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Rate the Rush album Vapor Trails


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Rate the Rush album Vapor Trails  

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  1. 1. Rate the Rush album Vapor Trails



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1/10. Terrible. Noisy. Too much ear fatigue. Poorly recorded and the remix just made the crap more transparent. Edited by EagleMoon
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The performance is inspired, but for me, the album suffers not from the production, but the fact that there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ..

 

It is easy to blame the sound/mix, but the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed ..

 

6/10

That pretty much sums up my feelings, too. Except I gave it a 5
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If this had been done by another band i would have shelved it and most likely wouldn't have played it again(i don't sell or bin my cds,so there is a lot crap in my collection).However it was Rush and it was a long wait so it was important.There were songs that stood out like Vapour Trail and Earthshine but the rest had a grungy,noisy sameness about it.And the production,mastering or what ever it was.I didn't see any amazing musicianship.I know a guitar solo is not compulsory to a song but it could have added some colour to the wall of noise.I actually filed it next to St.Anger,Metal Machine Music and King Crimson's Earthbound.Gradually it came together and when the remix came out a lot of things started to make sense and i actually liked comparing the two.But still some of the songwriting is poor.I can quite happily sit all the way through TFE but not VT.6/10 Edited by grasbo
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10/10. Prefer the original to the remix. I listen to this album (in its entirety) more than any of the others

 

Same!!!

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I used to despise this album. Time evidently healed some prejudice I held about it, which I don't hold anymore.

 

I wouldn't say it's among their very best, but I will give it a 7.

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Its one of their best albums for songwriting.

 

When Rush mix emotion with objective lucid observations, under the foundation of great melodies and playing, not many come close to them, in the rock world.

 

There are many Rush albums where I can say, well "they" sound similar. With Vapor trails, I cannot think of an album that matches its earnest emotion, and conveys it so well. Vapor trails wears its heart on its sleeve, and communicates great emotive songs, with conviction.

 

9/10

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If this had been done by another band i would have shelved it and most likely wouldn't have played it again(i don't sell or bin my cds,so there is a lot crap in my collection).However it was Rush and it was a long wait so it was important.There were songs that stood out like Vapour Trail and Earthshine but the rest had a grungy,noisy sameness about it.And the production,mastering or what ever it was.I didn't see any amazing musicianship.I know a guitar solo is not compulsory to a song but it could have added some colour to the wall of noise.I actually filed it next to St.Anger,Metal Machine Music and King Crimson's Earthbound.Gradually it came together and when the remix came out a lot of things started to make sense and i actually liked comparing the two.But still some of the songwriting is poor.I can quite happily sit all the way through TFE but not VT.6/10

After reading your post I was surprised to see you gave it a 6. It reads like the number you'd give would be a 3 or 4. Just sayin'

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I gave it a 6 because the remix opened up things from the wall of noise original.Also i paid attention to the lyrics more because i wasn't distracted by the noise.Don't worry i like grunge,extreme death metal to Neil Young's noisiest moments but the original was for the most of it grating and lacked the light and shade of other albums Edited by grasbo
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Its one of their best albums for songwriting.

 

When Rush mix emotion with objective lucid observations, under the foundation of great melodies and playing, not many come close to them, in the rock world.

 

There are many Rush albums where I can say, well "they" sound similar. With Vapor trails, I cannot think of an album that matches its earnest emotion, and conveys it so well. Vapor trails wears its heart on its sleeve, and communicates great emotive songs, with conviction.

 

9/10

:goodone:
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LOUD and Keyboardless. I liked it a little better when it came out, but the more time passes the more I feel grated by everything about this album. The singles are all wrong too, which doesn't help. I just end up comparing it to the beautiful perfection that was My Favourite Headache (that came out two years prior) with it majestic songwriting, well placed synths and overall quality and Vapor Trails can't compete. The least the label could have done is release it as Vapour Trails for the Canadian market like Anthem had done with Geddy's album! I can't even reference the damn thing without spelling it incorrectly! The whole thing is wrong.
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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

Closer to the Heart and Xanadu are solid. Cygnus I has very cool musical moments, but the story and some vocal parts I find completely ridiculous. The title track and Cinderella Man also have good moments, but as a whole seem really disjointed. And then there's Madrigal...

 

The love for AFTK is a much a mystery to me as I'm sure my appreciation of Vapor Trails is to Eagle Moon. That's really part of the beauty of RUSH, I think.

 

:cheers:

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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

Closer to the Heart and Xanadu are solid. Cygnus I has very cool musical moments, but the story and some vocal parts I find completely ridiculous. The title track and Cinderella Man also have good moments, but as a whole seem really disjointed. And then there's Madrigal...

 

The love for AFTK is a much a mystery to me as I'm sure my appreciation of Vapor Trails is to Eagle Moon. That's really part of the beauty of RUSH, I think.

 

:cheers:

 

I think one of the issues with Vapor Trails - and definitely Clockwork Angels - is that the band / production team felt that in order to achieve heaviness, every spot on the sound spectrum needed to be saturated .. and the songs suffered

 

Whether that was an attempt to make mediocre songs sound better or more full, I don't know ..

 

Paul Northfield was there in the studio with Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures - but perhaps he wasn't the producer they needed at that time . . I really think that as their career progressed, Rush began overstepping their limitations as far as making albums ... regardless of how successful they became, they still needed someone in there to crack the whip and direct them

Edited by Lucas
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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

Closer to the Heart and Xanadu are solid. Cygnus I has very cool musical moments, but the story and some vocal parts I find completely ridiculous. The title track and Cinderella Man also have good moments, but as a whole seem really disjointed. And then there's Madrigal...

 

The love for AFTK is a much a mystery to me as I'm sure my appreciation of Vapor Trails is to Eagle Moon. That's really part of the beauty of RUSH, I think.

