UltimoGuitarist

Yeah I just noticed that GUP wasnt Collins yet. My bad. And yeah Counterparts sounds like trash at times. Not saying the songs, just the quality of the album itself.

I find that every producer they've had so far have had their good points and bad. Take Terry Brown. He produced all of the heavier hard edge Rush records, up to Signals, where he botched it big time and did brutal. Why? Because he's not a synths guy and had no clue. Then comes Collins, and Grace Under Pressure. BEAUTIFUL! Now you've got your solid 80's synth era Rush at their best quality. Counterparts rolls around and Rush wants to go back to Hard sound. Uh oh, Collins blows balls at this, another ****ed up album. Great.... Test for Echo wasn't terrible sounding but still probably not his area. Enter...paul northfield? what the....."lets turn up the Db beyond the walls and have a distorted record. MMMM!" WELLLP You're fired. Enter Nick. Or "Nic" w/e the hell his name is. "Let's make you guys sound as close to Foo Fighters as I can." HELL NO! Cut it out. Nic hasn't done anything horribly bad to Rush's sound so far. Having said that, he hasn't made it sound any better either. It's generic at best. The music is there, and amazing, but their sound is certainly lacking.

QUOTE (trenken @ Jun 5 2012, 08:33 PM) Really not into it too much. I think the vocals are just killing it for me and sucking me right out of the mood of the song. Geddy sounds baaaddddddd on this one imo. I like this guy.

QUOTE (snowdog2112 @ Jun 5 2012, 05:09 PM) It's about the lyrics and the music equally. It's absolutely stunning, it's about the only song ever that made me tear up. If you're just into metal or musical gymnastics I can understand how it wouldn't connect, though. Well don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate the softer mellow side of Rush as well, but only if theres at least a good melody to the song, something to grab onto thats catchy. This song just seems to go on and on and the music is really repetative. I just don't get it that's all. What's the song about? Is it something about the lyrics that are getting to everyone? *shrug*

QUOTE (phoenix87 @ Jun 5 2012, 04:44 PM) Who ever voted it as their worst album, must not have ever heard Presto. This.

I voted a 6 but after a second run through i'd give it a 7 now. I would vote higher, seeing as I think Caravan, BU2B, and HLF are masterpieces, but aside from carnies and the anarchist, the rest of the album is pretty drab for me, so that brings it down big time. I find it inconsistent.

I'm seeing a lot of people hella enjoying up themselves some The Garden. Personally I'm always more driven towards songs that are musically challenging/interesting than lyrics. I don't usually pay much attention to lyrics in general in fact. Having said that, I'm not a huge fan of The Garden. So I'm not understanding the hype. I might even go as far as to say it blows, just to stir the controversial pot. =p Anyone else out there share my distaste for the song? Or is it just me. PS: Just want to say that the majority of the album is flipping amazing. I just don't care for this song, or BU2B2 or Halo Effect. Too boring...

QUOTE (CruisingInPrimetime @ Jun 5 2012, 04:13 PM) QUOTE (phoenix87 @ Jun 5 2012, 02:51 PM)BU2B2- I've already deleted this from the album Who are you to play GOD? LOL

I'd have rush do a bunch of intense hard shit lmao. Rush - What You're Doing Fly By Night - Beneath-BetweenBehind Caress Of Steel - Fountain Of Lamneth 2112 - Something for Nothing AFTK - Cygnus X-1 Hemispheres - Hemispheres Permanent Waves - Jacob's Ladder Moving Pictures - Camera Eye Signals - COUNTDOWN! Grace Under Pressure - Afterimage Power Windows - Grand Design Hold Your Fire - Prime Mover Presto - Superconductor Roll the Bones - Where's My Thing Counterparts - Virtuality Test for Echo - Time and Motion Vapor Trails - Ceiling Unlimited Snakes & Arrows - Main Monkey Business Clockwork Angels - The Anarchist

Keep in mind they could do half the album for the first leg, and if a second leg ends up taking place, they'd do the other half of the album on that tour. Possibility.

QUOTE (phoenix87 @ Jun 5 2012, 02:18 PM) I actually like the original versions better. I loved that the momentum of Caravan was maintained as you barrel strait into BU2B. As if...

I hated this interview. It was painful to watch lol

idk why everyones saying the wreckers is so great and then people are saying wish them well sucks. I couldn't feel more opposite. death to the wreckers and up with wish them well. lol

"We're coming up on our 40th anniversary here, just TRYYYYYin to put an album togetha." -Geddy Lee

QUOTE (ReRushed @ Jun 4 2012, 11:33 AM) There are too many power chords. And this is a bad thing because......?

QUOTE (Rush-O-Matic @ Jun 4 2012, 11:14 AM) Other than the new intro for BU2B, what differences are you all noticing between the original single release mixes and the album mix for Caravan & BU2B? You serious? Like have you not heard it, and youre asking? Or have you heard it and just don't notice? Well, theres some phaser effects, new vocal backups, theyre clearer, some of geddys bass playing is more intense during the solo than the original in caravan. bu2b has a much better mix and theres a few other noticable things. EDIT: Half way thru and all initial actions are that this is all great except the title track.

