Deckiller

1. The Garden 2. The Wreckers 3. Caravan 4. The Anarchist 5. Clockwork Angels 6. Halo Effect 7. BU2B2 8. BU2B 9. Headlong Flight 10. Carnies 11. Seven Cities of Gold 12. Wish them Well I moved Halo Effect up a few spots. It has really clicked for me, and could be a major radio hit. Hell, I think this might be Rush's most consistent album since Power Windows. I mean, even Snakes and Arrows had some real turn-off songs on my first listen (Spindrift, The Way the Wind Blows, Faithless, Good News First). The only song that kinda turned me off was Seven Cities of Gold (due to the shaky vocals), but the musicianship of that song redeems it bigtime (in a way that Spindrift and Good News First lack).

Absolutely. Kevin J. Anderson's Star Wars novels were some of the first books I ever read. Love the guy.

It reminded me a lot of Trial of Tears and Lines in the Sand. Edit: and a little bit of Raise the Knife in the chorus

QUOTE (danielmclark @ Jun 4 2012, 11:02 PM) QUOTE (Deckiller @ Jun 4 2012, 09:18 PM) 4th time through the album. The Garden is the first Rush song that made me outright cry. It took the 4th listen but it all clicked. The lyrics...are fantastic. This might be Peart's best lyrical performance. This album right here. I can't wait to see where the song that made you cry fits into your catalog rankings! That's got to end up pretty high! I'll finish the rankings before CA is released as planned, but then I'll go back and add the CA songs into the list after that.

Tom Sawyer Afterimage/The Enemy Within Subdivisions Malignant Narcissism Caravan BU2B Clockwork Angels The Anarchist Carnies Seven Cities of Gold The Wreckers Set 2: Headlong Flight BU2B2 Wish Them Well Cold Fire Drum Solo The Garden 2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx Freewill Lock and Key The Spirit of Radio Encore: Limelight YYZ Finding My Way/In the Mood

Rush - Before and After Fly By Night - Anthem!!! Caress of Steel - Bastille Day 2112 - Tears (with live orchestra) A Farewell to Kings - Xanadu Hemispheres - Hemispheres Permanent Waves - Different Strings Moving Pictures - meh, Tom Sawyer Signals - Losing It (with live orchestra member) Grace Under Pressure - Afterimage Power Windows - Manhattan Project (with live orchestra) Hold Your Fire - Lock and Key (with live orchestra) Presto - Available Light Roll the Bones - Ghost of a Chance Counterparts - Cold Fire Test for Echo - Limbo Vapor Trails - Ceiling Unlimited (with revamped guitar in the verses) Feedback - The Seeker Snakes and Arrows - Armor and Sword Clockwork Angels - The Garden (with live orchestra)

I was thinking Falling into Infinity if that album had a bit more edge. The guitar work in The Garden reminds me a lot of Petrucci's recent stuff. Very good stuff. Two paragons of prog. On the whole, I'd rank the songs as follows: 1. The Garden (9.75/10) 2. Caravan (9.25/10) 3. The Wreckers (9.25/10) 4. The Anarchist (9/10) 5. BU2B2 (9/10) 6. Clockwork Angels (9/10) 7. BU2B (8/10) 8. Headlong Flight (7.75/10) 9. Carnies (7.75/10) 10. Wish Them Well (7/10) 11. Halo Effect (7/10) 12. Seven Cities of Gold (6.5/10)

4th time through the album. The Garden is the first Rush song that made me outright cry. It took the 4th listen but it all clicked. The lyrics...are fantastic. This might be Peart's best lyrical performance. This album right here.

Many reasons. (1) Geddy Lee let it loose this album. The bass is primus quality. (2) The songs flow, like you said. (3) The lyrics work. They're not cheesy. (4) The drums are loose without getting too flashy. Good balance. (5) Geddy doesn't oversing as much as he did on Vapor Trails and Snakes and Arrows. (6) There is a lot of depth on this album. Lots of cool sound effects and little nuggets that help divert us from Lifeson's wall of sound. (7) The album is -driving-: it's constantly propelling forward, for the most part. It's a lot like Grace Under Pressure.

Clockwork Angels is an unbelievable track. This track grows and grows and blossoms with each listen. It's like a Dream Theater song.

Here's another option: do what Dream Theater did in the mid 90s with A Change of Seasons and split the concept album into three parts! Start with three classics, then Malignant Narcissism, then play Caravan through The Wreckers. Come back and start with Headlong Flight, BU2B2, and Wish Them Well. 3 more classics, then the drum solo, then The Garden, then The Spirit of Radio and 2112 to close out the 2nd set. And then 3 great songs for the encore. Maybe something like this: Tom Sawyer The Enemy Within Subdivisions Malignant Narcissism Caravan BU2B Clockwork Angels The Anarchist Carnies Seven Cities of Gold The Wreckers Set 2: Headlong Flight BU2B2 Wish Them Well Cold Fire Drum Solo The Garden 2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx Freewill YYZ The Spirit of Radio Encore: Limelight Witch Hunt Finding My Way/In the Mood

I'm just thinking they'll need a hit or two in that first set to satisfy the casuals.

What's amazing is that the hype made my first listen somewhat disappointing because it wasn't quite what I expected. HOWEVER, the hype was ultimately beneficial because the album has grown with each listen. I LOVE albums that grow on me! Genesis' Foxtrot is another album that was a major grower for me.

1st set could be simple: start with Tom Sawyer and then do Clockwork Angels in its entirety with a shortened Headlong Flight and Wish Them Well. 65 minutes. 2nd set could be mostly classic stuff, with only one song from VT and one from Snakes and Arrows.