 

:cheers:

 

I think one of the issues with Vapor Trails - and definitely Clockwork Angels - is that the band / production team felt that in order to achieve heaviness, every spot on the sound spectrum needed to be saturated .. and the songs suffered

 

And I don't think they suffered at all. I think the aural discomfort that the production causes fits the album's content.
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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

Closer to the Heart and Xanadu are solid. Cygnus I has very cool musical moments, but the story and some vocal parts I find completely ridiculous. The title track and Cinderella Man also have good moments, but as a whole seem really disjointed. And then there's Madrigal...

 

The love for AFTK is a much a mystery to me as I'm sure my appreciation of Vapor Trails is to Eagle Moon. That's really part of the beauty of RUSH, I think.

 

:cheers:

 

I think one of the issues with Vapor Trails - and definitely Clockwork Angels - is that the band / production team felt that in order to achieve heaviness, every spot on the sound spectrum needed to be saturated .. and the songs suffered

 

And I don't think they suffered at all. I think the aural discomfort that the production causes fits the album's content.

 

Fair enough ... you don't feel that the songs have a sameness about them that bring the overall effect down ??

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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

Closer to the Heart and Xanadu are solid. Cygnus I has very cool musical moments, but the story and some vocal parts I find completely ridiculous. The title track and Cinderella Man also have good moments, but as a whole seem really disjointed. And then there's Madrigal...

 

The love for AFTK is a much a mystery to me as I'm sure my appreciation of Vapor Trails is to Eagle Moon. That's really part of the beauty of RUSH, I think.

 

:cheers:

 

I think one of the issues with Vapor Trails - and definitely Clockwork Angels - is that the band / production team felt that in order to achieve heaviness, every spot on the sound spectrum needed to be saturated .. and the songs suffered

 

And I don't think they suffered at all. I think the aural discomfort that the production causes fits the album's content.

 

Fair enough ... you don't feel that the songs have a sameness about them that bring the overall effect down ??

Not at all. I think there's a cohesion that makes it all work.
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...there is a lack of tangible riffs and songwriting chops - after two songs, you've heard just about all they had to offer ...the songs just aren't fleshed out or developed .

I could copy and paste this to the A Farewell to Kings thread.

 

oh c'mon goose, like it or not, the diversity on A Farewell is there in spades

 

Cygnus and Xanadu are about as perfectly fleshed out as any songs ever ... Closer To The Heart ??

Closer to the Heart and Xanadu are solid. Cygnus I has very cool musical moments, but the story and some vocal parts I find completely ridiculous. The title track and Cinderella Man also have good moments, but as a whole seem really disjointed. And then there's Madrigal...

 

The love for AFTK is a much a mystery to me as I'm sure my appreciation of Vapor Trails is to Eagle Moon. That's really part of the beauty of RUSH, I think.

 

:cheers:

 

I think one of the issues with Vapor Trails - and definitely Clockwork Angels - is that the band / production team felt that in order to achieve heaviness, every spot on the sound spectrum needed to be saturated .. and the songs suffered

 

And I don't think they suffered at all. I think the aural discomfort that the production causes fits the album's content.

 

Yes, for all the critical opinions on the sound issues, with Vapor trails, I try to imagine this album with the pristine, perfect mix/mastering of say Presto/hyf.

It wouldn't suite Vapor trails, nearly as well.

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Yes, for all the critical opinions on the sound issues, with Vapor trails, I try to imagine this album with the pristine, perfect mix/mastering of say Presto/hyf.

It wouldn't suite Vapor trails, nearly as well.

 

Well, there's a lot of middle ground there. Something can be less polished and more powerful than Presto without being so noisy and harsh that it induces headaches and repels the listener.

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Yes, for all the critical opinions on the sound issues, with Vapor trails, I try to imagine this album with the pristine, perfect mix/mastering of say Presto/hyf.

It wouldn't suite Vapor trails, nearly as well.

 

Well, there's a lot of middle ground there. Something can be less polished and more powerful than Presto without being so noisy and harsh that it induces headaches and repels the listener.

 

Completely disagree. As well as the sound supporting the type of songs, and what was being said, within this album, it also depicts the vulnerable point the band members were at, at this time.

Middling, doesn't carry as much conviction for me in this case.

Edited by condemned2bfree
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Yes, for all the critical opinions on the sound issues, with Vapor trails, I try to imagine this album with the pristine, perfect mix/mastering of say Presto/hyf.

It wouldn't suite Vapor trails, nearly as well.

 

Well, there's a lot of middle ground there. Something can be less polished and more powerful than Presto without being so noisy and harsh that it induces headaches and repels the listener.

I agree. Using frequency overlap as a deliberate tool to sound grungy (or whatever descriptive term you want to use)obviously wasn't their intention initially because otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need for the remix. There's only so much you can do when the base tracks are recorded too hot/distorted/clipped to start with.

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Yes, for all the critical opinions on the sound issues, with Vapor trails, I try to imagine this album with the pristine, perfect mix/mastering of say Presto/hyf.

It wouldn't suite Vapor trails, nearly as well.

 

Well, there's a lot of middle ground there. Something can be less polished and more powerful than Presto without being so noisy and harsh that it induces headaches and repels the listener.

I agree. Using frequency overlap as a deliberate tool to sound grungy (or whatever descriptive term you want to use)obviously wasn't their intention initially because otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need for the remix. There's only so much you can do when the base tracks are recorded too hot/distorted/clipped to start with.

 

Yes it wasn't their intention. This highlights the vulnerable time the guys were at(as I mentioned), making such anomalies. Its all the stronger for this for me, capturing a moment, or emotion, as art is supposed to . These qualities dont ditract for me, they enhance.

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