clintonb

Subdivisions Digital Man The Analog Kid Losing It New World Man The Weapon Countdown Chemisty

I always thought the album sounded "grey" (which is probably my way of saying "drab and flat"). I think the stinker track is "The Body Electric". I didn't appreciate "Between the Wheels" that much until I heard a live version and thought: "wow, that's some pretty intense emotionally gut-wrenching guitar playing". This album just has that early '80s "cold war" vibe to it.

I think Alex's best guitar work was on the '80s "synth" albums.

I read that Rush was sort of like a mix of Yes and Led Zeppelin. So I checked those bands out too, liked them, and bought all their albums too.

Rush - Take a Friend or Need Some Love, can't decide Fly By Night - In The End or Rivendell, can't decide Caress of Steel - I think I'm Going Bald 2112 - Tears A Farewell To Kings - Madrigal Hemispheres - Circumstances Permanent Waves - Different Strings Moving Pictures - Witch Hunt Signals - Chemistry or Countdown, can't decide Grace Under Pressure - The Body Electric Power windows - Grand Designs Hold Your Fire - Second Nature Presto - War Paint (quite a few I don't like but this is probably the worst) Roll The Bones - Heresy (quite a few I don't like but this is probably the worst) Counterparts - Alien Shore Test For Echo - can't pick, way too many choices Vapor Trails - can't pick, way too many choices Snakes & Arrows - can't pick, way too many choices Clockwork Angels - Wish Them Well (I'd pick BU2B2, but I don't even consider that a song)

People have different tastes. Personally, I never could get into the artists they raved about: Dylan, The Clash, Elvis Costello. Outside of a couple songs, I even find the Sex Pistols to be boring. I find it ironic that the guy on the left complained about how progressive rock has no emotion, yet both of them picked Kraftwerk as one of the nominees they'd like to see get inducted. Come on! The band sings about robots and calculators! I actually like Kraftwerk, but I have to call them out on their hypocrisy. I also find it odd that the guy on the left likes more complex music, but only if it is jazz or classical. It's like he has this notion that rock, by definition, can only be three chords and repetitive. I can understand some of their arguments, but to me they don't seem like they apply to Rush. Rush has never really struck me as a "technical" band that is all about chops. They were just a band that I thought had interesting songs. Now, I could apply some of their arguments to say Dream Theater. The guy on the right complains that Rush will get a groove going that he likes but then (because Rush is impatient) they'll change direction. They don't keep the groove going. I never noticed that in Rush' music so much. I would say someone like Frank Zappa is guilty of that. It's like Frank Zappa has attention deficit disorder.

QUOTE (softfilter @ Oct 4 2012, 11:58 AM)The Kraftwerk fans are really in hiding That was another act that Rolling Stone tried to force feed the public on how great they were. Experimental, industrial, electronic... boring I voted for Kraftwerk! I was surprised to see how few votes they had considering they were pioneers in electronic music.

Clockwork Angels used to be my favorite track, but after about 10 listens it's now The Anarchist. I love the bass line and the "middle eastern" sounding guitar solos.

I like the instrumental parts of the music. Before I first heard Rush back in 1981, I was only used to Top 40 music where the instruments serve only to back up the singer. Rush was the first band I heard where the instrumental parts of the song were just as important as the singer. Rush led me to bands like Led Zeppelin, Yes, Genesis, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer that also have that characteristic. I'm not a lyrics guy (I listen to music for the music) but like a prior poster mentioned, I'm glad Rush doesn't write lyrics like "Lick it Up". In general, I became a fan of Rush and progressive rock in general because I found the music more interesting than run-of-the-mill rock and roll.

Exit... Stage Left It has the best song selection. This is the album that prompted me to buy all their prior albums. Geddy has good vocals. I love the sequence of "Broon's Bane", "The Trees", and "Xanadu". I prefer some of the songs on this album over their studio counterparts.

