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Superconductor: Explain the hate, because I like.


fraroc
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DULL song!

Funny but it seems that a lot of folks that dig Superconductor will express love for Madrigal or Rivendell. Give me upbeat parody all day over that stuff.

 

Rivendell is an okay song, definitely the least of the tracks on FBN. Same for Madrigal on AFTK. I rarely listen to either of those. But I listen to Superconductor quite a bit. If it comes up on my Rush playlist I never skip it.

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I don't like the song, although it's not in the bottom 10 of songs I really hate, which I won't get into now.

 

I find Superconductor to be too repetitious. It doesn't have the fine poetry of a lot of Rush songs. Also, I find the sound to be a bit tinny, not as rich as most Rush tunes.

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A whole thread on one of my least favorite Rush songs ever (and I say "one of my least favorite" just because I don't want to take the time to think if there's any other Rush song that I like less than Superconductor). To me, Superconductor is excessively cloying in a way that I just don't hear on other Rush songs. It feels like a play for simplistic appeal; "pop pap," if you will. I've previously mentioned this, but when I hear Superconductor, I picture Shirley Temple, arms extended outward, palms forward, making big swirling motions, a la Good Ship Lollypop. Not a pretty image for a rock band.
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A whole thread on one of my least favorite Rush songs ever (and I say "one of my least favorite" just because I don't want to take the time to think if there's any other Rush song that I like less than Superconductor). To me, Superconductor is excessively cloying in a way that I just don't hear on other Rush songs. It feels like a play for simplistic appeal; "pop pap," if you will. I've previously mentioned this, but when I hear Superconductor, I picture Shirley Temple, arms extended outward, palms forward, making big swirling motions, a la Good Ship Lollypop. Not a pretty image for a rock band.

Maybe I've been missing the purpose for all of these years, but perhaps the music is designed to highlight the message of the song; some hitmaker cobbles together a few harmonized chords, sticks a pretty boy/girl behind a mic, and viola, a hit! In that vein, think for a minute how the lyrics would sound to a background more typical of Rush: Alex' buzzsaw guitar and Geddy's bass runs with drum fills everywhere. I think the message of the song would get lost, as what you're hearing in no way correlates to the critique of the popular music industry. Perhaps that's why Rush wrote a song that musically sounds like the machine-produced pablum it describes. Wow, an on-line moment of self discovery by me. Cool. I still hate the song, but cool.

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Fair or not, some of the hate might have to do with the embarrassing video ..

 

Unfortunately, the video suits the song perfectly

 

Hard to know. But I'd guess nearly all Rush fans heard the song way before they saw the video. If anything, the most likely case for haters would've been that they hated the song first then later hated the video TOO.

 

And thinking along those lines, the even shittier Time Stand Still video hasn't seemed to stop fans from liking that song

 

xxN-Ch.gif

The Superconductor video makes the POS they did for Time Stand Still look like Johnny Cash's Hurt by comparison.

Edited by laughedatbytime
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DULL song!

Funny but it seems that a lot of folks that dig Superconductor will express love for Madrigal or Rivendell. Give me upbeat parody all day over that stuff.

 

IMO Superconductor is a bit pedestrian. By that point in their career, I would like to think they could have done better. If it was parody, then it was not a very good (IMHO).

 

Yes, I like Madrigal (wouldn't say I love it though - it's probably my least favorite tune on that album but a nice preparation for Cygnus X-1). No, I do not like Rivendell.

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If the Kardashians would like a Rush song, it would be Half the World. But Superconductor would be a close second (even if it is a parody of what led to their success.)
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It’s not very “Rushy”. More like video game music.

7/8 time sig is well-disguised.

 

7/4

Extremely well-disguised, then. :LOL:

 

I actually put 7/4 first, but changed my mind. I think the 4/4 "hits me in a soft place" break caused me doubt.

 

ETA: I was led to explore the 7/4 v 7/8 theoretical dilemma, and this was a fun read...

Edited by goose
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Fair or not, some of the hate might have to do with the embarrassing video ..

 

Unfortunately, the video suits the song perfectly

 

Hard to know. But I'd guess nearly all Rush fans heard the song way before they saw the video. If anything, the most likely case for haters would've been that they hated the song first then later hated the video TOO.

 

And thinking along those lines, the even shittier Time Stand Still video hasn't seemed to stop fans from liking that song

 

xxN-Ch.gif

 

Not a big fan of the video itself with Mann, but I loved Neil on his big white kit. Neil was in great shape back then. As a Neil Peart clone I actually was a cyclist back then and in excellent shape like Neil. There is that part of the video when the camera is over the band and it's going crazy showing multiple motion shots of the band. Some say I look like Neil in that video. Funny as it is true.

 

Luckily I am still in good shape and I still have my dark hair.

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Superconductor is OK to me but this was really a serious crime...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTwG4LirC2w

 

Yes I think the memories of Xanaconductor taint the song.

 

Some excellent cutting lyrics in there, Rupert Hine's vocals for the chorus are dreadful though, similar to Face Up in that respect. The production on Presto doesn't work well for it either, unlike other songs on that album.

 

 

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Superconductor is OK to me but this was really a serious crime...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTwG4LirC2w

 

Yes I think the memories of Xanaconductor taint the song.

 

Some excellent cutting lyrics in there, Rupert Hine's vocals for the chorus are dreadful though, similar to Face Up in that respect. The production on Presto doesn't work well for it either, unlike other songs on that album.

 

I was JUST thinking about the Face Up/Superconductor similarity that you're talking about. But I dislike Face Up and, as I said in a previous post, Superconductor is ok.

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