Only thing I'm finding is that each of the songs are longer than they need to be. Like, without some changes to make the song sound different throughout, it just gets repetative at times. But other than that, so far we're doing well. Caravan = way better than the original. Probably still my favorite song on the album at this point. It destroys face. BU2B = Again, way better with the remix. Sounds more solid and smooth. Clockwork Angels = Did nothing for me on the first listen. I'd give it a 1/10 at this point. Maybe it will get better after more listens. Anarchist = immediately awesome, but as I said before, It doesnt need to be 6 minutes. I think the song was justified after about 4. Still though, excellent track.

The title track is pretty boring imo yeah. On Anarchist now and it OWNS! So cool.

QUOTE (snowdogged @ Jun 3 2012, 12:35 PM) Mine were lowered after hearing the second set of clips. This.

QUOTE (trenken @ Jun 3 2012, 12:34 PM) QUOTE (UltimoGuitarist @ Jun 3 2012, 11:25 AM) QUOTE (trenken @ Jun 3 2012, 11:46 AM) QUOTE (UltimoGuitarist @ Jun 3 2012, 10:39 AM) I gotta say, I was more hopeful with the wal mart 30 second clips. At least those left something to the imagination. These new clips, there wasnt anything overly good about them. Very obscure writing, which...can't blame Rush for, that's what theyre best at, but nothing that grabbed me at all. If I had to describe it, with my current interest of the material so far, I'd say it sounds like material that got scrapped from Vapor Trails. Which isn't saying much because Vapor Trails is probably one of my least liked albums. I don't know though. I mean Caravan, BU2B...sound incredible with the new mix. HLF is a great song. But the 30 second clips of the rest sound really bland. That's just me though. Hopefully they end up growing on me like S&A did. See I actually disagree with them being best at obscure writing. I think they're actually pretty horrible at it now when they try so hard to be different, and only nailed it a handful of times with stuff like Cygnus X-1 and others. I would put Time and Motion in that group of songs where it did work, but now it sounds so forced to me. I think their wheelhouse was songs with normal chord progressions, melodic vocal melodies, pretty normal song structures, no awkward time changes, pretty much where they peaked from PeW-PoW. That was when I felt they were at their natural best. But now they're at the total opposite end of what I thought they were so amazing at. I just dont get what they're trying to do anymore and this really feels like the end of the road to me with them. Its almost like now they're trying to hard to be different and recapture the past, so they're putting together these really strange chord progressions and noticeable time changes, then trying to shoehorn strange vocal melodies on top of it. Then the rest just sounds like normal filler stuff or throwaways that didnt make the S&A cut. So bazaar to me. Oh I completely agree. When I mentioned them being great at obscure writing, I was also referring to the early days more so than recent. My favorite era of Rush material settle on mid to late 80's (pretty close with your love of PeW to PoW) and for the same reasons. I love the melodic vocals and keys with the accent of his guitar work just making it all that much better. Having said that, I also love some of the more technical songs, being that I'm a musician and all, and love an excellent showcase of talent. But you're right, they were better at it in the early days. Now it does just sound forced. Like the riff in Carnies? It's okay I GUESS, but it just seems like he tried too hard and came up with something mediocre. But whatever, I'm not gonna sit here and cut up and album before it comes out. All I have thus far are 30 second clips, which arent worthy of giving a serious judgement. In any event, it does appear that rush has reached the end of the road, and the bottle of "rocket sauce" (i think?) as Jack Black put it, is definitely getting close to empty. For Rush to spend several years on this record, for it to sound (so far) mediocre at best, and maybe only average when I hear the whole thing, that's not a very good sign. I'd have to say this will probably be their last studio record. Unfortunate but most likely true. I hope that when reading this, people take it in stride. I'm a huge fan of Rush, but I don't always agree and love everything they put out. Having said that, I intend to give the album a serious listening marathon for weeks before I actually give it a proper judgement. Doesnt sound like they actually spent very long on it. They wrote some songs before the Time Machine tour, and then banged out the rest after that ended and recorded it. It really doesnt sound to me like a put a monumental amount of effort into crafting some of the finest songs of their career. Im hearing really strange chord progressions. Some sound like they just dont flow, others sound really dated to me like the chorus in HF. What happened to just taking chord progressions that many have used before because they work, and making it their own like they used to do? Maybe add some strange sounds in there to mix it up, some off key notes or something is fine too, but totally awkward chords progressions in general? They sound like they want to be different so bad that they're now just doing crap that doesnt even work at all. Thats how I feel about it hearing the 3 new songs and 60 seconds of each song. I just think musically and melodically they are so far away from what they were literally the best around at. 1980-85 were really amazing years for them and was really when I thought they were at their absolute peak as far as just really solid song writing. They had perfected it. They drained that well dry and that was just it. They put out some good stuff after that, but never as good and now its just in the toilet. I hope I get the whole album and find some stuff to like on it, and I probably will, but at this point I seriously doubt Ill love it. +1

