ARTIST: Tortoise
TITLE: Millions Now Living Will Never Die
YEAR RELEASED: 1996
CHART ACTION: None
SINGLES: Djed, The Taut and the Tame
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Nope
LINEUP: Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, John McEntire, David Pajo
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: A long excursion and some shorter tracks. The long song intrigues, but some of the shorter ones fall flat.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: “Djed” is the centerpiece of this second album by Tortoise, and it’s an almost 21-minute long work that turns and moves through several motifs and styles that challenges and intrigues the listener.
An on the ball listener could probably go through each of the genres referenced in “Djed”, but as a piece it’s evolution between styles make it its own. It’s fascinating and compelling.
There are five other tracks here, and they don’t reach the brilliance of “Djed”. A couple fall short and seem to be just filler or incomplete ideas, but a couple work pretty well. “Djed” though is the main attraction and the one that makes this worthwhile.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: David Pajo from Slint joined the group on bass.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE B+: “Djed” is tremendous but a couple of the other tracks fall short.