Rush RUSH REVIEWS: Rush (1974) Fly By Night (1975) Caress of Steel (1975) 2112 (1976) All the World's a Stage (1976) A Farewell to Kings (1977) Hemispheres (1978) Permanent Waves (1980) Moving Pictures (1981) Exit...Stage Left (1981) Signals (1982) Grace Under Pressure (1984) Power Windows (1985) Hold Your Fire (1987) A Show of Hands (1989) Presto (1989) Roll the Bones (1991) Counterparts (1993) Test For Echo (1996) Vapor Trails (2002) Snakes & Arrows (2007) Rush (1974) Album Score: 10 John Rutsey was the original drummer for Rush, and that's probably the reason the band started out as a strictly heavy metal group (with no major hints of the progressive rock that they would do). After all, wasn't Neil Peart the dork who reads all those fantasy novels? Also, Peart has much more ability with the drumming (probably even more ability than Genesis' Phil Collins), which made prog-rock a reasonable direction for them to take later on. But anyway, let's talk about this album! Hey, this is good heavy metal!!!! They don't have an original idea in their heads, but sometimes that doesn't matter if they prove they know what to do with these borrowed ideas. In this case, they borrow riffs and ideas from the metal bands that came before them. Led Zeppelin is the obvious comparison, because lead singer Geddy Lee is consistently trying his wimpy best to imitate Robert Plant. (He doesn't even come close, but it's cute to hear him try). Other obvious influences include Black Sabbath, the Blue Oyster Cult and Deep Purple. Surely, metal fans won't have trouble pointing them out all over this record! Luckily, most of these tracks are very enjoyable! "Finding My Way," the most obvious take on Led Zeppelin, is easily my favorite song. It's so utterly rollicking who cares if it's not particularly original? Another Zep imitation is "What You're Doing," which turns out to be another one of my favorites. Their Blue Oyster Cult song, "In the Mood" is also great, and so is the guitar crunchin' "Need Some Love." The album closer, "Working Man" might be flawed, but it seems to be where everything comes together in one massive, seven-minute explosion. So, this is a solid album! It doesn't come with its fair share of pitfalls, however. "Here Again" is nothing more than a seven-minute snooze-fest. This is a song that easily could have been compressed in two minutes and, even then, it would probably still be boring. And Geddy's vocal performance there would still be crazy-annoying. The intro to "Before and After" is dull until they finally get some heavy metal in after the two-minute mark. "Take a Friend" is an OK mid-tempoed rocker, but it's totally uninspired. Overall, if you're inclined to heavy metal and Rush, I'd surely check this one out. So what if it doesn't have Neil Peart on drums? Who cares?? Read the track reviews and reader comments: Rush Fly By Night (1975) Album Score: 9 Pretty much everyone in the world hates this band except for a class of people known as geeks. But I like them. They're a heavy-metal/prog band but at least they keep their material at a relatively accessible level. This is a pretty good album; there's nothing dismal about this at all. Major complaints come at the end where the Tolkein fantasy ballad "Rivendell" puts me to sleep, which incidentally reminds me of my experiences reading the book! The conclusion, "In the End" is pretty messy and, if you ask me, musically silly. But up until the final third, this is a solid product. My favorite song is easily "Best I Can" is a fun song with some great guitar crunches and, yes, we can hear Neil Peart's excellent drums enhance the sound of the song. Peart used the album's introduction, "Anthem" to show off everything he can do with the drums (which is kind of fun to hear), but that was done to the expense of the songwriting! Alex Lifeson also shows off in that track, but ... would you rather listen to a bunch of dorks in their mid-20s show off their instrumental skills or listen to a real *SONG?* ... A song for me, thanks. Rush's first epic prog song comes in the form of "By-Tor and the Snow Dog." Well, I could use the lyrics as toilet paper, but the song is structured well and it's fun to hear. It's a generally solid song although they clearly lacked the type of inspiration that drove such bands as Genesis. Rush is a band that really doesn't seem to mean anything to anyone who champions songwriting. This seems to be more of a band of three virtuosos. (Well, Geddy's singing does get awfully annoying sometimes). Nonetheless, many of these songs are fairly well written and, as virtuosos, these guys sound like they know what they're doing. And, there's nothing like listening to the electric guitar and drumming of people who know what they're doing! Read the track reviews and reader comments: Fly By Night Caress of Steel (1975) Album Score: 8 I get the feeling that this group chose the name "Rush" because they wanted to release albums as quickly as possible. This is the group's third album and easily their shoddiest work so far. The first three songs are relatively short hard rock songs. There's the OK "Bastille Day," the utterly goofy "I Think I'm Going Bald" and the dismally boring "Lakeside Park." These take up about one-fourth of the album. It's obvious they cared more deeply about the two songs to follow. The sprawling 12-minute "The Necromancer" is easily the better of the two. It showcases all the instrumentalists' virtuosity without resorting to aimless drum solos and shallow electric guitar piddling. Naturally, "The Necromancer" has electric guitar solos, but it actually RULES in the sense that it has me drooling like some wide-eyed fan boy. Unfortunately, the follow-up "The Fountain of Lamneth" doesn't do its predecessor justice. Sure, I'll take that over any of the three opening tracks, but it's an unfocused suite with poor transitions. Some of the sections are pretty good (notably the "Stairway to Heaven" rip-off in the middle of it), but others are totally lackluster. I normally dismiss drum solos as unnecessary, but Peart's little moment to shine in that song is among the highlights. Anyway, I think I'm being pretty nice to that song considering it's like a bad joke when you compare to the great epic songs of Genesis, Jethro Tull and Procol Harum. I should also mention that lead singer Geddy Lee achieves a new level of annoyingness in his singing. That, along with the general decline of quality songwriting compared to Rush's previous two albums, is what forces me to give this album a big kick in the pants. I appreciate the effort, and I do admire the instrumentals much of the time, but they're not brilliant enough to write great material that was tossed-off. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Caress of Steel 2112 (1976) Album Score: 8 It's amazing how this is this fourth Rush album is their most famous. It's even more amazing that I don't find the album's most famed track, the 20-minute prog-rock suite "2112 Medley" musically memorable. But it is true that I'll never forget this song. It's a pretentious 20-minute prog-rock suite that I forced myself to sit through and listen to four times. Geez, I spent an hour and 20 minutes of my life listening to that song. That's about how long the Borat movie was. Anyway, this album seems to be a complete reversal for the group. In Caress of Steel, the best moment was the sprawling 12-minute prog-rock song "Necromancer" and the 3 and 5 minute songs were the bad ones. This time, the best songs are the 3 and 5 minute ones, and the 20-minute prog-rock suite is the worst. I'm probably not going to gain any friends from Rush fans, but I honestly don't see what the heck is so special about "2112 Medley." It's so tedious to sit through! It easily could have been reduced to 10 minutes. Trust me. The lyrics are about a boy from the year 2112 who finds an old electric guitar and jams out on it only to face persecution. Yeah ... I don't care about the lyrics. In light of my opinions, I want