Today's Music That Should Have Been Discussed Long Ago is Explosions in the Sky's The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. This is an album I've been in possession of for over two years, and I've really enjoyed it.
Explosions in the Sky are the kind of band that won't have a dramatic difference in style from album to album, and their music is very much the definition of post-rock. By that, 'post-rock', I mean songs that have very few to no vocals and don't have radio-friendly song lengths all the time.
EitS manages to tell fantastic stories without any words; their particular brand of post-rock sounds exactly like what the band name would convey, a spectacular event that is too far away to completely absorb. The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place may not be their greatest album, but it's certainly an accomplishment, a triumph for anyone who appreciates the guitar. This album is full of six-and-eight minute epic songs, led by a ringing guitar that you might expect if the Edge had left U2 in 1988 and lived alone with some decent amphetamines. While this isn't really a 'hard' rock album in most senses of the word, I'd be lying if I said the guitar didn't kick things up a notch (I suspect that somewhere, in the belfry of the band's repertoire, there are guitar riffs that would cause Slash to melt or at least stop pimping Guitar Hero all over the place).
It probably is worth noting that EitS did the score for "Friday Night Lights", a decent movie about a small town and its football team, and the music really works in the context. Is there anything EitS can't do?
Anyway, I wholly recommend this album, as long as radio hasn't ruined your tolerance for actual music. Think of this album as being full of little symphonies if you will, or a guitar out on an adventure to save you from Nickelback, but just listen to it. I could go on and on about this album. The entire album really works as a whole, but the individual songs stand alone; in particular, the closer, "Your Hand in Mine"
Plus, this album cover is glorious. Look at it:
Please, Explosions in the Sky, don't sue me for using this, it just looks great. I'll take it down if you want.
In other news:
Hooray for Friday.
