Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Music

All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2009
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000

Upcoming &
Recent Releases

sort by namesort by score

70 AFI
65 Air
71 Alice In Chains
77 Amerie
70 Anjulie
85 The Antlers
75 Arctic Monkeys
68 As Tall As Lions
82 Atlas Sound
75 The Avett Brothers
67 Backstreet Boys
56 Bad Lieutenant
68 Devendra Banhart
72 Lou Barlow
88 Baroness
69 Basement Jaxx
81 David Bazan
72 Brendan Benson
72 The Big Pink
96 Big Star
46 Billy Talent
75 The Black Crowes
51 Black Mold
59 Amanda Blank
68 Blitzen Trapper
75 BLK JKS
77 A.A. Bondy
73 The Bottle Rockets
63 Box Elders
65 Boys Like Girls
76 Brand New
73 Tyondai Braxton
87 Brother Ali
70 Ian Brown
75 Michael Buble
78 Built To Spill
61 Colbie Caillat
79 Califone
68 Mariah Carey
84 Brandi Carlile
73 Julian Casablancas
83 Rosanne Cash
69 Castanets
65 The Cave Singers
84 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
79 Vic Chesnutt
75 Choir Of Young Believers
81 Circulatory System
68 The Clean
84 The Clientele
71 Cobra Starship
85 Converge
71 Eric Copeland
80 Cymbals Eat Guitars
71 Datarock
59 Dead By Sunrise
76 Dead Man's Bones
64 Desolation Wilderness
88 Destroyer
63 The Dodos
77 Drive-By Truckers
74 The Duke & The King
66 Bob Dylan
44 The Entrance Band
67 Esser
69 Fanfarlo
63 Felix Da Housecat
68 Fink
78 The Flaming Lips
66 Flight Of The Conchords
79 Florence And The Machine
67 John Fogerty
77 Fruit Bats
83 Fuck Buttons
71 Nelly Furtado
47 Gary Go
68 Ghostface Killah
79 Girls
59 Gloriana
69 Gossip
62 David Gray
66 David Guetta
79 Richard Hawley
74 Mayer Hawthorne
66 Headlights
79 HEALTH
77 Joe Henry
66 Hockey
69 Whitney Houston
68 Imogen Heap
59 Jack Ingram
79 Islands
73 Jessie James
74 Jamie T
83 Japandroids
65 Jay-Z
51 Jet
69 Daniel Johnston
76 Karen O And The Kids
72 Toby Keith
69 Kid Cudi
65 Kings Of Convenience
62 Sean Kingston
64 KISS
76 Kris Kristofferson
68 KRS-One & Buckshot
76 La Roux
84 Miranda Lambert
72 Ledisi
75 Sondre Lerche
56 Juliette Lewis
82 Lightning Bolt
76 Lightning Dust
73 Little Dragon
44 Pixie Lott
73 Lyle Lovett
66 Lovvers
75 Baaba Maal
77 Madness
84 Madonna
85 Manic Street Preachers
62 Maps
55 Massive Attack
57 Matisyahu
67 Reba McEntire
66 Tim McGraw
65 Brian McKnight
79 Mew
77 Malcolm Middleton
77 Mika
68 Amy Millan
76 Mission Of Burma
73 Modest Mouse
76 Molina And Johnson
80 Monsters Of Folk
62 Morrissey
85 Mount Eerie
78 The Mountain Goats
62 Múm
72 Muse
66 Willie Nelson
78 Nirvana
97 Nirvana
72 Nisennenmondai
80 No Age
71 Noah And The Whale
75 Noisettes
79 Nudge
68 Nurses
47 Dolores O'Riordan
74 Os Mutantes
73 Osso
81 Owen
76 Paramore
76 Pastels And Tenniscoats
51 Sean Paul
80 Pearl Jam
66 Jemina Pearl
72 Jack Penate
65 Phish
82 Pissed Jeans
61 Pitbull
79 A Place To Bury Strangers
63 Julian Plenti
66 Robert Pollard
79 Polvo
72 Porcupine Tree
80 Q-Tip
80 R.E.M.
89 Raekwon
69 Rain Machine
70 Ramona Falls
75 Dizzee Rascal
75 The Raveonettes
76 Jay Reatard
82 Reigning Sound
81 Rodrigo Y Gabriela
79 Russian Circles
69 Buffy Sainte-Marie
73 Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
61 Sally Shapiro
78 Shudder To Think
75 Sian Alice Group
70 Simian Mobile Disco
58 Simple Minds
72 Six Organs Of Admittance
69 Slaughterhouse
80 Slayer
61 The Slits
62 Mindy Smith
83 Solillaquists Of Sound
78 Soulsavers
77 Speech Debelle
58 Spiral Stairs
58 Squarepusher
55 Steel Panther
73 Sufjan Stevens
52 Rod Stewart
65 Joss Stone
75 George Strait
83 Barbra Streisand
76 A Sunny Day In Glasgow
74 Susanna And The Magical Orchestra
78 The Swell Season
76 David Sylvian
83 Taken By Trees
78 Tegan And Sara
68 The Temper Trap
72 Themselves
82 They Might Be Giants
67 Third Eye Blind
68 Throw Me The Statue
66 J Tillman
69 Times New Viking
57 Tokio Hotel
67 Trey Songz
71 The Twilight Sad
58 Carrie Underwood
56 The Used
68 Various Artists
70 Various Artists
74 Various Artists
77 The Very Best
71 Kurt Vile
67 Vivian Girls
71 Volcano Choir
76 Rufus Wainwright
59 Weezer
80 White Denim
76 Why?
83 Wild Beasts
80 Wildbirds & Peacedrums
59 Andrew W.K.
71 Patrick Wolf
67 Wolfmother
84 The xx
70 YACHT
75 Yim Yames
79 Yo La Tengo
83 Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band
51 Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
59 Zero 7

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Standards

EMAILPRINTby Tortoise

Tortoise reviews
78
8.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >

Album Info

Label: Thrill Jockey/Touch And Go

Release Date: 20 February 2001

Discs: 1 disc

Genre(s): Indie, Rock

Summary

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

92

Pitchfork

Not only is it the most acoustically enthralling album they've released, it's also without a doubt the most playful, dynamic, and anthemic post-rock album that has been released to date.