to let Rush fans know one thing: Lynching is illegal! So what about the rest of the album? They include five shorter songs. Unlike the three short songs in Caress of Steel, these actually constitute the best of the album. The gorgeous song "Tears" seems to come out of nowhere, which even features the use of the Mellotron in not only a constructive way but also a beautiful way! "Lessons" is a near-hit although I do wish Geddy would take voice lessons or something ... seriously. Or he should at least resort back to his singing in Fly By Night, which was more or less a constructive use of his crazy screeching vocals. All in all, this isn't a bad album. It's mediocre and not too fun to actually sit through. One major reason I can think of why Rush fans consider this the group's best is that it is easily their best produced album. The production was still OK in their previous works, but they're trying a few things in the studio that they haven't before. The Mellotron was a previously stated example. Also the beginning of "2112 Medley" employs some well-used whooshing synths that are meant to take us to the future! ... Well, it worked. It's a shame their melodic and musical ideas for the future were so boring! Read the track reviews and reader comments: 2112 All the World's a Stage (1976) Album Score: 11 Hey, I'm beginning to see why there are Rush fans in the world, and how important it is to hear how this group sounds live! They ROCK!!! It's a true shame that I only have computer speakers and headphones to hear this album. It would be much better to put this album on a surround sound stereo and crank up the volume to 11. Well, I'm living in an apartment, and the guy who lives upstairs probably wouldn't appreciate it that much. But he ticks me off anyway, because he's always stomping on the dang floors!! Anyway, back to this album. Before you consider purchasing a live album from a band, you're going to have to figure out A) How much you like their studio songs and B) If they're capable of being a good live band. Nonetheless, considering this group does have a handful of good songs is the minor point. Considering this band has two of the most celebrated musical virtuosos in rock 'n' roll history (Alex Lifeson on guitars and Neil Peart, who is considered THE LEGEND of drums), you'd better believe this live album is going to ROCK. ... I can tell you from first hand experience that, yes, it's awesome. This album convinced me why there are so many geeky fan-boys who love this band. First of all, the live version of "2112" is shockingly AWESOME compared to the original version. When I reviewed that album, I didn't think much of that track, because I found it so boring. But this live version kicks the kids to kingdom come! However the best song on the album, in my opinion, is "Working Man / Finding My Own Way," something that was featured on their debut, eponymous album. Neil Peart gives a drum performance there that makes us sorry that he only joined the band on their fourth release. That song, which even features a full-blown drum solo, is the most entertaining song of them all. There are a few missteps here, in my opinion. "In the End" just doesn't seem to be much of anything. The band evidentally didn't have it together there. I'm not sure why, because they seemed so excellent in the other tracks. Also, I still think "Lakeside Park" is a doofy old song. Of all the ones, why did they have to play that? But these are only minor complaints. The vast majority of this album is excellent to sit through. Imperfect, but so what? This is what rock 'n' roll geekdom is all about. Read the track reviews and reader comments: All the World's a Stage A Farewell to Kings (1977) Album Score: 6 This album is a big 'ole flop, but there is good news. I'll get to that in a moment. First, let's talk about the bad news. Boy, this album SURE is boring! If I were to give this album a rating out of five for boringness, this would get a five! Unfortunately, in our world, boringness is a bit of a burden. The No. 1 reason this album is boring is unquestionably due to the lack of spirit and lack of melodies. If I can take you back to the group's eponymous debut album, good riffs, catchy melodies and high spirit ran so rampant that it warranted getting up on my swivel chair and playing air guitar most gleefully with it. Now that Rush is fully immersed in prog-rock, they don't have any of that unbridled enthusiasm anymore ... just a lot of goofy sci-fi rambling. Of course, if you enjoy goofy sci-fi rambling, then Rush is probably the band for you. I don't necessarily mind such lyrics and musicality as long as the album isn't BORING. That's just what this all is. Boring. Boring. Boring. Now for the good news. Rush got much better at structuring songs and creating ambient atmospheres. The intro to "Xanadu" is very well done and tons more complex than the intro to "2112" on their previous studio album. Also, the songs themselves are much more well structured than their previous albums. The sub-sections in the over-extended prog rock songs ("Xanadu" and "Cygnus X-1") flow rather well into each other. However, who cares about the sections, when they're BORING? Sorry, but I'll have to give this Rush album a thumbs down. But I do appreciate the fact that this band is trying out new things and expanding on their craft instead of simply repeating the commercial success of 2112. Just don't forget about the melodies next time!! Apologies to Rush fans. I know this is another one of the group's more well-regarded albums that I basically panned. Read the track reviews and reader comments: A Farewell to Kings Hemispheres (1978) Album Score: 11 Look, I don't do this sort of thing on purpose just to mess with all of you guys. But I'm serious. Kick Fly By Night in the pants, flush Farewell to Kings down the toilet and divide "2112" by infinity. Hemispheres is better than all of that! With only four songs this time, Rush is starting to take this prog-rock thing pretty seriously. If you were paying attention to the Rush albums I've been writing, you'll know that I basically gave their previous work A Farewell to Kings a bit of a panning and dismissed it as too boring for me to care about. However, I also said that the album showed a mark improvement in song structure for Rush, but the melodies and entertainment factors were somehow lost. They found much of that again in this album Hemispheres! Huzzah! Plus, the songs are structured better than ever. Rush has for the first time in their career released an entertaining and non-awkward progressive rock album. Good for them. Let us talk about the major progressive rock song, the 18-minute title track. All of the elements are finally together in that track. It not only has excellent musical transitions (an art that Rush developed with A Farewell to Kings) but it's musically interesting. It's fair to say that the music still isn't quite as compelling as Genesis or Emerson Lake & Palmer, but "Hemispheres" is the group's best attempt thus far in their discography. The other lengthy prog-rock attempt is "La Villa Strangiato," isn't quite as good, but I found it to be pretty entertaining nontheless. It's a good showcase of the virtuosos by the end of the track as Peart continues to do great drumming (without the need to resort to a full-blown drum solo though he comes close a few times) and Lifeson delivers a truly shattering electric guitar solo. The middle two tracks are less than five minutes long, and they're not bad. The weak link is easily "The Trees," which tends to jump around genres too much. But it remains an entertaining piece. Now let me congratulate Rush for creating their first studio album that I truly like! Read the track reviews and reader comments: Hemispheres Permanent Waves (1980) Album Score: 12 Leave it to freaking Rush to get better in the '80s when most bands were turning into piles of crap starting then. To me, this is easily the best album the group came out with to this point. I