Tortoise Touch
Tortoise's Touch opens as a patient, cinematic statement that tests the band's strengths and gaps across distance and time. Critics note the record's juxtapositions of electronics and guitars and its meticulous rhythms, and while the consensus leans mixed-positive, the album contains several genuinely standout moments that underline Tortoise's continuing appetite for instrumental experimentation.
Across four professional reviews, Touch earned a 67.5/100 consensus score from critics, with praise centering on tracks such as “Axial Seamount”, “Works and Days” and “Promenade à deux”. Reviewers consistently highlighted the motorik precision and cinematic textures on “Axial Seamount” and the rewarding patience of “Works and Days”, while “Promenade à deux” and the lead single “Oganesson” were called out for orchestral swells and filmic suspense. Professional reviews agree that the best songs on Touch display the band’s knack for shifting tempos, layered arrangements and a soundtrack-like scope.
That said, critics also register unevenness: several reviews point to piecemeal, remote assembly and antiseptic production that sometimes dilute group chemistry and render passages grey rather than galvanizing. Some reviewers praise the rhythmic evolution and subtle complexity that make parts of the record feel essential, while others find the distance between members undercuts the album’s cohesion. For readers wondering whether Touch is good, the critical consensus suggests it is worth hearing for its standout tracks and moments of creativity, even if the whole does not always cohere.
The following reviews unpack those tensions in detail, mapping where the record's cinematic ambitions succeed and where production choices blunt Tortoise's interplay.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Oganesson
2 mentions
""Oganesson," first introduced at last year’s Big Ears, is a rhythmically tricky 7/4 funk tune"— Glide Magazine
Works and Days
3 mentions
"the intricacies of the shifting tempos and harmonic variations on songs such as "Works and Days" only reveal themselves fully after several listens."— AllMusic
Omitted Track - Layered Presence
1 mention
""Layered Presence" where Parker plays organ and clavinet, accompanied by synths"— Glide Magazine
"Oganesson," first introduced at last year’s Big Ears, is a rhythmically tricky 7/4 funk tune
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Vexations
Layered Presence
Works and Days
Elka
Promenade à deux
Axial Seamount
A Title Comes
Rated OG
Oganesson
Night Gang
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 4 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Tortoise return with Touch, an album whose best songs - notably Axial Seamount and Works and Days - showcase the band’s gleaming motorik and quietly intricate interplay. The reviewer's voice finds that time and distance have not diluted their chemistry, and the way "Axial Seamount" balances clockwork precision with jam spontaneity makes it one of the best tracks on Touch. Likewise, the rewarding patience of Works and Days reveals shifting tempos and harmonic variation only after several listens, marking it as a standout. Overall the album is presented as a measured success for a band still refining texture and timing.
Key Points
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The best song, "Axial Seamount," is best for marrying precise motorik rhythms with live spontaneity.
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The album's core strengths are the band's enduring chemistry and subtly complex interplay that rewards repeated listens.
Themes
Critic's Take
Eric Hill finds the best songs on Touch to be the mid-album gem Promenade à deux, the cinematic A Title Comes, and the lead single Oganesson. He writes with a measured, appreciative tone that foregrounds the band's rhythmic evolution and knack for juxtapositions - praising how "Promenade à deux" builds atop a low-bass rumble into an orchestral centerpiece. The narrative emphasizes how the band still clicks disparate tempos and textures into cohesive organisms, making these tracks the standout moments on Touch.
Key Points
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"Promenade à deux" is the standout for its orchestral build, instrumentation and mallet work, earning it the reviewer’s highest praise.
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The album's core strengths are rhythmic evolution and skillful juxtapositions of electronics, guitars and percussion, which make disparate elements cohere.
Themes
Critic's Take
Tortoise's Touch arrives like a band arriving late to its own conversation, its best tracks - notably Rated OG and Layered Presence - offering flashes of the old inventiveness even as the record often feels grey and disjointed. Levi Dayan writes with wry disappointment, praising the dry, heavy drum-driven tension of Rated OG and the harpsichord-esque whim of Layered Presence, while faulting the antiseptic production that reduces other moments to mush. The opening swagger of Vexations and the stoic groove of Axial Seamount are noted as intriguing, but the overall lack of group chemistry keeps Touch from coalescing into a fully satisfying record.
Key Points
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‘Rated OG’ is the best song, singled out as the album highlight for its drums and claustrophobic tension.
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The album’s core strengths are moments of inventiveness and groove, undermined by antiseptic production and diminished chemistry.
Themes
Critic's Take
Tortoise have fashioned Touch into a patient, cinematic record where the best songs - notably Works and Days and Oganesson - reveal the band’s knack for suspenseful, filmic textures. Jim Hynes’s prose dwells on the album’s layered production and instrumental swaps, arguing that tracks like Vexations and Promenade a deux are prime examples of their soundtrack bent. The review emphasizes that the sequencing rewards whole-album listening while spotlighting these standout cuts as the best songs on Touch for mood and rhythmic invention.
Key Points
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The best song(s), such as "Works and Days" and "Oganesson," stand out for rhythmic invention and cinematic suspense.
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The album’s core strengths are layered, cinematic production and inventive instrumental interplay born from a patient, geographically dispersed process.