It's All Around You

1	It's All Around You 4:09
2	The Lithium Shifts 3:59
3	Crest 4:21
4	Stretch (You Are All Right) 5:14
5	Unknown 5:38
6	Dot/Eyes 3:46
7	On the Chin 5:21
8	By Dawn 1:51
9	Five Too Many 4:33
10	Salt the Skies 4:45

Barnes & Noble

As befits its title, the latest offering from these Chi-town mood-spinners doesn't take very long to become utterly enveloping. There's nothing exactly overwhelming in the grooves -- that's not Tortoise's M.O. -- but songs such as " Crest" -- a softly swelling piece that appends vaguely Asian motifs to a nervous, King Crimson–styled background -- work their way into the system inexorably. The band touch on most of their strengths here, slithering into samba mode on the simmering title track and tweaking the melody of "Stretch (You Are All Right)" with just enough electronic trickery to keep the listener off balance. While those songs may echo ghosts of Tortoise past, the band do break new ground on It's All Around You, mainly by breaking the longstanding all-instrumental tradition on the eerie "The Lithium Stiffs," to which Kelly Hogan adds ethereal vocals that recall the more spacious aspects of Stereolab. Light, but not fluffy, this is the kind of disc that'll remain lodged in the player -- and the psyche -- for some time to come. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Tortoise only release an album about once every three years, and their style is one of the most distinctive in rock music, so a record that fails to push them forward can hardly be termed a failure. And yet, It's All Around You is a disappointment since it's clear the quintet is in a holding pattern, making music derivative of old glory TNT and even its shabbier successor, Standards. Everything is in its place here, every shuddering bassline or wheezing synthesizer or ringing vibraphone; every minimalist repetition of a theme, accompanied by subtly changing counterpoint; every pause before the band reworks the theme from a slightly different angle. Everything in its place, all part of a process that goes back in a direct line to Tortoise's self-titled debut of 1994. Certainly, they have matured in a decade of work; the members of the band have grown as musicians, as producers, and as engineers. They've even grown as compilers and sequencers of their material -- the pacing and transitions are masterful during the first four songs, which nearly comprise a suite of unified compositions to rank near their masterpiece "Djed." Second song "The Lithium Stiffs" floats over a bed of wordless harmony vocals while a clipped percussion line segues into an exploratory dub clatter, devolving into chaos just before moving to the aptly titled "Crest," an evocation of cinematic stateliness that goes well beyond anything the usually informal Tortoise has ever recorded. But 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. Members of the band, as well as some fans, would argue that the Tortoise aesthetic isn't to continually push their music forward (as would their compatriots in post-rock) but to continue seeking a clearer expression of their methods (as would an experimental or jazz outfit). In the end, though, it's a philosophical argument, not a musical one. Hearing Tortoise play music derivative of Tortoise is an enjoyable experience, but to be faced with a record so familiar from a band once so fresh is clearly a disappointment. John Bush

Entertainment Weekly

Tortoise continue to traverse a vast sonic universe on their thrilling, experimental fifth CD. (B+) Raymond Fiore