20035/154
2026LittleM1971Top 90 Music Albums of 200323/904
2026leniadTop 101-200 Greatest Music Albums96/100 -
2026daCriticTop 34 Music Albums of 200319/342
2026 PurplepashYa joking? Should've been higher! 2000s edition59/100 -
2026 videoheadcleanerTop 95 Music Albums of 200334/953
2026martinthoTop 31 Music Albums of 200330/310
2026Exist-en-cielTop 100 Music Albums of 200395/1000
2026 AAL2014Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s40/10012
2026Drbassexpert24Top 22 Music Albums of 200318/221
2026blueandthemoonTop 83 Music Albums of 200358/832
2026joathomeTop 63 Music Albums of 200357/631
2026 NowhereManTop 100 Music Albums of the 2000s65/1007
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 384
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 2,595
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place collection

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place ratings

Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 522 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 522 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
90/100
 !
06/29/2026 21:15 Liks_on_music  Ratings distribution  65581/100
 
80/100
 !
06/05/2026 02:08 PapaShiz86  Ratings distribution  11,55679/100
 
75/100
 !
06/03/2026 03:58 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,17970/100
 
80/100
 !
04/13/2026 13:34 colabunga  Ratings distribution  62080/100
 
90/100
 !
03/01/2026 14:55 TastyandTemptin  Ratings distribution  3,17672/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.3/100, a mean average of 77.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.2.


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The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 34 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
90/100
From 05/05/2026 12:07 | #314308
Classic.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
50/100
From 03/18/2022 16:02 | #282998
This is just the music they put in the background for those horrible motivational videos.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
55/100
From 02/13/2019 10:17 | #231874
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
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 04/04/2017 20:33 | #188730
Silent poetry, Instrumental colored record
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 09/21/2016 17:03 | #175523 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
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'
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 06/09/2016 01:37 | #168242
Fine instrumental rock ideal for a rainy day. Only criticism the tracks are somewhat indistinguishable from one another.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 12/31/2015 06:57 | #155406
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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 06/29/2015 20:26 | #144809
Predictable at times and I found that I loved the track titles more than the content. Still a calming record.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From 10/26/2014 19:50 | #125460
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Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -3 votes (0 helpful | 3 unhelpful)

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