Exit... Stage Left Broon's Bane The Trees Xanadu Freewill Tom Sawyer Actually, I'm not a big Tom Sawyer fan, so I'd grab Jacob's Ladder from the other side of the LP/Cassette Jacob's Ladder Broon's Bane The Trees Xanadu Freewill Actually, I think the Broon's Bane / The Trees / Xanadu sequence is the best Rush sequence ever. I love how it all flows together smoothly.

QUOTE (LeaveMyThingAlone @ Jul 30 2012, 09:48 PM) Absolutely! When comparing CA to a MP or PW keep in mind all the extra recording time. If Moving Pictures had 40 minutes, and you took Clockwork's best 40 minutes you'd have: Caravan BU2B Clockwork Angels The Anarchist Carnies Headlong Flight The Garden Not a bad album! Which is why I wish bands would make shorter albums again.

A lot of posters on this forum say that you sometimes have to listen to a Rush album several times before you start liking it. I'm curious how long it took some of you guys and gals to start to like various albums. Or how long did it take to form a final opinion (positive or negative) about an album. Moving Pictures This was my first introduction to Rush and hard rock in general. It took a while to appreciate it because I originally thought hard rock was kind of noisy. Tom Sawyer never really did it for me (still doesn't). But I soon was hooked by YYZ, Camera Eye, and Limelight. Signals I hated this album so much at first. It didn't sound like Moving Pictures. It just sounded weird. But after a couple years, it became one of my favorites. Still not crazy about Chemistry. Took me a while to like Countdown. Exit... Stage Left Loved it immediately. Still do. This is the album that really made me a Rush fan. I now had to get all the albums! A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves Loved them immediately. Still do. 2112 Musically I liked it right away. But the shrieking priests really turned me off. I finally got used to it after about a month. Rush, Fly by Night, Caress of Steel Took me a little while to get used to the vocals. Grace Under Pressure The sound changed again. took a couple listens to appreciate some of the songs. Power Windows It took me probably a month to get accustomed to the keyboard sounds and glossy production. Hold Your Fire Liked this one pretty quickly. After Power windows, I was accustomed to the keyboards. Presto This is the first Rush album where I really started disliking a lot of the tracks (War Paint, Superconductor, and more). Formed my opinion on this in about a week. Roll the Bones I think this one took me a little longer than Presto to appreciate. Disliked Heresy, Neurotica, Face Up immediately. Still dislike them. Took me a while to get used to the rap on Roll the Bones. Counterparts Liked this pretty quickly because of Animate, Stick it Out, Double Agent, and the instrumental. Test for Echo, Vapor Trails, Snakes & Arrows I pretty much disliked these immediately. I'd read people's raves about these albums. What was I missing? Why wasn't I "getting it". I'd try to listen to them again and again, but it was really hard. I never did learn to appreciate these albums. Clockwork Angels I wasn't that crazy about it at first. It had some of the issues I hated about the prior three albums. But it also had some good elements that the prior three albums didn't have. So I learned to like this album after about a week. It took several days just to absorb it all.

I think The Anarchist is my favorite song off the new album. I love the main bass riff and the middle eastern-sounding solos.

QUOTE (LedRush @ Jul 27 2012, 01:40 PM) There's a few things for me: 1. Catchy songs - Rush was never about hits, but the last two albums lacked many songs that were memorable once the CD was out of the player. 2. Few plodding songs that go nowhere - this destroyed S&A. Almost every song other than the instrumentals and Far Cry were trudging songs that had neither pace or any place to go. 3. Guitar solos - They're BACK BABY! 4. Light and Shadow - The album has a flow, filled with highs and lows, that make it very easy to listen to it over and over again. 5. Tight and loose - The songs benefit from faster pacing and looser "feels", even though the technical proficiency is still there. For me, this is the best album since MP for these reasons. In a perfect world, the production and the sound would be cleaner, and the vocals less processed, but this is an improvement over the last two albums anyway. I couldn't have said it better.

