Customer Reviews

Its All Around You

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some pretty profound post-rock from Thrill Jockey's own Tortoise which features some of the most beautiful and poignant art in recent memory. The front cover is an awe inspiring sunset dying over a cascading waterfall and rapids yet overlooking this scene is a yellow helicopter perched next to a luminescent city while the back features a blurred rainforest beneath an overcast sky but blocking most of the sky is a huge projection screen with a better looking skyline beaming out of it. While the liner notes tell a story of life dissatisfaction and miscertainty in the 21st century and the songs are rawly titled, the Tortoise movement isn't exactly taking the route their name would suggest. Instead of going slow and steady, they're heading straight for the main vein. Musically, they try to match the grandiose beauty of their imagery and succeed quite handsomely at it. Bits of the Flaming Lips appear in "Crest," occasional world music and Dark Side Of The Moon sounds appear leaving the mood fairly chilled yet urgent while the inventive guitar effects and production brings me flashes of the unrealized possibilities of Radiohead. Although It's All Around You never reaches the sonic peaks of anything Mogwai have done, the contemplative vibe helps let the obvious anti-advancement juxtapositions set in. This is one to think about, think during, and, well, get!

Tortoise could be best described as a modern-day Can, blending jazzy sensibilities with sampled noise to create an effect. Perhaps my opinion will change after I hear some of their other releases, but it's just a good CD to listen to while you're out driving in the country on a sunny summer day.

I was looking on this site for Tortoise CD's with the vague notion of running across a new one. Well, I did, and I resolved to get it. During that, though, I read lots of reviews expressing dissapointment, feeling that this CD was mereley a retread of the group's previous work. I decided to buy it anyway, expecting to like it - and I did! In fact, I fell in love with "It's All Around You". This is like a statement of purpose for the group - sure, it has elements of what they've done before, but it unifies all of these with a desire to explore new things. Their signature sound - vibes, spaghetti-western guitar, dub-influenced electronics - is still present, but that add new twists, like the use of wordless vocals on the breezy "The Lithium Stiffs", the lofty, cinematic epic "Crest" (which is on a grand scale never produced by Tortoise before), the unsettling atmospherics of "Dot/Eyes", which has fast and frenetic drumming underneath a churning soundscape, or the closer "Salt the Skies." This song starts off like a lot of their other songs, with moody vibes, but shifts into a hard 6/8 workout that sounds distinctly prog-rock inspired and ends in a blast of furious guitar feedback and synthesizer noise. I've never heard that kind of intensity from the group before.
In conclusion, I'm very happy with the CD. After only owning it for a few days and having listened to it two and a half times, it's one of my favorites. Those who found it disappointing are entitled to their own opinions, of course, but they might want to give this one another listen or two. I've already found that it reveals more to me each time I hear it. Anyone who hasn't picked it up yet, give it a try. Music of this quality is rare and special, and it definitely deserves to be heard and treasured.

just saw these guys at ny's bowery ballroom and hearing them live it's easy to figure out what's different about these new songs compared to their older stuff. in many ways, everything pre-standards is still amazing, especially live, because of the strong song structures, which are very architectural and decontructivist, literally. you see, hear and feel how the songs are built layer upon layer, building and building to the inevitable crumble and stumble that comes back satisfyingly to the original motif. i think beginning with standards, the songwriting has become much, much tighter, so that you almost don't notice the amazing musicianship at times. but also, the design of the songs is less apparent, and so sometimes, in comparison to the older tortoise sound, the new songs feel a might boring, especially with the slow jams. but when you experience this stuff live, you realize nothing has changed and these new songs rock just as much as the old ones. (also, i think one of the reasons it may feel like they're stalling, musically, is that the instrumentation hasn't changed: two vibraphones, two drum kits, bass, synth/effects, jazz guitar; hopefully on the next album they'll mix up the sounds some.) the double drumming live is killer. they played for nearly two hours and seemed really into it, as was the crowd. the opening act beans from anti-pop consortium was amazing as well.

Well, despite these mixed reviews I decided to buy it anyway based on a recent article about them in the Boston Globe. I don't have, nor have i ever heard, any Tortoise before this. I am a fan of other 'bands' categorized under the ambiguous genre of Post Rock. I have to give this one an OK, and nothing more. I like the first 3 tracks and then at times it gets quite boring. I also agree with the sentiment here that there little feeling in the playing. Too programmed. The comparison of Crest to Zappa is a good one, but I also think that's one of the better songs on the disk. After reading these other reviews I may go buy some older Tortoise. Anyway, it was worth the 12 bucks.

Did any fan of this band ever have to debate whether "Millions Living Will Never Die" or "Tortoise" were good albums? Most likely not. It's possible a fan might argue which of these albums they preferred, but the originality and musicianship were unmistakable. I think that "TNT" is right up there with those two albums and to a lesser extent "Standards" holds some strong character to it.
This albums is unquestionably the low point in the Tortoise catalogue. "Crest" is so derivative of Frank Zappa circa '79 that one could think it's a cover song. "The Lithium Stiffs" proves once and for all that The Manhattan Transfer is not a band worth emulating. While the rest of the songs just sound like Tortoise doing the same old thing (a retread of albums TNT and Standards) which is to say they don't sound very exciting about the music they're making. If they're going to repeat themselves why not make a "Millions Living Will Never Die II" instead of a "Standards V".

The instruments, the sounds, the feeling reminds me a lot of TNT. This seems like a mellowed-out, better blended, more atmospheric version of that album's sound. I like this a lot more than TNT (but then I didn't like TNT that much). The title and (lame) cover art warn that Tortoise has gone new age. Fortunately that's not the case. This album is very dreamy but also quirky and textured, maintaining a fairly consistent feeling throughout, with the exception of track 6, Dot/Eyes, which has a lot of drive and is one of my favorite tracks, but definitely interrupts the flow of the album. All in all a satisfying album, much mellower than anything they've done before, but once the initial "when is the caffeine going to kick in?" passes, once I started listening to it on its own terms, it gets better and better on repeated listens.

I must admit Its all around you doesnt really do much for me. I am a pretty big tortise fan, but i feel as though this album is rather boring.(compared to their others) There are some good moments spread throughout but not enough to make it a great album. They sound like they are conforming more to the "post-rock" out there, which i find bland.

So far I'm undecided on this one, but make up your OWN mind because you can preview the ENTIRE album on the band's website (trts.com). Cheers to both band and label for letting customers listen before they buy. Jeers for the lame artwork.

When I first heard this album I didn't think much of it. But then I gave it a listen all of the way through and I must say this just gets better with every listen. I must also agree that this needs to be listened to with headphones so you can get the full effect. Although I have only listened to the first 4 tracks on headphones, I listened to the whole album on my sound system and in my fathers car. His car has an awesome sound system. He couldn't beleive how great it sounded in there. So to the people that don't like it upon first listen, try it with headphones I think you will get a little more out of it. I think this album is close to what they sounded like on MNLWND. I also think that this is better than Standards, which I also like just not as much as all of the others. I would recommend buying this album. I hope an import comes out.