always got the sense that this group had a yearning to learn. Even though many of their previous ideas were rather poor, every album seemed to exhibit some sort of growth compared to the last --- even if it was subtle or they were degenerating in other aspects. For example, the moment they figured out how to structure extended prog tracks really well (in A Farewell to Kings) they forgot how to be exciting. Well everything is right for Rush in Permanent Waves. Even though I'm not about to thrust this upon my list of top-favorite albums, I don't think I ever unabashedly enjoyed a Rush album like I enjoyed Permanent Waves. That's saying something since I thought Hemispheres was the bee's knees. This is genuinely well-conceived music up until its final act "Natural Science," which I feel gets a bit old after awhile. Their sounds and arrangements are almost entirely well-conceived and well-executed. Probably my favorite track is "The Spirit of the Radio," which even features the group turning in a rather excellent melody. Although generally speaking, their melodies and guitar riffs are usually primitive. These guys were probably as far from geniuses at it gets. But through trial end error, it seems, they turned their limitations into something that's easily digestible, fun and even pretty interesting in the artistic sense. Well--- they're no Genesis, but they're certainly a few rungs above Styx and Kansas, who have no taste. Whenever Styx and Kansas do something that's tasteful, it's probably a weird accident. (Hey, I'm a fan of a few Styx albums, you know. Well, two Styx albums.) OK, let's talk about the lyrics for a moment. I'm probably a stupidly unique music reviewer, because I don't take much stock in lyrics. (In my own listening experience, they have little to do with how much I'm going to enjoy a song --- especially with Rush, half of the time I can't even understand them the way Geddy Lee sings these.) But it's worth mentioning that they are goofy and pretentious in pretty horrible ways. Maybe unintentionally funny at times. They were being serious in ways geeks are serious about playing Dungeons and Dragons. Well, I'll let you take that statement at its face value coming from someone who honestly doesn't give a damn about it. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Permanent Waves Moving Pictures (1981) Album Score: 12 Behold! Another Rush album that I like! … I love it!!! It’s almost magical, actually. OK, I’m over-exaggerating a bit; a Court of the Crimson King or Foxtrot this is assuredly not! Nonetheless, this album showcases Rush as a playful, inventive band who knows how to properly develop a prog-rock song. Of course, it was always evident that they were crackerjack instrumentalists, but the songs they write give them the ideal opportunity to show off their skills without overdoing it. Even Geddy Lee isn’t overdoing it… he actually sounds like he’s a good rock singer. Wow. Imagine that. Trying to find fault in the first five tracks is surprisingly difficult… They’re all well-written, well-developed pieces that flow nicely together. There are a little bit of keyboards that place it directly into the early 1980s, but the guitar is definitely the center attraction. The riffage is enticing and excellent and even the melodies tend to be catchy. Their instrumental “YYZ,” based on a morse code signal, is surprisingly one of their most compelling pieces ever… Beautifully done and an utter pleasure to sit through! The album opener “Tom Sawyer” is utterly compelling all around with an interesting melody and enticing atmosphere. “Limelight” is a bit of riff rock with wonderfully crunchy guitars, though it’s somewhat tame even compared to early hair-metal bands from the era. I find that to be a bit of a step down from the three openers (the melody should have been more memorable), but it’s still enjoyable, and it continues to showcase the band’s professional instrumental abilities. Though not the best song of the album, “Camera Eye” ought to be considered the band’s biggest victory… it’s an 11-minute prog-suite that’s more enjoyable and accomplished than “2112” ever hoped to be. “Witch Hunt” is an interesting song though not as compelling as anything previous to it. Its elaborate intro must be among the band’s greatest, and I like its Medieval chord progression on the keyboards, but find little else about it memorable. The biggest faults ultimately come at the end with the reggae-inspired “Vital Signs,” which defies the rest of the album and actually sounds awkward. (Well, this is Rush, after all … Awkwardness is their big enemy.) Though I still respect that track, because they attempted to combine their sound with The Police. Interesting idea… shame it didn’t work so well. In the end, this is a great Rush album! Savor the moment, because there aren’t a whole lot of these. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Moving Pictures Exit...Stage Left (1981) Album Score: 10 A very good live album, but excuse me if I don’t get as excited over it as I did with my review of their 1976 live album All the World’s a Stage. In that album, much of the material that sounded so lackluster on the early Rush albums that they really blossomed in the live setting. Exit Stage Left covers much of their peak 1978-1981 material, which already sounded great in the studio albums. Furthermore, there’s not much that’s actually different from the studio albums… This is very much reminiscent of Yes’s by-the-book live album Yessongs… except not quite as good. Unlike All the World’s a Stage I don’t hear too many guitar solos that I would describe as “face-melting.” But they do generally choose fine material from their catalogue to include here (wisely leaving another rendition “2112” away from the proceedings… well, they didn’t overlap any of the songs that appeared on Stage), and the album is generally pleasant to sit through. Well, it’s 76 minutes long, which will be difficult for most non-fans of their work. While not tedious, the three listens I gave this album were rather trying. Not the wholly enjoyable experience that so many people have said this album was. (Geez, that was four hours, wasn’t it! I could have watched one-half of Roots!) But I do enjoy listening to Rush when they’re playing their good songs… So… Well, this is good. Two of the strongest songs open the proceedings. “Spirit of the Radio” and “Red Barchetta” were two of the best songs from their best albums... both excellent rockers with nice melodies to boot. After that, there’s “YYZ” from their most recent studio album, which I do remember well! Overall it’s a fine rendition, but Neil Peart does a three-minute drum solo in the middle of it. Not bad as far as drum solos go, but it’s nothing mind blowing. Not to insult his abilities, but his drum solos aren’t necessary. Especially if it’s going to be boring. “Passage of Bangkok” until “Jacob’s Ladder” is remarkably consistent. Everything’s entertaining to sit through but nothing too awesome. The source material was usually fine to begin with, and their new renditions of it are just fine! ‘Bangkok’ has a great guitar solo, “Beneath, Between and Behind” is considerably better than the original on Fly By Night. It’s all very good. After that, “The Trees” doesn’t impress me too much and the epic prog-track “Xanadu” never impressed me… “Tom Sawyer,” buried on there toward the end, is a significant highlight. It’s easily one of the band’s greatest songs, so it’s bound to be. They close it with the nine-minute “La Villa Strangiato.” A fine prog-track that’s tons better than “Xanadu” though the studio version was decidedly more appealing. There is nothing shabby about this live album! It’s almost more of a greatest hits compilation, which could appeal to some non-fans. However, anyone looking for anything dreadfully unique here compared to their studio work could be disappointed. (I’m wrong of course. Rush fans love this.) Read the track reviews and reader comments: Exit...Stage