Standards (Tortoise album)

Last updated
Standards
Tortoise-standards.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 20, 2001 (2001-02-20)
Recorded2000
Studio Soma Electronic Music Studio, 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)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 78/100 [2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [5]
NME Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Pitchfork 9.2/10 [7]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Spin 7/10 [9]

Standards is the fourth studio album by American post-rock band Tortoise. [10] [11] It was released on Thrill Jockey in 2001. [12]

Contents

Production

The album was produced using less of the studio manipulation that had been employed on previous records. [13]

Critical reception

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." [5] Spin deemed it "a cohesion of styles and impulses so tight we might call it originality." [9] 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

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References

  1. "Tortoise Standards". exclaim.ca.
  2. "Standards by Tortoise". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  3. Bush, John. "Standards - Tortoise". AllMusic . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  4. Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 8. MUZE. p. 221.
  5. 1 2 "Album Review: 'Standards'". EW.com.
  6. "Tortoise : Standards | NME". NME . September 12, 2005.
  7. LeMay, Matt (February 20, 2011). "Tortoise: Standards". Pitchfork . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  8. "Tortoise: Standards : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone . February 5, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-02-05.
  9. 1 2 "Reviews". SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. April 9, 2001 via Google Books.
  10. "Tortoise | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  11. Buckley, Peter (February 9, 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. ISBN   9781843531050 via Google Books.
  12. "Tortoise". Trouser Press. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  13. Kot, Greg (25 February 2001). "TortoiseStandards (Thrill Jockey)Last year, Tortoise served as..." chicagotribune.com.
  14. "Tortoise: Standards". Music. 19 April 2002.
  15. "Tortoise: Standards". NZ 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.