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The poppiest and heaviest Rush song on Counterparts?


Texas King
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The poppiest and heaviest Rush song on Counterparts?  

36 members have voted

  1. 1. The poppiest Rush song on Counterparts?

    • Animate
      0
    • Stick It Out
    • Cut to the Chase
      0
    • Nobody's Hero
    • Between Sun & Moon
    • Alien Shore
      0
    • The Speed of Love
    • Double Agent
      0
    • Leave That Thing Alone
      0
    • Cold Fire
    • Everyday Glory
  2. 2. The heaviest Rush song on Counterparts?

    • Animate
    • Stick It Out
    • Cut to the Chase
      0
    • Nobody's Hero
    • Between Sun & Moon
    • Alien Shore
    • The Speed of Love
      0
    • Double Agent
    • Leave That Thing Alone
      0
    • Cold Fire
      0
    • Everyday Glory
      0
  3. 3. Rate the album CP on a scale from 1-10



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What is your definition of "heaviest"?

 

Never mind, I'll just use my own. Not many songs to choose from anyway.

 

Edit: On second thought, there isn't one song on the album that I'd consider heavy.

 

The entire album is poppy from start to finish.

 

I'll just rate it: 3

Edited by Lorraine
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Cold Fire is a poppy lurve song but thats ok.Everyday Glory and Nobody's Hero musically are poppy but the lyrics are too deep for brain dead radio bogans.Stick it Out is heavy but i am not too keen on it.Cut to the Chase is much better.I love Counterparts because came out at a difficult time of my life and i still have that scratchy cd.Its digital data dots must be getting thin.
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Speed Of Love is easily the poppiest.

 

Stick It Out is easily the heaviest.

 

Neither are close to the best on the album.

 

Rates around a B in general but a C in Rush for me, so 7.

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Speed Of Love is easily the poppiest.

 

Stick It Out is easily the heaviest.

 

Neither are close to the best on the album.

 

Rates around a B in general but a C in Rush for me, so 7.

 

Same here!

Speed is the poppiest, Stick the heaviest, neither are close to the best on there, and a 7 overall.

 

Not sure on the B and C grades as I haven't given that bit too much thought.

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It didn't age well with me over the years and I don't care for the songs about relationships (Animate, SOL, Alien Shore) but sound wise that was a fine record. Sadly the last really great produced Rush album. Everything after paled in comparison...TFE was too fuzzy and bland, VT and CA a wall of noise, S&A sounded OK I suppose music aside but the music didn't rock as hard as many on CP
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It didn't age well with me over the years and I don't care for the songs about relationships (Animate, SOL, Alien Shore) but sound wise that was a fine record. Sadly the last really great produced Rush album. Everything after paled in comparison...TFE was too fuzzy and bland, VT and CA a wall of noise, S&A sounded OK I suppose music aside but the music didn't rock as hard as many on CP
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It didn't age well with me over the years and I don't care for the songs about relationships (Animate, SOL, Alien Shore) but sound wise that was a fine record. Sadly the last really great produced Rush album. Everything after paled in comparison...TFE was too fuzzy and bland, VT and CA a wall of noise, S&A sounded OK I suppose music aside but the music didn't rock as hard as many on CP

Good description.TFE i still love although a step backwards overall from Counterparts.Loved the production on S&A but some of the songs weren'thappening .Counterparts is the last Rush studio album i can sit through without reaching out for the skip button.
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"Counterparts" is the last great RUSH record. Every song is solid except for "The Speed Of Love." A slow train-wreck of a song.

 

Thank Satan for Ghost.

 

Signed,

 

Ruling Under Satan's Hands

 

 

 

Knights In Satan's Service?

 

 

Satan Lets Angels Yawn Eternally Random

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Interesting factoid another fan told me: the reason Everyday Glory sounds so much louder than the rest of the album (especially the warmth of the bass guitar which was already aggressive enough in the other songs) was because it was recorded on analog tape instead of digital in a separate studio session. I never read that in any of the Rush bio books but it makes sense. I always had to reach over and turn down the volume on that song when it came on super loud and in your face
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Interesting factoid another fan told me: the reason Everyday Glory sounds so much louder than the rest of the album (especially the warmth of the bass guitar which was already aggressive enough in the other songs) was because it was recorded on analog tape instead of digital in a separate studio session. I never read that in any of the Rush bio books but it makes sense. I always had to reach over and turn down the volume on that song when it came on super loud and in your face

 

Get the Audio Fidelity AFZ-152 Counterparts CD. The mastering on that is great and not loud at all. Everyday Glory does not sound out of place at all and is mastered perfectly. Alternatively, the 96 kHz / 24 bit flac download that is available for free with the purchase of the 2015 vinyl remaster also has very good and even mastering.

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This shitfest of a piece of petroleum by product (can't bring myself to call it a record) is possibly the very nadir of their catalogue...I had to pause and think about it,but yes it is worse than Snakes and Arrows and VT (oh, and that forgettable thingy about wind up angels) which is a considerable achievement,and I think it even edges out RTB in the stinker stakes.

 

Not sure terms like "heavy" and "poppy" have any relevance here, but I can almost stomach Animate (on a good day), however the cringeworthy,buttock-clenchingly embarrassing Nobody's Hero takes the moldy cake......the sentiment of the song is worthy, even noble, but totally destroyed by the most ham fisted, inept and socially gauche lyrics I have heard in a long time.

