TNT

Yesterday I wrote about the preceding Tortoise album Millions Now Living..., and noticed to my surprise it had originally a bit higher rate than this one. Well, there seems to be more full rates to TNT, so maybe Millions has some extra points for being a pioneering work in Post-Rock; this is definitely more pleasing album, containing twice as many tracks and over an hour of music. If Millions left me yawning and thinking of uncosy modern interiors without much life in them, I feel TNT is more fulfilled musically; more melodies, more ideas. The instrumentation is richer (I like vibes and marimba here), not so artificial clinging and clanging as on Millions.

Post-Rock seems to have a tradition of as informationless design as possible. Here I missed the track numbers and running times, and also the list of played instruments would be nice (as on this PA page). And what point is in the way the title 'In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Women and Men' (???) has Beethoven written and overlined several times? The amateurish simple cover drawing is OK.

The first listening felt especially nice after Millions, but I still got a little bored with further listenings. The average length is probably above 5-6 minutes but without much progression in the tracks; they could easily be shorter and thus more effective. 'I Set My Face to the Hillside' is my favourite; it is actually quite sentimental (unusual in this genre, I guess) with its Chinese-like melody. Maybe some tracks would be nicer if they were carried on into songs with lyrics, against the principles of Post-Rock. But on the whole, TNT is a very recommendable album to friends of Post-Rock, and also a good introduction to those who are new to the genre. 3,5 stars.