Standards (Tortoise album)

Last updated

Standards
Tortoise-standards.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 20, 2001 (2001-02-20)
Recorded2000
Studio Soma, Chicago
Genre
Length44:18
Label Thrill Jockey
Producer John McEntire [1]
Tortoise chronology
In the Fishtank 5
(1999)
Standards
(2001)
It's All Around You
(2004)

Standards is the fourth studio album by American post-rock band Tortoise. [2] [3] It was released on Thrill Jockey in 2001. [4]

Contents

Production

The album was produced using less of the studio manipulation that had been employed on previous records. [5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 78/100 [6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [9]
NME Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Pitchfork 9.2/10 [11]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [12]
Spin 7/10 [13]

The A.V. Club wrote that "the band is poised between capturing a momentary, malleable inspiration and shaping that moment into some timeless anthem, and as always, it chooses to dither and delay, settling for a sometimes pleasant, sometimes maddening, almost always stimulating exploration of atmospherics." [14] Entertainment Weekly called the album "mood music for post-post-moderns, both forward- and backward-looking." [9] Spin deemed it "a cohesion of styles and impulses so tight we might call it originality." [13] The New Zealand Herald called Standards "a neatly intriguing, mish-mash of instrumental rock shot through with lopsided grooves, dreamy drones, not-quite-jazz percussion and vibes, and knob-twiddling electronica rubbing up against a junk-store of old instruments - all of which somehow emerges as an accessible, tuneful, structured affair." [15]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tortoise.

No.TitleLength
1."Seneca"6:20
2."Eros"4:26
3."Benway"4:46
4."Firefly"3:56
5."Six Pack"3:11
6."Eden 2"2:08
7."Monica"6:30
8."Blackjack"4:07
9."Eden 1"2:36
10."Speakeasy"6:18
Total length:44:18
Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."Blackbird"5:04
12."Blue Station"5:37

Personnel

Sourced from Bandcamp. [16]

Tortoise

Charts

ChartPeak
position
UK Albums (OCC) [17] 95
US Billboard 200 [18] 200
US Independent Albums ( Billboard ) [19] 10

References

  1. "Tortoise Standards". exclaim.ca.
  2. "Tortoise | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  3. Buckley, Peter (February 9, 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. ISBN   9781843531050 via Google Books.
  4. "Tortoise". Trouser Press. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  5. Kot, Greg (February 25, 2001). "TortoiseStandards (Thrill Jockey)Last year, Tortoise served as..." chicagotribune.com.
  6. "Standards by Tortoise". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  7. Bush, John. "Standards - Tortoise". AllMusic . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  8. Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 8. MUZE. p. 221.
  9. 1 2 "Album Review: 'Standards'". EW.com.
  10. "Tortoise : Standards | NME". NME . September 12, 2005.
  11. LeMay, Matt (February 20, 2011). "Tortoise: Standards". Pitchfork . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  12. "Tortoise: Standards : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone . February 5, 2010. Archived from the original on February 5, 2010.
  13. 1 2 "Reviews". SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. April 9, 2001 via Google Books.
  14. "Tortoise: Standards". Music. April 19, 2002.
  15. "Tortoise: Standards". The New Zealand Herald .
  16. "Standards | Tortoise". Bandcamp . Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  17. "Tortoise". Official Charts Company . Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  18. "Tortoise - Chart history - Billboard 200". Billboard . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  19. "Tortoise - Chart history - Independent Albums". Billboard . Retrieved April 9, 2017.