QUOTE (greyfriar @ Jul 27 2012, 02:23 PM) QUOTE (GernTheFish @ Jul 27 2012, 08:10 PM) I'm a little curious how they will do the megaphone voice. Will Geddy sing this or will it be a triggered recorded voice? - Geddy sings live and the effect is controlled via foot pedal. - Geddy sings live and the effect is controlled from the soundboard. - Geddy doesn't sing at all and the effect is triggered from wherever. I wouldn't be surprised if they just trigger a sample. When they played "Double Agent" on the Counterparts tour they triggered the talking parts.

These are roughly in the order of my preferences. I suppose they could switch from day-to-day. FAVORITES: The Anarchist Clockwork Angels Headlong Flight Caravan Carnies Seven Cities of Gold BU2B It appears I like the rocking and progressive sounding songs the best. My only complaint about some of these songs is that Geddy ends up adding several extra syllables to words to make them long enough to fit the music. OK: The Garden I'm not really a fan of Geddy singing ballads. I rated The Garden higher than Halo Effect pretty much because of the guitar solo. CAN LIVE WITHOUT THEM: Halo Effect The Wreckers Wish Them Well These songs are pretty straight-forward songs. They lack the "progressive rock" elements I enjoy. Because of this I don't find them as enjoyable, but I suspect the lack of these elements would make them more appealing to a mainstream audience. Considering that I've complained in other posts about the lack of good vocal melodies on recent Rush albums, it's ironic that the two songs with the most catchy choruses on the album (Wish Them Well, The Wreckers) are some of my least favorite. BAD: BU2B2 I don't even consider this a song.

Lyrically, his solo album Victor also strikes me as something that doesn't match my idea of Alex. Outside of the humorous "Shut up, shuttin' up", I was surprised by how dark and angry this album is. It really kind of turns me off which is why I don't listen to it. I read he was trying to do a theme about the dark side of love and relationships. But I wonder if these lyrics are just an academic exercise or does he really harbor these feelings deep down inside.

I love this song! One of my favorite King Crimson albums too (along with In the Court of the Crimson King and Red).

QUOTE (Imaginos @ Jul 25 2012, 03:07 PM) I still find "Discipline" a challenging listen (maybe I'm not as prog as I like to think I am). I think Discipline is one of King Crimson's most accessible albums. Try listening toThrakatta. Now THAT is a challenging album.

QUOTE (hunter @ Jul 26 2012, 11:48 AM) QUOTE (clintonb @ Jul 26 2012, 08:21 AM)Too much unnecessary drama. Isn't this pretty much the definition of every teenager throughout history? Yes, I suppose you are right. But in my case, no. I was never really much of a rebellious teenager. I always figured my parents knew what they were talking about since they had been through it all already. There were a few times I argued with my parents, but usually in the end it turned out that they were right and I was wrong. I hate being wrong!

This post was inspired by the "Rush Not Rush" thread. I always think of Alex as a funny, easy going kind of guy who would probably be fun to hang out with. But when I watch this video of him and his parents, I don't recognize him as Alex Lifeson. The guy in the video is some angry know-it-all teenager. I don't like this guy. This is not Alex Lifeson to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endsc...1&v=yzlcgQ8mYGw Here's a longer clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7zLCw5xy_w Too much unnecessary drama. It isn't going to kill you to finish high school.

I think "Scars" is pretty different for them and is one of my favorite songs off of Presto.

QUOTE (CygnusGal @ Jul 20 2012, 06:34 PM) Sure, I'll play. Different Strings (Alex at then end) Madrigal (I love contrast of the gentle melodic end followed by Cygnus X-1's chime) Losing It (poignant) Double Agent (strangest thing the band has done, imo) Available Light (Alex's line after "play of light, a photograph, the way I used to be", the crack in Geddy's voice) I'm leaving CA off the list for the time. I'm still digesting it and ranking it in the pantheon of , but I think you're correct about The Garden. It transcends the band. Yeah, "Double Agent" is kind of weird with it's spoken vocal. But when I first listened to the Counterparts album that was the one song that made me think "now this one sounds like Rush". There was something about it that reminded me of old Rush. It's one of my favorites from that album.