StellarJetman

I think that I'll go with the '97 remaster, then. The Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab version is out unless I'm outrageously lucky and find it for under twenty bucks, and, since rushgoober loves Signals so much, I'm inclined to trust his judgement here.

Why is Presto on here instead of Power Windows? I voted for it.

Because of their reputation for undue loudness and distortion, I've always avoided the '97 remasters, but I really hate how muddy and cloudy Signals sounds (in the uncharacteristically apt words of Rolling Stone, "the band tends to sound like it is trapped in wads of lint"), and I've heard that its remaster adds a lot of clarity and depth. Is this true?

Moving Pictures, but Signals has really grown on me lately.

QUOTE (patjnev @ Dec 1 2011, 10:15 PM) You have a great point there . Perhaps I did stick Ole Nick with too much credit . And now that I think of it I am even more sad that I hate S&A so much. Maybe I am looking for something that RUSH is simply not prepared to deliver anymore. I understand RUSH trying to stay fresh and new and not repeating themselves . And Nick as a producer is part of that mentality.But when I listened to S&A for the first time I wondered if RUSH was trying to do. I didn't follow it at all . And that was a first for me . Good thing that Clockwork Angels is going to sound like the two singles, then, instead of Snakes and Arrows.

Moving Pictures, with Presto and Hemispheres following it.

QUOTE (Analog_Bro @ Dec 1 2011, 08:00 PM)Well define "weak link". Wait, you're actually pulling the Clinton "defense"? For real? QUOTE (Analog_Bro @ Dec 1 2011, 08:00 PM)As far as my subjective listening goes everything is still going strong in the band, none of the links are "weak". Well, let's see here: Geddy, Alex, and Neil are all still playing at the top of their game. Geddy's vocal range has decreased. Which of these elements is weaker than the others? Even if you don't think that his voice is weak as a voice, he's still incapable of the kind of stuff that he was doing even as late as Vapor Trails, while all of the band's other aspects are just as strong as they ever were. How do you not get this? Rush fanboys scare and bewilder me in equal measure.

QUOTE (LeaveMyThingAlone @ Dec 1 2011, 12:17 PM)QUOTE (StellarJetman @ Dec 1 2011, 01:13 PM)Power Windows wins because "Double Agent" isn't on it.Double Agent rocks! What don't you like about it? Only the spoken monologues, but they're screamingly bad, and they run through the whole song. And there are plenty of other songs that I could have named instead.

Power Windows wins because "Double Agent" isn't on it.

Vapor Trails has a tremendous amount of energy to it, and the production's a lot easier to ignore when I know that I'll be able to get a remix of it sometime in the near future. The constant "Geddy choir" grates, but I'm usually able to tune it out and focus on the songs themselves. It isn't one of Rush's best albums, but I do like it. Snakes and Arrows is completely smothered in echoes and filters, drags horribly whenever it slows down - which is about half of the time - and has the most tiresomely preachy lyrics that I've ever heard on a Rush album, which is saying a lot. It's also the album where Geddy starts singing from his throat on the high notes; he'd been doing that with the older songs live for decades, but this was the first time that it happened on new material, and it really sours me on the album, especially combined with everything else that I've mentioned. So, yeah, I voted for Vapor Trails. QUOTE (Silas Lang @ Nov 30 2011, 09:52 PM)I don't get why this is so unacceptable for some folks. There's 17 other records to listen to if guitar solos are what you want. Here's a thought: what if the people who hate Vapor Trails are already doing that? What if it's because they hate Vapor Trails? What the heck are you trying to say here?

QUOTE (theredtamasrule @ Nov 28 2011, 08:28 PM) Caravan & BU2B are great and if the remainder is of equal quality then I will be so happy I'll probably drop a 3rd nut. And resort to calling myself "Tri-nut" in 3rd person. Such as: Tri-nut loves this new Rush album. Would the nut itself be called "E. T, the Extra Testicle"?

I voted for Collins. Power Windows and Counterparts sound great (if a bit too slick for Rush), and, while I could take or leave Test for Echo's production, it seems to be pretty popular. Hold Your Fire only gets more stifling to me with each listen, though. Raskulinecz would be my second pick. While I don't care too much for the way that Snakes and Arrows sounds (barring a few tracks), I love reading about the way that he pushes the band to their limits behind the scenes, and it makes me excited for the next album. Rupert Hine's work on Presto gets way too much hate around here. The bass is awful, yes, but the production itself does a great job of augmenting the core instruments without overwhelming them, and there's a great sense of space to the mix. I love how sparkly and shimmery everything is. I love the rain sticks in "Red Tide" and the piano in "Available Light". The whole album has this wonderfully refined, understated tone to it, but it's so weak and underpowered that most people miss it. If it had a decent amount of punch to it, I think that it would be a lot more popular. Roll the Bones, on the other hand, is still crap. Cheesy enough to put on a cracker.

