Music Review: Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

Having recently seen and enjoyed the movie Friday Night Lights, one of the aspects of the movie I enjoyed the most was the movie's soundtrack composed primarily by post-rock group Explosions In The Sky. As such, I went in search of more material by this band. Enter their 2003 album, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place. Simply put; lush, epic soundscapes. No vocal clutter. Just guitar, bass and drums. Rock at its simplest, its core, and its best.

Ever listen to a song which has great music but then you feel like the vocals are a distraction? Not so here. Part of the "post-rock" movement is the abolition of vocals. This is my favorite kind of music, the kind of music you can listen to, lean back, close your eyes and be transported into a different world.

Rather than have a large collection of short songs, here we get 5 grandiose, epic songs. I like the idea here, rather than a bunch of songs with maybe 1 or 2 "good" ones and the rest filler, they concentrated on making 5 great songs, each approximately 8-10 minutes in length. There is no filler here, each track is big, beefy, grand and beautiful.

Their sound is amazing, especially the guitars, and each member of the 4 person band compliments each other perfectly. Fans of guitar will not go wrong here. I am very much looking forward to future work from this group.

Personal favorite tracks: Your Hand In Mine, followed by First Breath After Coma and The Only Moment We Were Alone

Tracklist:
1. First Breath After Coma
2. The Only Moment We Were Alone
3. Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean
4. Memorial
5. Your Hand In Mine

Movie Review: Singin' In The Rain

So I saw this again recently, and I hadn't seen it in so long that it was almost like watching it for the first time, again. Well, it's even better than I remember. Great musical numbers, a great look that is reproduced fantastically on Warner's 2 Disc Special Edition DVD, heck, I can't imagine it looking better when it was first released in theatres. The colours jump off the screen and the amount is detail is staggering for such an old film, I've seen many recent releases that look worse than this movie. Every single member of the cast is pitch-perfect, hitting all the high notes, both musically and comedically. The cast looks like they were having fun making the movie, and this makes the film even more fun to watch, it's a real joy to watch this. Warner's Special Edition DVD has the aforementioned fantastic transfer, sound is provided in a fancy new Dolby Digital 5.1 track that sounds great, but is never too flashy for its own good. Purists will appreciate that the original mono track is included. Extras are high in quantity and quality. This is the best kind of DVD, a great movie, looks great, sounds great, tons of great extras. The great looking transfer would be enough for any fan, but the well rounded package puts it over the top. I know it's cliche, but they really don't make 'em like this anymore. Maybe the best movie musical ever, and certainly one of the best DVDs ever.

Movie Review: Cars

Pixar Movie - Definition: Greatness. Awesome. _Insert positive attribute here_.

Bad Pixar Movie - Definition: one that only makes the top ten best films list of any given year rather than the top five.

As of the weekend of June 25, of the current Top Ten Grossing Movies in North America, Cars is the only movie with a fresh rating (a movie which has more than 60% positive reviews from major movie critics) at Rotten Tomatoes.

Yeah, so the reviews have been middling (for a Pixar film, that is). Other filmmakers would kill to get the positive reviews that Pixar garners. They've set the bar so high that anything else in just pales in comparison. No other 3D animation studio comes close, their movies sound the best, look the best, make you laugh the most, make you cry the most, they are simple the best period.