Left Signals (1982) Album Score: 9 While we were away, Rush discovered the keyboards. And when I say that, it's not to say that they've never used that instrument before. They certainly have. But now it was becoming a major part of their sounds and, in return, began to take away the spotlight off lead guitarist Alex Lifeson. Now, I've often lauded keyboards; I love them for the sounds they produce and what that can contribute to a band's sound. If Rush wants to use keyboards, then good for them. Let's see what they can do. Er... I've gotta ask: Why couldn't they think of anything more interesting to do with them? When I letting this play in the background and only pay half-attention to it, all I'm getting is a continuous drone. When I am closely paying attention, all I'm getting is a continuous drone ... while pointing out that they have some hella good instrumental capabilities and they frequently give us some interesting textures. But the lack of truly interesting keyboards isn't even half of Signal's problems. There's something more fundamentally missing, and it's obvious: What happened to the harmonies and melodies? You could argue that these were always Rush's greatest weakness, but it's done so poorly on Signals that it's a major drawback to this experience. These chord progressions are so bleak that I wonder how they could have worked on this so much without wanting to fall asleep. A great song is going to have harmonies that need as much life and depth as the quality of the orchestration. Rush's orchestration ranges from fine to excellent, but rarely do they give me anything particularly substantive to latch onto. Everything sounds so bleak, and it's almost like it's not even there. I know this puts me in the minority opinion, but this is precisely what's keeping this album from entering “recommendable” territory. But I hope I'm not enough of a knee-jerk guy to completely dismiss an album just because I feel one thing is out-of-whack. Let me reiterate this is an enormously well-played album, and they give us plenty of interesting textures to listen to. I'd imagine Rush fans spent much of their life listening to this album with headphones so that they could memorize every little thing they do here, which obviously would take quite a bit of time. Furthermore, everything here is done tastefully and purposefully. It's all even so consistent enough so that nothing scored below a C+ in the track reviews. That's surely worth something. “Subdivisions” is a good opener with a number of varied and intricate textures. The atmosphere might not singularly impress me, but it's the first song of the album and I guess that's where it works the best. “The Analog Kid” does allot its central sound to the electric guitar, and it's nice'n'crunchy. Arguably, this song contains the most distinct use of the keyboards... this “heavenly” bit that comes unexpectedly, but smartly. They at least haven't forgotten how to develop a song, and that was the most fundamental reason this review is “mixed” instead of “negative.” “Chemistry” is another wholly intricate arrangement, and I'd say they do that whole “epic” thing rather well without feeling like it was overblown. (Though considering my respectable boredom for the whole exercise, maybe something overblown wouldn't have been such a bad idea.) I was with the album that far though my senses were progressively becoming duller. But they just lose me with “Digital Man.” Sure, the textures change but some parts (mainly that pounding synth thing) come off as awkward and doesn't flow well within the context of the rest of the song. “New World Man” is a similarly disinteresting song ... I struggle to find anything worth treasuring there, except for, as I already repeated a few times, the empty respect for their instrumental chops. And I'll go ahead and mention this is an album that other critics overwhelmingly like but I'm wholly indifferent to. I'll also mention that I wrote a previous draft of this review, and I remember giving it the exact same assessment. (I never got a chance to publish because it fried in my hard drive last October.) I was hoping that by listening to it some more that it would grow on me... And I really wanted it to, because writing mixed reviews aren't a pleasant experience for me. But I guess it wasn't in the stars. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Signals Grace Under Pressure (1984) Album Score: 11 Well, I guess this proves how simple-minded I am. (Alas, the flamers win!) Here, these guys make an album with the least challenging vocal melodies, chord progressions and song structures of their entire careers... and yet in the context of Rush's entire discography, I can only say that I find Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves more entertaining than this. Hey, I can't control what I'm entertained by! Yup. Based on what I read from other reviewers, I hold a minority opinion here. Most critics feel that Rush's move to simplicity was a poor decision, which undermined a lot of the complicated ideas they always used to be consistently good for. However, I never thought they were always that compelling as complex songwriters. I tend to find their work too dizzying to be enjoyed. So, perhaps this more repetitive '80s album is more up my alley. They still work on varying the textures up a bit, which generally keeps the record interesting. (There are a few occasions, however, where even I feel they've grown too monotonous.) Their impressive instrumental skills aren't as impressive as they used to be, but they're nothing to sneeze at, either. This more simplistic approach to songwriting now seems to have officially turned this progressive rock band into a pop band (something that happened to almost everyone in the '80s). But instead of sounding like a below-average progressive rock band, they sound like an above-average pop band. Maybe this new, less pretentious mindset is what's turning me on. “Distant Early Warning” is a huge album-opener with a solid degree of varying rhythms and textures. It's pretty clear that they were heavily inspired by The Police's Synchronicity right from that bouncy bass-line to Lifeson's “firework” electric guitar licks. Lee's vocal melody is also quite good even though it's hardly a catchy Sting melody. It's has its charms. The Police connection even extends to the less compelling “Afterimage,” which features distinct reggae keyboards. But they do sound admittedly out-of-place with the cold atmosphere produced by the rest of the instrumentation. Maybe they don't fit so comfortably in The Police's shoes, but it was a bold enough attempt. “Red Sector A” is a walloping success, however. They're going down the arena-rock route, but rest assured it's actually good arena rock. It might not be nearly as complex as earlier Rush albums, but it's a hell of a lot more complex than Foreigner! (There's value in that ... trust me.) “The Body Electric,” might not have a very good vocal melody, but it's surprisingly exciting and presents yet another conglomeration of interesting textures. “Kid Gloves” is OK, but it's problem is that they don't do as good of a job changing around the mood; they keep the same tone throughout. “Between the Wheels” is better, but their chord progressions are especially dull there. If I would have heard that two-chord sequence in one of their earlier albums, I would have been shocked! I mean, they would write a song with a bazillion randomly chosen chords, but two is just weird for them! And mind you, that's only one sequence. They revive this section two other times (!!!). I'm entertained by that song, nonetheless, which brings us back to my simplistic tastes. So, I'm not surprised why rock fans who are even vaguely attuned with music theory are disappointed with this. But considering I was never too engaged by their “classic” progressive rock albums, even in my hobbyist-music-theorist persona, I think the simpler approach to songwriting in Grace Under Pressure ended up turning out to be an OK move for them. This isn't as good as Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves, but it's better than Fly By Night! It's definitely better than Signals, which bored the living crap out of me. I enjoy this album. I think it's entertaining. That's that. