As far as emotional, instrumental, climactic post rock is concerned, Explosions in the Sky is about as close to the Platonic ideal that you can get. Barring their most recent (and mostly electronic) The Wilderness, their catalog is filled with the kind of gorgeous, evocative, almost storytelling kind of music that Mogwai pioneered and throngs of post rock bands have tried to emulate.

But truth be told, as much as I love the albums on either side of this, I’m not too familiar with The Earth Is Not… In fact, I actually bought this one on accident. 

Given their nearly flawless track record though, I’m not mad about it.

This record offers up exactly what you’d expect from the post rock giants: intricate guitar figures and angular drum patterns that swirl around eachother like double helixes, swelling and climbing until it bursts with an explosive climax. It’s a simple enough formula, but it’s exactly what brought Explosions in the Sky from an underground Austin band to scoring for major motion pictures.

And The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place finds them at their best—I’ve heard many say this is their best. While Take Care x3 and The Wilderness started to experiment more with electronic influences, this record is smack dab in the middle of what I’d call their Classic Period. It’s a bit more refined than the punk-tinged Those Who Tell The Truth… and not quite as cinematic as All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, which leaned hard into their recent soundtrack experience. According to the band, this record was an attempt at writing love songs, which could be seen from the inscription on the D-side of the record: “The Earth is not a cold dead place because you are breathing, because you are listening.”

That tenderness is ever present on this record. Even at its loudest, it’s not quite as bombastic as Truth or All of a Sudden. Rather, the cathartic moments come not as much from huge walls of sound, but from the moment when all of the intertwining melodies stop dancing around eachother and fully embrace.

While all of the tracks here are achingly gorgeous (making it difficult to talk about different tracks in a meaningful way), the standout here is closer “Your Hand in Mine,” which may just be the most peak-Explosions in the Sky track around. Though I haven’t spent much time with this record, the closing track was so familiar that I actually double checked to see if I accidentally flipped disc one instead of putting disc two on. But no: it’s just the song that’s been used for commercials and movie soundtracks since its release 17 years ago. And, I just checked,  it remains their top track on Spotify, by an enormous factor (49 million plays compared to the 20 million of the second most popular track).

Even if that were the only good track, it would be worth the five dollars I spent on it (on accident, remember). Luckily, it’s all great. So now when I go to put on some Explosions in the Sky (a frequent occurrence in my household), I know I can basically choose at random and be just as satisfied.