This is not really a review of the actual album Millions Now Living.... Instead, it's a review of Tortoise, a band I became familiar with during the dark days of 2001 when I worked in a record store in Harvard Square. An aside: the only reason I worked in the Tower Records in Harvard Square was and is so I can say I worked in a record store and worked in Harvard Square and sometimes say both. Anyways, I got Standards when it came out, as I tended to spend the vast majority of each paycheck on, you know, albums. Standards seemed a little disjointed to me, but it had moments of absolute fucking brilliance, when, you know, the guitar syncs up with the bass and the drums and they hit a little riff for about 45 seconds to a minute of just pure harmonic bliss.
But that was Standards, a more acoustically experimental disc than Millions Now Living... - here on referred to as MNLWND, if you don't mind. MNLWND focuses on Tortoise's indie rock instrumental 'thang', and adds in just the right amount of electronica to make the album both mind-blowing (considering it came out in 1998) and really fucking good. The album is broken up into 6 pieces, with track 1's "DJed" being the almost-21-minute opus freakin maximus (or something). However, each track is almost perfect, with an intense amount of attention paid to every note and every second, really. I cannot recommend this album enough.
At the outset I said this review wasn't just about MNLWND, however, and it isn't. I just chose the best of Tortoise's 5 discs to focus on, but if you happen across Standards or TNT or their self-titled debut, take notice. Tortoise makes wonderfully beautiful instrumental indie-ish music, and anyone with a passing interest in indie music should give them a serious listen.
But that was Standards, a more acoustically experimental disc than Millions Now Living... - here on referred to as MNLWND, if you don't mind. MNLWND focuses on Tortoise's indie rock instrumental 'thang', and adds in just the right amount of electronica to make the album both mind-blowing (considering it came out in 1998) and really fucking good. The album is broken up into 6 pieces, with track 1's "DJed" being the almost-21-minute opus freakin maximus (or something). However, each track is almost perfect, with an intense amount of attention paid to every note and every second, really. I cannot recommend this album enough.
At the outset I said this review wasn't just about MNLWND, however, and it isn't. I just chose the best of Tortoise's 5 discs to focus on, but if you happen across Standards or TNT or their self-titled debut, take notice. Tortoise makes wonderfully beautiful instrumental indie-ish music, and anyone with a passing interest in indie music should give them a serious listen.