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Grace Under Pressure Power Windows (1985) Album Score: 9 One of the most adequate albums on the planet Earth. I listen to this and don't think any of these songs are *bad*, but at the same time, none of them get off their bottoms and start doing anything exciting or memorable. This might not be Rush's shining moment, but it's probably their most consistent moment. It's like they grew entirely complacent and weren't willing to experiment anymore ... but they've gotten so good at what they do that they've figured out exactly what they needed to do to not suck. They continue with the simplified turn Rush took with Grace Under Pressure and turn out a product that's even more simplified and without the awesome highlights. It's a more sterile version of that album. But as I said, everything is good. “The Big Money” starts things off well. Its introduction is arguably the highlight of the whole album ... they packed on a number of sound effects that manages to grab my attention. But after the first 30-seconds or so, they found some too-comfortable niche and they stay in it. Geddy Lee starts singing a so-so melody while thumping away with his bass guitar. Neil Peart chugs away with his drums and Alex Lifeson comes up with some thickly-mixed guitar crunches. Nothing of what they play is memorable, but it's all very pleasant enough to sit through at-the-moment! That song has a mid-tempo pace. And so do all the other songs. They have grown so complacent, in fact, that they weren't even willing to try different tempos! ... One could even argue that all eight of these tracks are in fact the same song. This is like freaking rock 'n' roll purgatory! “Manhattan Project” strikes me as a minor highlight. It starts out with some quiet, spacey sound effects, and it gives me the feeling of an epic song. However, while I'm listening to it, I get the funny feeling that they're going to start singing “Forever Young” by Alphaville! Anyway, the textures are more varied in that song and I love that string sequence they give us in the middle, which helps it stand out above the rest. But it's still overall too complacent for it to have been a truly memorable experience, and the vocal melody does nothing for me. I especially like the atmospheres “Mystic Rhymths,” but this song suffers the exact same problems. “Emotion Detector” is a fine, soothing song, but the textures aren't nearly as appealing and that song probably grows the closest to growing stale than any of the others. “Marathon” is also OK. I like that running bass-line they open it with... but that melody is also boring and some parts of it are virtually indistinguishable from standard radio fare. ...Of course if you listen to it, you'll note that it's overall more complex than the average radio ditty, but they're inching close to it. Geez... I feel like I repeated myself over and over again throughout this review, but it's difficult to come up with things to say about an album where everything sounds like the same song! Major fans of Grace Under Windows will probably appreciate this release, but Rush fans who disliked that will probably want to spit venom at this. Complacency is killing these guys! Read the track reviews and reader comments: Power Windows Hold Your Fire (1987) Album Score: 8 Rush is on autopilot, and who wants to listen to an album that was made on autopilot? I sure don't! So, I'm just not going to listen to this album. OK, too late. I already listened to it. Even though the last time I listened to it was a few minutes ago, I can't seem to remember that much about it. Yes, it's one of those albums. I won't pretend that listening to it was a particularly terrible experience. It's just that these songs all exist on a frustrating plane of mediocrity. There's nothing here that's offensive to my ears, but the lack of inspiration throughout this whole disc makes listening to it very pointless. I shrug my shoulders at you, Rush. If you've been following their discography in order (or at least you get a glance at the year this was made ... 1987) you probably already know how this album sounds like. Yup. Synthesizers and lotsa reverb. Rush fans might have hoped that their level of exciting instrumental playing and knack for creating unique textures would still be intact with this release. But nah. They were sleeping in the studio. Oh well. This review is going to be short, because all of these songs sound alike. I have a limited vocabulary when describing bland '80s songs with a lot of reverb. “Force Ten” is the opening number, and it's a bland '80s pop song with a lot of reverb. The second track, “Time Stands Still” is a similarly toned song except I actually find the melody to be catchy! Having a catchy melody is certainly a step in the right direction for them! Unfortunately, that's the only one. Already by the third track, “Open Secrets,” the formula starts to get on my nerves. If you look at my track reviews, you'll notice that I gave out mostly C's. Plain scores for a plain album. I also noticed that many, if not most, of these songs end as a fade-out. Sometimes fade-outs work, but every time it happens here, it seems like a cop-out. Sometimes all you need to do is listen to how songs end to figure out how much the artists cared about them. Oh well. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Hold Your Fire A Show of Hands (1989) Album Score: 9 This is one moment when I sorta wish I didn't elect myself to review every single album of a discography... especially from such an unexciting band as Rush. Here is a live album that overwhelmingly features material from their 1983-1987 material, which has been a relatively unexciting and uncreative period. They seemed to turn into half-zombies and embrace the mainstream, stadium-rock keyboard sound of their contemporaries. What's more, this album is played exactly like the studio versions, so there were woefully few surprises for me while listening to this. But, of course, to their credit, they always seemed to maintain a strict level of professionalism. Nothing about their music ever seemed trashy or tacky... Just bland. And sometimes frustratingly so. And that's really what you can expect from this live album. Professional '80s blandness. That makes the audience of this album starkly obvious. It's only for those who like these albums. It can't get simpler than that. In fact, you can probably stop reading this review right now! Nothing else I could possibly say would add anything else to that. That's another reason I wish I didn't elect myself to review every single Rush album. I just don't have a lot of things to say all the time. That's why I want to take this moment to talk about Spain. Spain is a nice country, but it didn't do a very good job in 1588 when it lost the Spanish Armada. If I remember my junior high history class right, Spain pissed off the mermaid king and he poked big holes in their ships. The only good thing Spain that ever did, besides creating malaria, was they banned drum solos. You see, in the early 16th century, when rock 'n' roll was just starting out, there were no electric guitars. Just flutes and drums. The flutists would constantly struggle with the drummers who always seemed to be on the verge of soloing. Likewise, as the drummers would put it, the flutists would just flutter all the time, which was annoying as hell. This escalated until the 1540s when the Spanish Civil War broke out, which pitted the drummers against the flutists. When the drummers won, they were just drum soloing everywhere. That ended up pissing off Queen Isabella, who banished all drummers to the sea. That pissed off the mermaids hence the Spanish