Read Full Review >
90

The Wire

If you value surehandedness, richness, immaculate timing and the occasional tilted eyebrow then there's a lot to enjoy on Tortoise's most assured set to date. [#204, p.65]

90

Ink Blot Magazine

Standards is disarmingly stunning and instantaneously consuming. Tortoise are unquestionably skilled artisans, electrocuting the framework for the typical rock song and reconstructing the fragments into a wonderfully surrealist space mission soundtrack.

Read Full Review >
90

L.A. Weekly

Tortoise have finally integrated their influences and discovered how to do more than mimic...

Read Full Review >
90

CDNow

Throughout Standards, Tortoise takes the listener on mini-journeys into sound that alternately shimmer, contort, seduce, and confound...

Read Full Review >
83

Entertainment Weekly

A thing of strange beauty, with melodies and sensations slipping in and out of focus. [2/23/01, p.163]

80

Urb

So even as Tortoise integrate guitar surrealism and edgier motifs into their palette, they also progress their unique relationship to electronic music and hip-hop. [#82, p.139]

80

All Music Guide

Overall, Standards has a few detours for fans conscious of any band's "progression," but plenty of interesting songs and great musicianship for less vested listeners. Though it doesn't develop the evocative or impressionistic side of Tortoise (as heard on TNT), the band is certainly as inventive as ever

Read Full Review >
80

Revolver

Standards is a mature work in the best sense, an example of a rock band--yes, a rock band--that has grown into its sound and is now relaxed enough to have fun with it. [#4, p.107]

80

Q Magazine

More tightly structured than their last outing TNT, this has enough dizzy polyrhythms and craziness for the free jazzers but is chock full of tunes, good humour and a certain grooviness

Read Full Review >
80

PopMatters

Ultimately, Standards is Tortoise's Fragile or Hot Rats -- the sort of successful artwork that tells you a band's concept is peaking.

Read Full Review >
80

Dot Music

The influence of recent collaborators like Autechre and Spring Heel Jack is prevalent throughout much of the album as tracks like 'Eros' fuse jazzy, organic instrumentation like marimbas and guitar to colder cut-up beats.

Read Full Review >
80

Alternative Press

Standards succeeds by making the most of the intellectual side of Tortoise--their stylistic cross-pollinations, their meta-musical analyses--without ever losing sight of the music's ability to do more than engage the mind. [March 2001, p.94]

70

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Given that Tortoise's previous recordings have spawned a procession of remixes and re-imaginings, is Standards to be judged on its own merits, or as the raw material for music yet to come? As always, 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.

Read Full Review >
70

Spin

It's somewhere between the album we've been waiting for Eno to release since 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' and the album we wish Phish would stop releasing altogether. [Apr 2001, p.154]

70

Rolling Stone

What finally rescues this album from the graveyard of cerebral noodling is rhythm.

Read Full Review >
70

New Musical Express

It's surprisingly gentle, allowing the emotional context of a soundtrack or accompaniment rather than the vacuum-packed, controlled conditions art of their last album.

Read Full Review >
70

Splendid

The jazz leanings and fascination with electronic music remain, and are sometimes imprudently indulged, but in general the band seems to have a renewed awareness of the needs of the people on the other side of the speakers.

Read Full Review >
50

Neumu.net

The only obvious goal seems to be shorter, more direct songs, delivered with more straightforward demeanor.

Read Full Review >
20

Magnet

Tortoise makes like Herbie Hancock wandering through the '80s, all lost at the jazz-fusion supermarket. [#49, p.95]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes

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

Ed H gave it a10:
Easily my favourite Tortoise release. It's a cohesive, well structured album, melodic and memorable. It has enough sonic consistency to be immersive as a whole, rather than a mere colection of tracks. Anyone who thinks there is too much 'noodling' and 'rambling' needs only to get more familiar with the music.

Dantor D. gave it a 9:
After i watced tortoise live in belglium this year, which i rate as one of my best concerts ever, i bought the album and listened for it for one week, nam. I would've preferred a bit more "raw" sound But of course it's a matter of personal taste and Tortoise can be a bit query in the beginning. Just listen to the album over and over again, and you will love it or hate it?

William P. gave it a 7:
Some old school fans are harking back the the '93 Debut, but I find this album blows away the harsh Fuzak of TNT which I found to be disorganized rabble, this is a fresh return to some old and new sounds, roughly attributable to the Mouse on Mars collaborations from the past? These songs play well live, I admit.

Dwight W gave it a 7:
Not my favorite Tortoise album... in fact, I think it's my least favorite so far... I'm not sure why the critics are hailing it as their best... I get the impression that it's one big inside joke that I'm not in on. However, it's still Tortoise, so it's still worth buying and listening to.

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use