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Delusions of Adequacy

The music is consistently fresh, fascinating, and evocative... the band’s best album to date.

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Splendid

Tortoise have created another batch of distinct, inimitable songs that strike a perfect balance between the academic and the playful, the immediate and the eternal.

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Urb

Evidence that these musical minds are sharper than ever. [Jun 2004, p.87]

Drowned In Sound

The LP as a whole is a remarkable collection of ideas, which manages to be overwhelmingly creative, but intrinsically listenable.

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Filter

A choice specimen of audio sophisitication. [#9, p.106]

Entertainment Weekly

Tortoise continue to traverse a vast sonic universe on their thrilling, experimental fifth CD. [16 Apr 2004, p.78]

Village Voice

Tortoise may be the only band that can match the everything-mashup steez, sonic skills, conceptual ambition, and breakbeat heat of the Roots.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

The album's back half falls prey to some of the group's ponderous tendencies, taking long, slow detours through watered-down mood rock. But missteps are exceptions on It's All Around You, which casts the members of Tortoise as musical tourists governed by wandering eyes rather than anxiously readied cameras.

Almost Cool

It's All Around You has both serious ambience and serious grooves, it rocks occasionally, and it doesn't dip into jazz nearly as much as some of their past releases.

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Launch.com

Not quite jazz, not quite electronica, and not quite indie rock, Tortoise continues to define and evolve their own compelling cosmology.

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ShakingThrough.net

While it may not match the exuberant authority of a band at the height of its powers, set by Millions Now Living eight years ago, it does manage to prove itself worthy, in its own way, of the distinct creative voice that high-water mark captured so well.

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Spin

For all their sonic salad-tossing, Tortoise can't fade guitarist Jeff Parker, the band's secret weapon and the one dude whose instrument connects them explicitly to their college-radio roots. [May 2004, p.107]

Billboard

Although the album doesn't knock the ball out of the park on first listen, ultimately it reveals just enough cool ideas to keep things interesting.

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The Wire

Although there are no new dimensions here,... this still feels like musical fresh mint. [#242, p.67]

The Guardian

It's All Around You is a work of elegant, unhurried subtlety, shorn of the group's more pompous excesses, if also some of their muscle.

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Rolling Stone

The sonic surprises scattered throughout... make the journey worthwhile.

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Junkmedia

It's all Around You isn't their best -- or most challenging -- work, but it's a sign the band is still making music in a bubble.

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Neumu.net

Tortoise have, in the past, asked more from their listeners. This time they let us off a little too easy.

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Dusted Magazine

While nothing on TNT or Standards was as influential as Tortoise's earlier work, those records succeeded largely because they marked new stylistic departures for a group that sounded genuinely excited by that prospect. Too many moments on It's All Around You lack that excitement.

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Mojo

It drifts rudderlessly in places, but at its best... it's among Tortoise's most persuasive music to date. [Apr 2004, p.108]

Blender

The formula gets a bit stale. [May 2004, p.133]

All Music Guide

It's All Around You soon becomes just another Tortoise record, so close to previous records in composition and execution that it's virtually deja vu for any listeners who know the band well.

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Stylus Magazine

Too many tracks on It’s All Around You don’t quite measure up to the compositional quality or imagination of previous works.

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PopMatters

Review #1: It fails to engage listeners in a way that makes for a satisfactory listening experience all on its own. [score=50]; Review #2: While It's All Around You doesn't break much new ground for the group, it doesn't disappoint. [score=70]

Nude As The News

It's an improvement over Standards, which sounded unfinished, but it's nowhere near the peaks of Millions, TNT, or even the self-titled first album's great "Tin Cans And Twine."

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Pitchfork

Like Japanese toys-- The Dream Workshop, and the Furby and Tamagochi before it-- Tortoise obviously spend hours in the lab honing the science, but the finished product comes with a one-time novelty factor.

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Playlouder

In fairness, if they'd released this in place of, say 'TNT' we'd probably have been all set to hail it as a truly delightful and conceivably seminal record. Instead, we find familiarity breeding just a touch of unexpected contempt.

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Q Magazine

Pretty yet inconsequential, like a collection of half-finished spy film themes. [May 2004, p.108]

Uncut

Documents a continuing decline. [May 2004, p.93]

Tiny Mix Tapes

It's All Around You middles about with infuriatingly placid tracks that suggest a fading band merely treading water.

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Alternative Press

A dozy dud. [Jun 2004, p.98]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jessie gave it a10:
Excellent!

Duggins B gave it a9:
Excellent album.

MIKE W gave it a9:
one of the best albums as a whole i've ever heard. the songs piece together as in Pink Floyd's dark side of the moon. there is no star of the band in tortoise. the band is one solid mass that can communicate better than most bands without using a single word.

FuCK Off gave it a0:
One of the worst albums ever released.

Ryan c gave it a9:
Majesic, warm and reminiscent of the more listenable elements of both 70's Eno and the recent Mogwai release. Excellent. With TNT and this, you cant go wrong

peter S. gave it a 9:
this is their best cd yet

wacky man gave it an 8:
instead of focussing on experiment and small details tortoise have focussed more on the songs themselves on their latest is that a bad thing? not really, althoug some critics. will disagree cause they are more accesible with this album

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It's All Around You

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