lonelymoon

I saw rush on the Moving Pictures tour, and several thereafter. His guitar work on CA is incredibly bland and lacklustre. As a teen learning guitar I had many Lifeson riffs I wanted to learn... opening acoustic in CTTH, classical in the trees, broons bane, all the parts in xanadu, opening chords in Red Sector A, harmonics in Red Barchetta, etc, etc, . I could learn these and play these for friends and they would recognize them immediately. There is no riff on CA that I hear that I care to learn, or that anyone would recognize. It's just tour promotion fluff. Crap.

Rush ripping off Nirvana? Been happening much beginning with Counterparts maybe ?? Grunge chords and production came from where? Hello? Alex bought a shotgun and detached garage in Seattle in '94, but he ended up using the shotgun as a slide on TFE and he stores his bike in the garage, hoping Neil will invite him on a bike ride to Nicaragua. (still waiting, I suspect). And Neil. The toms at the start of the Anarchist... it's 2012. Wipe Out has been done dude.

how do you know that's bass and not guitar? It matters not, IIWII, but it could have as easily been Alex ripping off All Apologies as Geddy. Both scenarios are equally "meh". I mean, what are we to think of a lyric like, "In the fullness of time, a garden to nurture and protect"? I hear advice to fertilize and weed my tomatoes before August if I want to have homegrown salad at the Labour Day barbecue. *yawn*

I like the violin. And I like Alex's rip off of Kurt Cobain's "All Apologies" that he plays under the violin part. (this is just before the acoustic chords, for those of you with limited familiarity with the song)

What can we say about RUSH's latest attempt at a ballad except "IIWII". Thoughts about Alex's pedestrian guitar playing (the flat picking part in the chorus we have heard before in... oh how many other songs??? Geddy's vocal delivery shows his age more than any other song they have done. I don't think I would say that about any other song they have done, including on this album. Sadly sounds like an old man warbling. given it repeated listenings, tried hard to like it, but the writing is on the wall: IIWII

been dicing onions? seriously, my emotional connection to this song comes from a few triggers. Alex's opening riff, before the acoustic chords, reminds me of Kurt's opening riff in All Apologies. nuff said.

I am LOVING Clockwork Angels. I have my druid staff, holly crown, and Lifeson mooncharts ready to guide my solstice listening experience tomorrow. Have you noticed how Alex's riff at the beginning of The Garden (before the acoustic chords kick in) sound kinda like the opening riff in All Apologies? Thanks Kurt. Thanks Alex. Holly and sacrifice, my fellow Rush Druids!! LIGHT UP THE WICKER MAN!!

I have to write the date many times each day at work, and as a RUSH fan, I am really looking forward to tomorrow when I can write JUNE 21-12 on everything!! Then after work I will go home and listen to CA on repeat until the sun goes down, which won't be for a long, long time because it's the summer solstice too! Let the druid in you run free! Dig it: SUMMER SOLSTICE, 21-12!!

On S n A, Neil's lyrics touched on current events such as the war on terror with lines like "From the middle east to the middle west, pray and pass the ammunition." In the five years since then, we've witnessed paradigm-changing events like the Arab Spring, the election of the first black president, the global economic meltdown, the rise of protests against the 1 percent, rapid advances in communication tech, and environmental disasters like the gulf oil spill and fukushima. Neil has usually shown the interest and conscience to comment on the major events of his time, but now he has decided to focus the whole album on how some Victorians fancifully (and incorrectly) envisioned the future?? WTF?? What could possibly be of less interest or relevance to his audience. Steampunk theme while so much is happening in the real world = epic fail for Neil and major facepalm for the fans.

I say the band has the talent to create a haunting atmosphere on their own and without having to resort to a corny cliche like strings. Or is this supposed to be an homage to Tears just like the riff in HF is an homage to Bastille Day? Corny and self-important in either case.

When you listen to all of the prerelease messaging coming from the band and producer about stripping away the overdubs and clutter, you have to wonder about how the decision to add strings fits in with their leaner, back to basics approach to arrangements. I mean isn't Al's opening guitar part pretty enough to stand on its own merit? The addition of strings sounds just pretensions, superfluous, and completely shoehorned into the arrangement.

What I don't get is how they can say things like Neil did in his last update, that this is the best work they have ever done. Are they serious, or are they just hoping that if they whip up enough rush mania, no one will notice that the emperor has no clothes? (new musical ideas)

Well, rush writes standard verse,chorus,verse songs, so with these clips you have heard half of the basic structure of the song, most of either the verse or the chorus. There may be a middle section with a solo like in HF and Caravan, but I would not hold my breath for any pleasant surprises. Listen to the Italian clip for seven cities; listen to the "melody" of the guitar and vocals and ask yourself where they could possibly go from there to salvage that song. Quite a stretch if you ask me.

hey trenken, thanks for the links. cool stuff. "metatron" reminds me of Zappa. wicked lead around the 3 minute mark. Maybe I should skip CA and spend my 15 bucks on a Mars Volta album. doesn't seem like a bad idea at this point.

when I was learning to play guitar as a teenager, I wanted to learn Alex's stuff. He had a ton of signature parts: the picking at start of Closer to the Heart, opening of Fly By Night, harmonics at start of red barchetta, opening of free will, etc. etc. These were classic recognizable riffs like stairway to heaven or needle and the damage done or here comes the sun. You could pick up a guitar, play the start of a rush song, and your friends would say, "cool, that's limelight!" I haven't heard any guitar playing yet on CA that would make a guitar player think "that's so cool, how does that go" and reach for his guitar to figure it out.