So you’re up around midnight. Browsing the internet, chatting to friends, reading a book, killing time just because you don’t feel like sleeping, whatever. Then you encounter the inevitable question: what do I listen to next?

It’s too late to put on something loud and aggressive. You’re too tired to put on something bouncy or poppy. You’re feeling too apathetic to want to listen to lyrics. You just want something nice to listen to.

I feel it’s times like these where post-rock is the only answer. Or, you know, something classical or orchestral or whatever if you’re into that too. But post-rock can be pretty good.

Anyway, short of putting on some Sigur Rós (I can vouch for “Takk…”, it’s quite nice, though it’s quite lengthy at just over an hour), you can try some work by Explosions in the Sky.

EitS are an American post-rock band, and their second-most recent album “The Rescue” is available for free from their website.

The band recorded it and mixed it in only two weeks. It contains eight tracks (“Day One”, “Day Two”, “Day Three”, etc.), each of which was written in a day. The next 6 days were spent mixing the record. It was inspired by an incident on tour when their van broke down, and they had to wait 8 days for it to be fixed. The band were broke, and ended up spending the 8 days in some nice person’s attic.

For me, post-rock can sometimes be a bit like background music. I know that sounds bad, like I don’t appreciate it or pay attention to it. But usually when I listen to it, I like just letting it pass me by. Explosions in the Sky proved to be a very similar experience.

All I’ll say is this: I enjoyed it. I can’t say it’ll prove to be anything revolutionary to post-rock fans, but to anyone wanting to expand their tastes and try something new, I see no reason as to why you shouldn’t check it out.

Grab a free download here.