What a grower this album is! I love it more and more and more.

For me... Caravan: Grower BU2B: Shower Clockwork Angels: Grower The Anarchist: Shower Carnies: Grower Halo Effect: Shower Seven Cities of Gold: Grower The Wreckers: Shower Headlong Flight: Grower BU2B2: Shower Wish them Well: Shower The Garden: Grower/Shower

I was overhyped, so I was a tiny bit disappointed about certain aspects (the "epic" drumming, the solos, the piano bit) but overall it met my expectations. I'd give it an 8, ranking it slightly above Snakes and Arrows and slightly below Counterparts. I'd also say it's on par with HYF and Signals/Grace Under Pressure. After one listen, I'd probably put it around 8 or 9 on my list.

QUOTE (They Bow Defeated @ Jun 4 2012, 06:24 PM) QUOTE (Deckiller @ Jun 4 2012, 06:17 PM) Honestly, I wasn't paying attention to the lyrics. I just loved the BU2B motif and the way the songs flowed into each other. BU2B2 is the only thing that screams "CONCEPT ALBUM" to me. I would've liked to have seen more recurring motifs and stuff, but I still think it's the best concept album since Scenes from a Memory (though Porcupine Tree's In Absentia comes close!) I think there are better concept albums out there. Tommy, The Lamb, and Scenes from a Memory are all untouchables that are far above it, IMO. But then again, those are the masterpieces by those respective bands. I'd say it's on par with Misplaced Childhood. WOW, now I'm seriously excited. But for me, Misplaced Childhood is about 1000X better than Scenes From a Mammary. Yeah, Dream Theater are polarizing. To be honest, this concept album is firmly in the "Tommy" camp - lots of stand-alone "scenes". This is a very raw record - perhaps the closest the band has sounded to 2112 since, well, 2112.

QUOTE (presto123 @ Jun 4 2012, 06:21 PM) The last couple minutes of The Garden is pure gold. Goosebump city. As much as people love Available light and The Pass and Bravado and songs like that I think this trumps them all. A stellar conclusion to a great record. It might grow on me. I was a tiny bit disappointed from the piano onward, maybe because I was listening to the song with a Dream Theater frame of mind.

Honestly, I wasn't paying attention to the lyrics. I just loved the BU2B motif and the way the songs flowed into each other. BU2B2 is the only thing that screams "CONCEPT ALBUM" to me. I would've liked to have seen more recurring motifs and stuff, but I still think it's the best concept album since Scenes from a Memory (though Porcupine Tree's In Absentia comes close!) I think there are better concept albums out there. Tommy, The Lamb, and Scenes from a Memory are all untouchables that are far above it, IMO. But then again, those are the masterpieces by those respective bands. I'd say it's on par with Misplaced Childhood.

Currently... Caravan: 9.5/10 BU2B: 8/10 Clockwork Angels: 8.5/10 The Anarchist: 9/10 (this song has some very, VERY cool stuff in it. Carnies: 7/10 (great riff, not a big fan of the rest. Average Rush song.) Halo Effect: 8/10 (second half of the song redeems it) Seven Cities of Gold: 6.5/10 (just like Good News First, the vocals are a massive turnoff here. The fadeout is sick though. Kinda below average except the intro and outro.) The Wreckers: 9.5/10 (Potential to be Rush's biggest hit since Subdivisions and New World Man) Headlong Flight: 9/10 (this song grew by leaps and bounds after hearing it in the context of the album. Holy crap. The sound quality is also a lot better on my MP3 than it is on the radio/Youtube.) BU2B2: 9.5/10 (absolutely fantastic and critical to this album. a major highlight of the album. I was VERY surprised!) Wish Them Well: 8/10 (love the Foo Fighters and King's X nods on this song. Potential hit. Great drumming and twangy guitar on this cut. A bit repetitive though - would be better if it the second "all that we can do is wish them well" near the start was taken out. It's just a bit too repetitive. Easy to get into on the first listen. Some of Geddy's vocals near the outro get a little rough. Fantastic fadeout.) The Garden: 9/10 (Excellent final song - tries a bit too hard to avoid cliches, which puts a bit of a damper on the emotional impact at points, but it's still quite good. Dream Theater would have a field day with this song, I bet! A little disappointed in the piano and melodies - but then again, Dream Theater does this kind of song so well, so I'm spoiled.) Overall, most of the album met my expectations. Parts of it exceeded expectations (BU2B2, Wish them Well, The Wreckers), while other parts fell a little short (the second half of The Garden felt like it tried a bit too hard to be different, for example, and Seven Cities of Gold/Carnies felt very sloppy). Some of the song went on for too long. Lots of gold on this album. The inclusion of strings elevates this album above the previous three; I think it's my favorite since Counterparts, and my second favorite since Power Windows.

It's certainly melodic. I think that's what makes Power Windows such a great album: it has wonderful melodies that complement the bass work really well. Geddy was probably at his peak at that point.

No, but it's fun to see how opinions and perceptions shift, and how those clips will fit into the context of the song. That's why I like teasers.

We're not going to include Caravan, BU2B, Headlong Flight, and BU2B2 because we've already heard the first three in full and most of the fourth one. It'll be fun to revisit these rankings when the album is out in full! For me, it's: 1. The Garden 2. Wish them Well 3. The Wreckers 4. Clockwork Angels 5. Carnies 6. The Anarchist 7. Seven Cities of Gold 8. Halo Effect Edit: I changed the topic title to better reflect the purpose of the thread. Hopefully that will...reduce the hostility

Yeah, much of his guitar work is quite bland. That's been the case for many years though.