Standards (Tortoise album)

2001 studio album by Tortoise

Standards

Studio album by

Tortoise

Released| February 20, 2001 (2001-02-20)
Recorded| 2000
Studio| Soma Electronic Music Studio, Chicago
Genre|

* Post-rock
* experimental rock
* jazz fusion

Length| 44:18
Label| Thrill Jockey
Producer| John McEntire[1]
Tortoise chronology
| In the Fishtank 5
(1999)  | Standards
(2001)  | It's All Around You
(2004)

|
|

Professional ratingsAggregate scores

Source| Rating
Metacritic| 78/100[2]
Review scores
Source| Rating
AllMusic| [3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music| [4]
Entertainment Weekly| B+[5]
NME| [6]
Pitchfork| 9.2/10[7]
Rolling Stone| [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]

## Production

[edit]

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

## Critical reception

[edit]

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

[edit]

All tracks are written by Tortoise.

No.| Title| Length

|
|

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 tracksNo.| Title| Length

|
|

11.| "Blackbird"| 5:04
12.| "Blue Station"| 5:37

## Personnel

[edit]

Sourced from Bandcamp.[16]

Tortoise

* Jeff Parker - guitar, bass
* Dan Bitney - bass, guitar, percussion, vibes, marimba, keyboards, baritone saxophone
* Douglas McCombs - bass, bass 6, guitar, lap steel
* John Herndon - drums, vibes, keyboards, sequencing
* John McEntire - drums, modular synthesizer, ring modulator guitar, electric harpsichord, keyboards

## Charts

[edit]

Chart  | Peak
position

|

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

## References

[edit]

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. ^ a b "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 February 5, 2010.
9. ^ a b "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 February 9, 2021.
13. ^ Kot, Greg (February 25, 2001). "TortoiseStandards (Thrill Jockey)Last year, Tortoise served as..." chicagotribune.com.
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.

## External links

[edit]

* Standards at Discogs (list of releases)

* v
* t
* e

Tortoise

* Dan Bitney
* Doug McCombs
* Jeff Parker
* John Herndon
* John McEntire

* Bundy K. Brown
* David Pajo

Studio albums|

* Tortoise
* Millions Now Living Will Never Die
* TNT
* Standards
* It's All Around You
* Beacons of Ancestorship
* The Catastrophist

Other releases|

* Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters
* Remixed
* In the Fishtank 5
* The Brave and the Bold
* A Lazarus Taxon

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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