The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place

Explosions in the Sky | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 4, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Temporary Residence
• ASIN: B0000DJYME
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,145 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #8 in Music > Miscellaneous > Experimental Music

Track Listings

1. First Breath After Coma

2. Only Moment We Were Alone

3. Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean

4. Memorial

5. Your Hand In Mine

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Austin's Explosions In The Sky are still the kings of post-rock meltdown..." -- Details

"This Texas guitar-theater quartet played one of the most amazing gigs I saw in 2003..." -- Rolling Stone

"Will kill anyone whoever had a heart, never mind those who already love FX-pedal pushers such as Ride and Mogwai." -- NME

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

147 of 157 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars post-rock for lovers. February 12, 2004

By Lord Chimp

Format:Audio CD

I feel my title for this review is very appropriate, but do not infer an incorrect suggestion. This is nothing like the asinine, cheesy music put out by new age artists who claim the ability to put its listeners into divine states of love and affection with sappy, pretentious synth pianos and ocean sounds.

This is truly beautiful. Explosions in the Sky is a four-piece (two guitars, bass, and drums) that gets lumped into the post-rock category, but they dramatically surpass the standards generally set for the idiom. They do the episodic build-build-build-climax-repeat formula like, say, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but this music achieves something very different. The music is sparse and minimal with a genuine emotive power. The sparseness is present in the textural thinness (only four instrumentalists, remember), with guitars generally playing starry arpeggios with an empathetic rhythmic backing. With so much breathing room, the music fills the pockets of space left by bare instrumentation with simple emotional resonance that might not have prevailed with denser arrangements. The music is minimal not because it is in repetitive stasis, but because the song construction focuses on a collegial series of sounds development rather than linear evolutions.

Explosions in the Sky's first album was bleak with a glimmer of hope. Here, everything is brushed away and the beauty is fully exposed. Rather than describe each piece, I will just say that the music here evokes lovely images: spending time by the sea with a special someone, the earth in bloom, looking to the nighttime sky full of stars through a branchy canopy of trees, love & friendship, rebirth, etc. Just look at the song titles -- they have very fitting names.

Highly recommended, along with their first album, _Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever_.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars release this music to the world November 12, 2003

By "stenstar"

Format:Audio CD

Before I had this CD, all I wanted to listen to was their last CD (Those Who Tell the Truth . . .), and now that this epic, sweeping, intricate, powerful, and intelligent (yes! provocative without lyrics--imagine that!) album has been released, it's all I can play, and it's showing no signs of getting tiresome. I will repeat the sentiment of others here by saying: see them live!, simply because it's very very true. In the midst of a hot, crowded venue, you will find yourself enveloped in the music, swept into a pocket of calm or intensity or transported a million miles away; whatever it is, something will be evoked. (Not to mention how hard these guys play--astounding! They seem utterly possessed by what they are doing). If on my way to work and back, all my fellow subway passengers could hear what I'm listening to, a subtle but inarguable glow would slowly fill the car.
If only . . .

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars beauty isnt the word for this album October 5, 2006

By myles

Format:Audio CD

To be honest I can't think of a word that can explain the emotional link with this album apart from it being the most beautiful sound I've heard. For me listening to this album makes me feel emotionally confused but absolutely complete at the same time, never before has an album stopped me in my tracks as firmly as this one. My favourite songs on the album are "the only moment we were alone" and "six days at the bottom of the ocean" every time my ears are blessed with these artworks I'm am fixated on nothing else but them. I literally cannot communicate with anyone or anything I just have to listen to them intently. This album is not as experimental as "those who tell the truth shall die those who tell the truth shall live forever" but I feel it is just as good and the songs are put together impeccably well, with no song being neither longer nor shorter than it has to be. I love the pure, clean sound of this album and see it as light as the wind. The trance that this album provides is indescribable; I'm not saying if you buy this album it will have this exact effect on you this description is merely from a personal note. Either way I strongly recommend this band and album to anybody who is looking for a purchase, for you can have no doubt that this album is extremely well produced, written, recorded, thought out and sounding. Buy it, you will not regret your choice one bit.