Armada. So, you see, if Spain won the Spanish Armada, Neil Pert's drum solo in “The Rhythm Method (Drum Solo” would surely have been outlawed. It should have been. But no. Mr. Ponytail couldn't handle having a living without doing a freaking four-minute drum solo. Oh, and I'll mention that my favorite song on this disc seems to be “Red Sector A,” which was a little bit of a surprise, because I remembered that “Distant Early Warning” from that album impressed me a little bit more. I'll also mention that the end of this album was surprisingly strong ... It was three B+-scoring songs in a row, which is the grandest streak of the whole disc! So, conflaturlations there. Alright, that was four paragraphs (with this one making a fifth), which means I'll save my story about the Brazilians inventing electricity for another review. Until then, I want to express my disregard for this unfortunate bland period in Rush's career, which made us all look forward to the end of the '80s. Cheerio. Read the track reviews and reader comments: A Show of Hands Presto (1989) Album Score: 8 For my money, Presto is the slightest improvement over Hold Your Fire. It seems more stylish and concrete. Nonetheless, Presto still isn't a very good album. It shows Rush in a terrible rut. Even though they sound like they were at the top of their game in the instrumental standpoint, they almost completely neglect the melodic and harmonic aspects of their compositions. When they neglect something as fundamental as those, their complicated instrumental arrangements seem like they're window dressing a vacant store. Naturally, their instrumental abilities keep this album from achieving even lower scores, but no matter how well you play it, a bad song will always remain a bad song. But fortunately not all these songs are bad! I actually like “Chain Lightning” a lot. It provides a much-appreciated reminder of Rush's peak years... (Although, in all actuality, Rush's peak years weren't all that great ... but compared to this album, it sure was!) It has an interesting melody and a catchy riff. The window dressing instrumentals are wonderful, of course, and it's nice that they actually had a cake on which to put the icing! Likewise, “The Pass” is pretty good. It's not an especially memorable song, but it has its moments that manage to hit home. “Anagram (For Mongo)” and the album opener, “Show Don't Tell” also have their moments even though they're both heavily flawed and harmonically flat. Those were the highlights. The rest of the songs plain suck. The worst offender of them all is “Scars.” I'll give them credit where it's due... That is a unique song. It features a deep, rumbling bassline at its core... something that I don't remember Rush ever attempting before. The song structure is weird, too. But if they're not going to back these musical ideas with workable melodies and harmonies, then it would probably be better for them to just stick with the status quo. “War Paint” and the title track are examples of this album's characteristic tracks. Both are terribly dull, typical late '80s rocker. Listening to it, I marvel at the fact that the band keeps on doing these fancy instrumental maneuvers around dull and dead material. It's like they don't even notice that they're playing something so toneless... yet they keep on going. And they won't stop until they have an LP's worth of material... Oh, brother. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Presto Roll the Bones (1991) Album Score: 8 A new decade = a new sound. As soon as the '80s were over, the rock 'n' roll bureaucracy granted all the old '60s and '70s musicians permission to suppress those keyboards and go back to what they do best: play them electric guitars!!! Now, I like the keyboards probably more than most people, but going back to the guitar heavy sound was the best thing they could have done. After all, you don't have Alex Lifeson in a band just to make him stand behind some fat old keyboard player. Let the man, play!! Despite the revitalized sound, all still wasn't right in the world of Rush. Somehow, Roll the Bones turned out to be Rush's most radio-pop-pandering album to date. There's nothing inherently wrong about trying for a commercial smash, but they're never going to be successful at it if their songwriting hasn't improved a whole lot since Presto. They just gave the same blandness and lack-of-substance in a slightly different sound! Bleugh! It is a well-known fact that I listened to this about about four times when I was studying for a dynamics final last Thursday. And I'll tell you, nothing could have gotten me more interested in dynamics than this Rush album. In a way I have much to be thankful for! Sometimes listening to good music whilst studying is a bad idea, because I want to pay attention to it too much. So, I ended up getting a lot of quality studying in. Now that the final is over, and I had to actually pay very close attention to this Rush album. Geez, it's boring! That said, “Dreamline” is pretty good. It starts out sounding a little like they were going for a Synchronocity moment, which then reminded me of some of the better moments of Signals. The textures are nicely done, and I like how they work in those suppressed keyboards! “Roll the Bones” is an entertaining song, too, with nice guitar licks and a fun chord sequence in parts. The instrumentation is varied and the development is interesting .................. that is, apart from that terrible rapping part. I think it goes without saying that rapping and Rush don't belong together. “Where's My Thing?” is a pure instrumental, and it's really nice to hear Rush concentrating on more complicated song arrangements! That's my favorite song on the album... it's easily the most energetic and entertaining moment here. So with all those mentioned highlights, I'd say half of this album was pretty good! I mean, nothing there impressed me quite enough to dish out any A's in the track reviews, but they were fitfully entertaining for early '90s pop music. But the other half is the snoozefest to end all snoozefests. “Bravado” is an adult contemporary ballad that's not very interesting at all. It's pretty damn obvious that they intended that to be played in the Top 40 hit radio, and I gotta say I've heard Michael Bolton songs more interesting than that dreary thing. “Face Up” has some nice guitar, and it's pretty fun for the first minute... but then it just seems to drag on and on. And I really don't care for that reverb-heavy section in the middle. The three tracks “The Big Wheel,” “Heresy” and “Ghost of a Chance” have the same sort of problem. They are all fine for the first minute or so, but it's painfully obvious that Rush didn't invest their hearts in this album at all. I mean, I don't blame them for wanting to have a Top 40 hit, but it would be nice if you would make them good ones. And the best way to do that is write from your hearts!!! Take it from me... I know all about matters of the heart. I passed dynamics. