Post-rock is what happens when a rock band stops writing songs and starts building landscapes. Guitars become textures, drums become weather, vocals disappear or turn into one more instrument, and tracks stretch out to 10 or 20 minutes as they swell from near-silence to overwhelming crescendos. The name was coined by the British critic Simon Reynolds in 1994 to describe bands using rock instruments for something other than rock, and it stuck.
It is also one of the most rewarding genres to collect on vinyl, with long sides, gorgeous packaging and labels that treat records as art objects. These 10 albums are the essentials, from the late-1980s pioneers to the bands that turned the sound into an international movement, with notes on what to play first.
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1. Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden (1988)
The unlikely starting point. Talk Talk had been a synth-pop hit machine in the early 1980s, but on Spirit of Eden, singer Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene pieced together hours of improvised sessions into six long, hushed pieces full of space, organ, trumpet and sudden bursts of noise. It baffled their label at the time. Decades later, it is one of the most influential records of its era. The Spirit of Eden vinyl is the place to start.
2. Slint, Spiderland (1991)
From Louisville, Kentucky, Slint made one of the strangest and most important records of the 1990s. Spiderland pairs murmured, half-spoken stories with tense, angular guitars that can explode at any moment, as on the closing "Good Morning, Captain." It barely sold at first, and the band had already broken up by the time it came out, but nearly every post-rock and math-rock band since owes it something.
3. Bark Psychosis, Hex (1994)
The album that gave the genre its name. Reviewing this London band's debut, Simon Reynolds used the term post-rock for music that was moody, atmospheric and built more on texture than riffs. Hex is a quiet, jazzy, beautifully recorded record, and still the best answer to the question of what the term originally meant.
4. Tortoise, Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)
Chicago's Tortoise took the idea in a completely different direction, blending krautrock, dub, jazz, minimalism and electronic music. The album opens with "Djed," a sprawling piece of more than 20 minutes that shifts through several movements, and it made the band and their label Thrill Jockey central to the late-1990s underground. Pick up Millions Now Living Will Never Die on vinyl to hear where the jazzier side of post-rock began.
5. Mogwai, Young Team (1997)
Glasgow's Mogwai made post-rock loud. Their debut moves between delicate, chiming guitar figures and crushing walls of noise, most famously on "Like Herod" and the 16-minute closer "Mogwai Fear Satan." It is the album that defined the quiet-loud-quiet blueprint for a generation of bands. The Mogwai Young Team sky blue vinyl is a lovely version of a record that demands to be played at volume.
6. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, F♯A♯∞ (1997)
Montreal's Godspeed You! Black Emperor sounded like the soundtrack to the end of the world. Their debut, released by Constellation, opens with "The Dead Flag Blues," a bleak spoken monologue over strings and slide guitar, and moves through field recordings, slow-building marches and orchestral swells. Its title is read as F-sharp, A-sharp, infinity. The F♯A♯∞ vinyl is essential for anyone who likes music that tells a story without words.
7. Sigur Rós, Ágætis byrjun (1999)
Iceland's Sigur Rós brought something entirely new: a falsetto voice singing in Icelandic and an invented, wordless language the band call Hopelandic, over guitars played with a cello bow and slow, glacial strings. The title means "a good beginning," and the album made them international stars. "Svefn-g-englar" and "Starálfur" are as beautiful as anything in this genre. The Ágætis byrjun vinyl is a must.
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)
Godspeed's second full album is their masterpiece: a double record of four long pieces of around 20 minutes each, full of strings, glockenspiel, distant voices and enormous crescendos. Released in the US by the Chicago label Kranky, it is the album many people point to as the high point of the genre. The Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven vinyl rewards a full, uninterrupted listen.
9. Explosions in the Sky, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place (2003)
From Austin, Texas, Explosions in the Sky made the genre's most emotional, accessible record. There are no vocals, just guitars, bass and drums building cathedrals of sound on tracks like "First Breath After Coma" and "Your Hand in Mine." It became a gateway for countless listeners, and their music later found its way into film and television. The The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place on red vinyl is released by Temporary Residence.
10. Mono, Hymn to the Immortal Wind (2009)
Tokyo's Mono are post-rock at its most cinematic. On this album they joined forces with a chamber orchestra to create a record of huge, romantic swells and fragile piano passages that plays like a film score with guitars. It shows how far the sound had traveled from its experimental roots, and it is a great entry point for anyone who loves classical music.
Where to start
If you want the big emotional payoff, start with The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place and Young Team. If you want the art-rock roots, go to Spirit of Eden and Spiderland. And if you are ready to commit, put on Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, turn the lights down and give it the full 87 minutes.
Post-rock bleeds into plenty of neighboring sounds. For the drone and ambient side, read about Tim Hecker's Ravedeath, 1972 and the soft-focus guitars of Hammock. For the labels that carried the sound, see our Kranky Records starter guide, and for the noisier, dreamier cousin, our shoegaze starter guide.
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