QUOTE (trenken @ Jun 3 2012, 11:46 AM) QUOTE (UltimoGuitarist @ Jun 3 2012, 10:39 AM) I gotta say, I was more hopeful with the wal mart 30 second clips. At least those left something to the imagination. These new clips, there wasnt anything overly good about them. Very obscure writing, which...can't blame Rush for, that's what theyre best at, but nothing that grabbed me at all. If I had to describe it, with my current interest of the material so far, I'd say it sounds like material that got scrapped from Vapor Trails. Which isn't saying much because Vapor Trails is probably one of my least liked albums. I don't know though. I mean Caravan, BU2B...sound incredible with the new mix. HLF is a great song. But the 30 second clips of the rest sound really bland. That's just me though. Hopefully they end up growing on me like S&A did. See I actually disagree with them being best at obscure writing. I think they're actually pretty horrible at it now when they try so hard to be different, and only nailed it a handful of times with stuff like Cygnus X-1 and others. I would put Time and Motion in that group of songs where it did work, but now it sounds so forced to me. I think their wheelhouse was songs with normal chord progressions, melodic vocal melodies, pretty normal song structures, no awkward time changes, pretty much where they peaked from PeW-PoW. That was when I felt they were at their natural best. But now they're at the total opposite end of what I thought they were so amazing at. I just dont get what they're trying to do anymore and this really feels like the end of the road to me with them. Its almost like now they're trying to hard to be different and recapture the past, so they're putting together these really strange chord progressions and noticeable time changes, then trying to shoehorn strange vocal melodies on top of it. Then the rest just sounds like normal filler stuff or throwaways that didnt make the S&A cut. So bazaar to me. Oh I completely agree. When I mentioned them being great at obscure writing, I was also referring to the early days more so than recent. My favorite era of Rush material settle on mid to late 80's (pretty close with your love of PeW to PoW) and for the same reasons. I love the melodic vocals and keys with the accent of his guitar work just making it all that much better. Having said that, I also love some of the more technical songs, being that I'm a musician and all, and love an excellent showcase of talent. But you're right, they were better at it in the early days. Now it does just sound forced. Like the riff in Carnies? It's okay I GUESS, but it just seems like he tried too hard and came up with something mediocre. But whatever, I'm not gonna sit here and cut up and album before it comes out. All I have thus far are 30 second clips, which arent worthy of giving a serious judgement. In any event, it does appear that rush has reached the end of the road, and the bottle of "rocket sauce" (i think?) as Jack Black put it, is definitely getting close to empty. For Rush to spend several years on this record, for it to sound (so far) mediocre at best, and maybe only average when I hear the whole thing, that's not a very good sign. I'd have to say this will probably be their last studio record. Unfortunate but most likely true. I hope that when reading this, people take it in stride. I'm a huge fan of Rush, but I don't always agree and love everything they put out. Having said that, I intend to give the album a serious listening marathon for weeks before I actually give it a proper judgement.

QUOTE (LeaveMyThingAlone @ Jun 3 2012, 11:07 AM) To the one that said the Clockwork Angels riff sounds just like the Grand Finale of 2112 you get a cookie. They really sound alike As far as Double Agent goes, I always thought Caravan's riff sounded more like DA. Regardless, DA and Grand Finale offer 2 of my favorite Lifeson riffs of all time so I'm loving it Yeah Clockwork Angels definitely sounds more like Double Agent than Caravan or Grand Finale. Grand Finale doesnt sound like that at all...I don't know where you guys are hearing that...=s I'm a guitar play so it makes no sense to me lol. But it's all good. I think CWA has some potential after listening to the clip again.

I gotta say, I was more hopeful with the wal mart 30 second clips. At least those left something to the imagination. These new clips, there wasnt anything overly good about them. Very obscure writing, which...can't blame Rush for, that's what theyre best at, but nothing that grabbed me at all. If I had to describe it, with my current interest of the material so far, I'd say it sounds like material that got scrapped from Vapor Trails. Which isn't saying much because Vapor Trails is probably one of my least liked albums. I don't know though. I mean Caravan, BU2B...sound incredible with the new mix. HLF is a great song. But the 30 second clips of the rest sound really bland. That's just me though. Hopefully they end up growing on me like S&A did.

QUOTE (rushnmike @ Jun 2 2012, 10:27 PM) im right there with you UltimoGuitarist. im ready to pull my hair out of my head! QUIT WITH THE BULLSHIT THREADS! Amen brother. And haha no I'm not legit freaking out over it. I just like to exaggerate a lot. If and when I post here more after the album comes out, you'll notice it a lot more. I'm hella over the top and flip out for no reason, it's all good. Short fuse ftw.

Honestly I don't know why were all in such a hurry to hear this new album. I mean, I'm stressin too, but think about it..Rush puts out a new album maybe once every 5 years or so at this point in their career. Pretty sure we'll have plenty of time to get sick of it before the next one comes out. And yet....we still cannot resist hearing it now. EDIT: This is random but I just realized i'm member # 1976. 2112 FTW. Jealous?