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Roll the Bones Counterparts (1993) Album Score: 10 Rush moved to a more guitar-heavy sound in their 1991 release Roll the Bones. That was a great idea, of course, but apparently didn't bear very appealing fruit until this 1993 follow-up. Despite the similar sounds, the whole mentality of the two albums were completely different. They spent Roll the Bones probing (and failing) to win radio hits. Counterparts was aimed more toward alternative-rock audiences. So the guitars are heavier, more furious and less “accessible.” Still, Counterparts is far from a perfect work, but it's easily their best work since 1985's Grace Under Pressure, and that's good enough for me! I mean... I actually enjoyed listening to this album, which is something that I've been woefully missing from this band. I still wish Rush would sit down and develop their melodies and harmonies. I know... I've been complaining about that forever, but it doesn't mean I should lower my standards for them. Rush doesn't get any special privileges for sucking! There is probably a slight improvement with the melodies and harmonies, but I think they were probably slightly more interesting in Signals and Power Windows, both of which received lower album scores. What makes Counterparts really stand out are those dark, furious guitar tones, which can be described as nothing else than awesome. Arrangements used to be one of Rush's greatest strengths, and this is the most intricate work they've done since their glory days. That's enough comparing Rush's discography... Let's talk more about the individual songs! They open it with the thunderous and heart-pumping “Animate.” The pace is furious and the guitar tones are dark and wonderful to hear! These guys aren't being as weird as they were in the '70s, but they put their top-rate instrumental chops to the challenge there. The melody isn't the best, but there is some value in those chord progressions. That's a good song, but my favorite is the one where Geddy Lee doesn't sing anything! (Ah, well the guy could still play a mean bass...) It's the instrumental called “Leave That Thing Alone.” Since their vocal melodies have been completely bland, and instrumental was a great idea for them! Of course, to keep it interesting, they have to concentrate on textures and their furious instrumentals, and they succeed at it so well that I have stars in my eyes! I also like those incredibly dark guitar tones in “Stick it Out” even though the song's pacing isn't quite as heart-pounding as it could have been. “Cut to the Chase” has a pretty neat orchestral build-up, but they keep on repeating it, and it has a few clumsy jumps that catch me too much by surprise. “Between the Sun & Moon” makes a good listen, and I like the furiousness of the instrumentals! I can't say anything else good about it, but virtually nothing else needs to be said about it. “Double Agent” is the distant third-best song of Counterparts. The instrumentals are a little bit crazy, and I'm glad that Rush is starting to come out of that plastic bag they locked themselves in during the mid 80s. That voice-over idea is the only thing I don't like about it. There is no single song in this album that tanks, which is another good sign that Rush was coming out of their depression. “Nobody's Hero” is the most “acoustic” song here, but that electric chorus comes off as a little clumsy. (And those lyrics are controversial to anti-gay Rush fans, which I suppose were fairly numerous.) “Alien Shore” and “The Speed of Love” are both passable, but they don't find anything interesting to do with either of them. The guitars seem much more lightweight, and the arrangements don't capture my interest. They sound a little bored with those. I'm also dismayed with “Everyday Glory” ... they should have found something *bigger* to close the album with. That has a pop tone that's a little more reminiscent of their late '80s albums, and (naturally) there's nothing redeeming about the melody. But even that's a fine song with a nice overall texture to it. I think Rush's longtime fans who were still faithful enough to buy their albums were probably overwhelmingly delighted with this release. This is hardly a great album—even by their standard—but it had been a long time since they sounded this excited! Yay! Read the track reviews and reader comments: Counterparts Test For Echo (1996) Album Score: 11 It was now a comfortable distance from the late '80s, and so Rush was allowed to release their best album since Moving Pictures. (The supernatural gods of rock 'n' roll had been sucking the life-force out of old rock bands in the late '80s. That's my theory.) They continued on the path they embarked upon in Counterparts--they let the guitar sound dominate the album with very little keyboards to spoil everything. However, the guitars are not quite as heavy as they were on the grunge-leaning Counterparts. This is the first time in awhile that Rush didn't seem to be going after any particular style. This is very neutral hard-rock. And they seem to have responded to my calls in my Counterparts review to start concentrating more on songwriting. Lucky me! These guys were never great songwriters, but they're paying more heed to melodies and rhythms, which has improved the quality of this album immensely. Of course, this is a far cry away of anything Beatles-quality. There is a general tendency for these songs to sound the same. That is, it's difficult for me to tell these songs apart once they're through playing. This isn't a very diverse album! However, if you want something guitar-heavy from such a talented band as Rush who is playing as tightly and intricately as ever, then this is up your alley. Just don't expect anything amazing, or even to get the impression that there is more than one song on it. They start things off nicely with “Test For Echo.” It has a thick, nicely produced atmosphere with a really cool running guitar riff that pops up occasionally. Geddy Lee even comes up with a fitfully nice vocal melody that provides one or two good hooks. They're hardly Paul McCartney, but they're quite good for Rush. Neil Peart found a few interesting rhythms to play that works with the overall flow of the piece. Its only real flaw is that six-minute running length, which is really pushing it. But I'm willing to forgive that. That's really the only song on the album with such a length problem. As much as I appreciate most of these songs, “Time and Motion” takes the cake. That's my undisputed favorite! It has the coolest guitar tones of them all being a tad harder than the rest (featuring a cool, “power” intro). It features number of interesting rhythms, which makes that a good song to hear develop. The chord changes are even very nice! (It's been awhile since I complimented Rush on their harmonies.) Its overall mood is very cold... but all Rush songs are cold. I can't remember a time when I was ever thinking that Rush was warm. I also gotta admire Lifeson's wired-up solo that he delivers very briefly in the middle. It's perhaps a little too brief, but ... they knew well enough to not keep good things going too long. “Totem” is another fun song with good flow. It's a little more upbeat and poppy than the others although it's still very guitar heavy! It also features one of the album's most likable melodies (even though it's not exactly infectious... I don't remember it once it's through playing). I also like “Virtuality,” with that ultra-cool hard-rock riff that opens the song and a number of interesting song developments throughout. That interacts well with Lee's vocal melody, which also manages to be uncharacteristically catchy for Rush. Unfortunately, for every massive highlight in Test For Echo, there's a mediocre one. They're songs that provide all the at-the-moment, polished guitar action that you could ask for, but they make almost no impression other than that base-level sound. “Driven” is a good example of a “mediocre” song! It's a bit of a klutzy attempt to revisit their glorious “YYZ” song, but the guitar tones are fun to hear and, once again, I like the rhythms. The only real bomb in here is “Dog Years,” which doesn't actually bomb that badly. It's grittier than the other songs, which was probably a conscious stylistic decision for them. But this time, the whole song doesn't seem to flow very well, and those guitar riffs don't pique my interest at all! Despite “Dog Years,” Rush managed to come out with a consistently enjoyable album, at long last! There are plenty of cool guitar riffs and solos to please any of Lifeson's fans (and everybody who likes the guitar should be a Lifeson fan ... the dude has skills)! Neil Peart seemed more in-tuned with his rhythms than he had been for a little while (although those usually have been pretty good anyway). Of course, Lee is one of the best bass guitarists ever, a fact that I don't seem to mention often enough...... Well, I'm mentioning it now! Rush always have