I probably wouldn't mind them if they were limited to a few songs, but hearing them on pretty much every Vapor Trails track and about half of My Favorite Headache has destroyed any chance that I might have had of appreciating them. Blech.

Bulletin boards WERE around in the '80s; it's forums that weren't. I've even seen archived discussions from 1983 about how disappointing Return of the Jedi was.

QUOTE (Rushman14 @ Nov 29 2011, 11:16 AM) QUOTE (StellarJetman @ Nov 28 2011, 07:19 PM)I want to clarify, though, that other people have every right to like Test for Echo, just as much as I have a right to like Presto what a relief I never meant what you're thinking! That's not what I meant at all! I meant that, whatever I may say about the album, I don't have any problem with someone else liking or defending it. After all, discussing Rush music is literally the point of this forum. What annoys me is when someone starts a thread with the assumption that Test for Echo is an album that people here generally dislike (which, if you want to be honest, is probably the case) and the thread devolves into people saying, "Nuh-uh! It isn't bad; that's just your opinion!" for six pages instead of actually contributing anything meaningful. Thinking that it's good is also "just" an opinion. Yeah, music is appreciated on a subjective basis. But if you just use that to wave away any real discussion, why even talk about it at all? You (in the hypothetical sense) think that Test for Echo is a great album? Tell me why! Show me why I should appreciate it! But don't muck up the thread by blathering on about opinions and subjectivity when you could be saying something worthwhile instead.

People with no taste can still have opinions, you know. That's why Twilight and The Da Vinci Code were best-sellers and got adapted into movies. That's why Insane Clown Posse have a more devoted and rabid cult of fans than Rush - or, possibly, any other band - will ever have. Yes, I am saying that music - that art in any medium - can have objective value, whether good or bad. I don't know how anyone could look at art and say otherwise. I want to clarify, though, that other people have every right to like Test for Echo, just as much as I have a right to like Presto, which is probably my second-favorite Rush album after Moving Pictures. (Hemispheres comes in third place, for what it's worth.) Am I wrong to like Presto? Maybe! There's a very good chance that it's unpopular for reasons that I'm just too dense to see. But when there's something that I can see, like (for example) the way that "Resist" is literally a looped chorus, I see no reason to not act on it. I don't think that anyone can know a song's true value. But I do think that some people can be closer than others.

I think that part of the problem with Test for Echo was the band's laid-back approach to recording it. If you read contemporary interviews, they always talk about how much of a break that they took after Counterparts (enough of a break for Alex to release Victor!) and how easy it was to record their new album. I get the feeling that, without any pressure or expectations, they just kind of doodled around in the studio, figuring that if it was fun for them, it was good enough to go on the disk, which is why you get obnoxious, "light-hearted" drivel like "Dog Years" and aimless sludge like "Resist". Another problem was that they were starting to get old, and that's probably the reason for the lyrics on "Virtuality" and the title track, so self-consciously "modern" that they sounded desperate at the time and are hilariously dated today. Shame, too, as those two songs have some of the best playing and production on the entire album. QUOTE (jnoble @ Nov 24 2011, 10:49 AM)'Color of Right' in particular was the first Rush song that made me wonder if Geddy was inventing the melody on the spot. It's so bland and I'm still not sure what the hell the songs even about. The melody is terrible, but the lyrics are easily the best that the album has to offer. It's about not getting so caught up in the world's problems and issues that you can't appreciate what's good in it, and it's about accepting that there isn't much that you, as an individual, can do to change them in the first place. One of the most mature messages that I've ever heard in a song.

Wait, someone's a better singer than Geddy Lee? You don't say! Seriously, though, why is this even a thread? I can't stand Adele and even I think that it's a foregone conclusion (though I love Geddy's singing on Presto and Counterparts).

I don't care one way or the other about them. And they aren't that clever; they aren't even real anagrams.

You probably got tired of them after listening to them too long.

I hate A Farewell to Kings. Only good parts are "Xanadu" and the title track's bridge. I mean, it sounds good, and it's a technical masterpiece, but where are the melodies? The songwriting isn't even close to 2112's level.

Moving Pictures. It sounds fuller and richer, and the songs flow much more naturally. Also, while it doesn't have an equivalent to "Natural Science", it at least doesn't grind to a halt in the middle like Permanent Waves does with "Jacob's Ladder" (a song which does have a counterpart on Moving Pictures, and a superior one, in "The Camera Eye"). I like Permanent Waves, but it just feels uneven next to the consistency and cohesiveness of Moving Pictures.