 

Rating?....if it were possible I'd give it a minus 10, but in the spirit of the poll I shall say a barely deserved 1

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For me this period of Rush was very strange. It was like they'd lost direction. First we had Roll the Bones which is hard to categorise, imagine introducing someone to Rush on the back of Ghost of a Chance! Then they went grunge with Counterparts with which what amounts to heresy I sold, everything was bland even the cover. Then all change again for Test for Echo which I couldn't connect with either, songs seemed disjointed even the instrumentals were beginning to wear a bit thin and that album was way too long.
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Counterparts is nowhere near my favourite RUSH album, but I have to say, Fridge, that you and I are fans of two completely different bands both named RUSH.

 

 

 

.

 

No, same band, we just have differing views on some of their catalogue.

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Stick It Out is both the heaviest and poppiest song here.

 

Not sure how a song as slow and plodding as The Speed of Love is considered the poppiest. Catchy = poppy, and Stick It Out has a far catchier chorus, plus a catchy riff.

Edited by The K Man
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This shitfest of a piece of petroleum by product (can't bring myself to call it a record) is possibly the very nadir of their catalogue...I had to pause and think about it,but yes it is worse than Snakes and Arrows and VT (oh, and that forgettable thingy about wind up angels) which is a considerable achievement,and I think it even edges out RTB in the stinker stakes.

 

Not sure terms like "heavy" and "poppy" have any relevance here, but I can almost stomach Animate (on a good day), however the cringeworthy,buttock-clenchingly embarrassing Nobody's Hero takes the moldy cake......the sentiment of the song is worthy, even noble, but totally destroyed by the most ham fisted, inept and socially gauche lyrics I have heard in a long time.

 

Rating?....if it were possible I'd give it a minus 10, but in the spirit of the poll I shall say a barely deserved 1

:LOL:

 

 

Classic post!

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Not only do I love the songs on Counterparts (except for Stick it out, which is kinda meh), but the production is perfection.
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Counterparts is nowhere near my favourite RUSH album, but I have to say, Fridge, that you and I are fans of two completely different bands both named RUSH.

 

 

No, same band, we just have differing views on some of their catalogue.

 

No, I am being quite serious about it being a different band. I'll explain:

 

I rank Counterparts as the 11th best RUSH studio album. So really it isn't one of my favourites, but I like enough songs on it that it isn't in the bottom third. That said, there are albums from every decade that I rank higher than Counterparts except for the 70s. Meaning that even though it isn't an album I favour that much, I still like Counterparts BETTER than anything RUSH released prior to Permanent Waves. Not by a little, either. The only album that I consider even close to Counterparts from the 70s is A Farewell To Kings (yes, I dislike Hemispheres).

 

Permanent Waves is a notable landmark, because it signalled a sea-change from long prog-rock multi-part songs to more easily accessible rock with popular chorus and melody structure. It also featured a lyrical shift from fantasy to poignant socially conscious lyrics, which is also important to me. The band was forever changed from that point and adopted a completely new ethos and song writing style which persisted until the end of their career. It is arguable that Clockwork Angels in some ways was a return to that pre-1980 style, and it is hardly surprising that it is my least favourite album released by the band not put out in the 1970s (excluding Feedback).

 

That 70s band, I do not like all that much. Had RUSH broken up after Hemispheres, I would have never listened to them. Had RUSH continued to release 4 to 6 track albums with multi-part progressive rock songs with starts and stops in them, I would have never bought an album. Had RUSH released albums that sounded vaguely Led Zeppeliny (like the 1st 2 albums) for the rest of their career, I would have never bought a RUSH album. I only started being a RUSH fan because the music they recorded on Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, and Hold Your Fire. Those were the 3 albums that came out when I was a little kid discovering music. That is the RUSH sound I fell in love with. Some of the evolution afterwards I love (Roll The Bones and Snakes & Arrows) and some of it I find less good (Counterparts and Clockwork Angels), but ALL of it I like better than ANYTHING RUSH put out in the 70s.

 

Now pretend for a minute that RUSH's debut album was Permanent Waves or even worse (for you) Signals. Would you still be a RUSH fan? Would they still be one of your favourite bands if their catalogue consisted only of the music released between 1982 and 2013? It certainly wouldn't impact my fandom negatively at all. In fact, I am pretty sure I would have held the band in even higher esteem had either of those albums been their debut. But, of course, this is just a fantasy; The band needed to evolve and find themselves and the music they wanted to create. Still, I consider RUSH 1973-1979 to be a completely different band than 1980-2013.

 

From what you wrote, I can tell that you hate some of my favourite RUSH albums and that you dislike them for the exact reason I think they are great. The lyrics on Nobody's Hero are absolutely brilliant to me, for example. It is likely that the RUSH stuff I dislike is the exact stuff you love. I find the lyrics to Xanadu to be stupid drivel, for example. At least Nobody's Hero is saying something real! But it's not just the lyrics, it is everything. I like everything about post 1980 RUSH better than 1970s RUSH. That is the band I love. I think you like a different band than I do. Both bands may have the same musicians and songwriters, but they really do sound, feel, and read like two completely different bands.

Edited by diatribein
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