impressive instrumental virtuosos, but now they have finally come up with an album that you might want to hear! Yaaaaaaaay. Read the track reviews and reader comments: Test For Echo Vapor Trails (2002) Album Score: 7 I'm usually someone who can't sit alone by himself in a quiet room. Unless I'm intensely preoccupied with something (e.g. difficult homework problems), there's almost always some sort of music coming out of my speakers. But after listening to Rush's 17th studio album, Vapor Trails, I want to do nothing but sit in this quiet room for the next four to eight hours. It was *that* bad. It's nothing but noise, noise, noise. It was so noisy that it was noisy even when I turned the volume down. Apart for some very brief exceptions, it never let up. This thing really drove me nuts... having to endure a 70-minute toneless blur while trying to pay as close attention to it as I could was really taxing on my nerves. I'm happy that I survived! Rush had a six-year break in between albums before they finally released this. I'm sure they would have liked to release more albums (especially since Test For Echo proved to be such a career revitalizing work), but a string of family tragedies had kept them out of it. In a sense, I feel bad for having such a negative reaction to this album when I feel like it's fortunate that Rush even continued on with their careers in the first place ...But art is only as good as it is. If Vapor Trails drives me up the wall, then Vapor Trails drives me up the wall. I will say that if you're the sort of music listener who likes dark and tormented guitars and nothing but dark and tormented guitars no matter how toneless they are for an entire 70 minutes, then you'd might as well forget everything I'm writing immediately. I can't honestly assess what you might think of it, because your tastes are alien to me. Even with heavy metal albums that I really enjoyed, such as classic Iron Maiden, I had at least some negative initial reaction to it. Well, Iron Maiden ultimately won me over for the complicated guitar riffs, the catchy melodies and tasteful arrangements. It seems that no matter what sort of music it is, I'll like it as long as it meets those fundamental requirements. As a whole Vapor Trails is pretty far from satisfying me. There aren't many good melodies to speak of, the song production is awful (favoring ugly, murky atmosphere, and the guitar riffs, while well-played, usually aren't memorable. Sitting through the whole album has been a phenomenally boring experience. That said, I really liked the first two songs. I'm a little bit worried that my track reviews are skewed toward favoring the album's opening tracks just because I hadn't grown tired of the album yet. (I'm positive that it couldn't have been avoided no matter how much I tried, even if only a little bit, but I tried my hardest.) I did listen to them a few times, and I'm positive that they're genuinely well-written, and they're the most musically diverse tracks here. “One Little Victory” has a guitar line that reminds me of surf (which was certainly exotic for them). The song has incredible drive to it, it has some catchy riffs and its darkened atmosphere actually gives it a bit of an extra edge. “Ceiling Unlimited” isn't especially great, but it has a number good riffs, a quasi-poppy verse, and some of it REALLY rocks. It's impressive! Unfortunately the rest of the album doesn't recapture much of that. I'd call a few of the other songs 'somewhat cool,' but they are so non-distinct as a whole that they can all be described using the same general words. They're all dark, they're all noisy, they're all ugly, they're all mostly boring ........ they're also all well-played, but that's only a quality that's good for listeners who worship things as silly as instrumental virtuosity. But this aspect was at least good enough to earn my respect... If you scan my track reviews I gave the vast majority of these tracks 'Cs.' That's only because 'Ds' are reserved only for songs that I think were badly done. In all honesty I can't say that about Vapor Trails. But I made up for that leniency by lowering the entire rating of this album by a few notches for its extremely terrible effect it had on me. Considering how gradually better their career had been getting since the bland '80s, I knew that they were capable of making a more interesting album. But their decision to go in this ugly, murder-my-ears-with-the-guitar route was a misguided one. Booooo! Read the track reviews and reader comments: Vapor Trails Snakes & Arrows (2007) Album Score: 11 Rush surprises me. At this point, I haven't heard many of their albums between 1984 and 2004, but their latest release is hugely enjoyable to me. Even though Rush is an olden Rush band, and I'm afraid to look at any of their current photographs for fear of how wrinkly they became. Or maybe I'm not that afraid. Hm. Well, listening to Snakes and Arrows has at least inspired me to made me want to see these guys live. Nevermind --- I can't afford such things! But anyway, I'm quite surprised to hear a late-career Rush album of such quality. I can't say it surpasses the quality of many of their previous albums (such as Hemispheres), but it certainly surpasses the quality of the overwhelming majority of Rush albums I've heard. That's not saying a whole lot considering I'm not a big Rush fan --- but let's just say that this is just a spankingly good album. The band itself is certainly in top form. These guys haven't forgotten how to play their instruments. Lead singer Geddy Lee is the one member who seemed to change the most --- his voice isn't annoying anymore. No longer is that voice that sounds like somebody was electrocuting his testicles! Certainly, air-drummer fans are going to love this album, because Neil Peart is still fantastic. I'm not a drum expert or anything, but his work really jumps out at me. Possibly, that's just the power of suggestion (because everybody says he's the best drummer in the world), but I'm in certainly in no place to contradict that. The production is crystal clear. My only complaint is that maybe it's a bit too perfect, and overproduced in some spots. Usually, they seem to have taken good care of their songs in the studio. Most importantly, however, is the songwriting. It's as solid as ever for Rush. This isn't a Beatles album or anything, and there are a few weaker spots, but it's all quite good just the same. Rush really seemed to have gotten wiser and more mature with age. They're no geniuses, but intelligent --- and this is intelligent music. They created a few brilliant works here that's worth pointing out. All you really need to do is hear "Spindrift." That's absolutely tops and possibly the best piece of proggish ear candy these guys were ever responsible for (though keep in mind, at this moment, 1984-2004 Rush is completely unknown to me). That's such an awesome song, and all their weird creative ideas seemed to work perfectly. That is followed up by what's clearly the second best track of the album, an instrumental called "The Main Monkey Business" --- it's another elaborate, prog-like track with development that's absolutely fun to hear. Many of the other tracks are more middle-of-the-road that are probably more suited for passive listening, but --- well, that sort of music is necessary for the world! A few more mediocre tracks are sprinkled here and there, but nothing that should put you off. Overall, this is quite a fantastic late-career Rush fan! I can't afford concert tickets nowadays, but I wish I could!!! 2007 is a good year for a Rush concert --- this new material rivals their old, so it promises to be one smashing event. (What am I doing advertising Rush concerts? ... What's wrong with me??) Read the track reviews and reader comments: Snakes & Arrows Home | F.A.Q. | Rating System | Best-to-Worst List | Links | About the Author | Movie Reviews | Short Stories | Message Board | Contact Me All reviews are written by Michael Lawrence.