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.

I'm pretty sure there are some guitar players on this board who write songs with their band or on their own, and I would like to ask if they would ever consider creating a song around the kinds of basic, plodding chord progressions we hear in these songs.

yes, perhaps an overreaction. or at least we can take all the beer / bathroom breaks we want at the show and not need to worry about what we're missing.

Like most of you, I am disappointed by the Italian clips, and I don't think it's realistic to hope that each song has a radically different surprise part that will make them great when we finally hear the whole thing. I really don't understand what Al is doing by just plodding away on power chords on EVERY tune. Joan Jett could play this stuff. He used to be such a creative, melodic guitarist with a deft touch and would always surprise you. Now he's Joan Jett. I have tix for Montreal in October, but I don't know if it would be enjoyable sit through all of CA to hear a bit of earlier, better material. I don't mind Ged's ongoing vocal style; I think some notes in the vocal lines are deliberately atonal for an eerie, unsettling effect. It's the fact that Al is just banging on boring power chords that makes this one really jump the shark for me.

okay, we're 40 pages into the thread, so I'll add my 2 cents deep undercover as it were. I'm 43 and have been listening to RUSH since I was 13. First live show was on the Moving Pictures tour in Ottawa in 1981, so any of you who think it's a treat to hear them do that album 30 years later: eat your hearts out!! I bought the two new songs with the "e-booklet" and it felt a little sad, to see what that is like compared to going into Sam The Record Man and buying a full size LP with the front and back cover art, and the lyrics and photos on the inner sleeve. This is just not as good, but at least they kept the tradition somewhat of having the three photos, one of each band member. I am enthusiastic about the new songs. Caravan is high energy fun: I love the twists and turns; they are in the tradition of Rush music, and I am grateful for a short solo where alex actually shreds a bit, although it's sloppily played seems like a thin single track take and not really pushed to the front of the mix like a carefully composed and produced solo like we saw in the PeW or MP days. I love the bridge in BU2B as many have stated here, and love the syncopation of the sludge metal opening riff. It's good and I'm grateful that they still sound hungry. But... On another level, it's hard to believe that this is the same band that wrote YYZ, or Freewill, or Spirit of Radio. It is nowhere near that level of composition and production and any honest person with a pair of ears can tell you that. I still find it perplexing that these guys would not sit down in the studio and say, "okay, we have all the money we need. we are just doing this for the love of the music and we can afford all the studio time in the world. Let's take our time and make something really good for our fans. Let's make sure these songs have great production, arrangements, a blistering guitar solo, great hook riff, hummable vocable melody. Let's top Tom Sawyer or Closer To The Heart, because after all we have 30 years more experience at writing rock songs and enough money to take our time and develop and revise ideas." (S n A was 3 years ago.) Instead this stuff sounds like a cut and paste jam although yes, flashes of the old glory are evident... but I think they are just too rich now to care enough anymore. Alex writes a riff in a hurry and emails it Geddy so he doesn't miss his tee off time on the golf course. That sort of thing. Maybe the lesson is that rich jaded people don't have much left to say. Alex is trying to hard to be super-heavy. He is still in the throes of a midlife crisis and doesn't want to be like Eric Clapton playing the geriatric-shuffle version of Layla. It's like he's telling us, "forget my bald spot: I crank a heavier, more badass riff than I did in '76 on 2112. He needs to give his head a shake.

I would go with the guitar sounds on 2112, the bluesy leads, esp. the one in Passage to Bangkok. It always sounded like a late at night sound. Conjures images of a cold, dark winter night's skyline for some reason. Also love the watery sort of sound of guitars on analog kid. Spirit of Radio chording on Permanent waves has a cool guitar sound. Distorted but open and airy in some way. Very very nice. Moving pictures has a great sound, very vivid and clear. word that comes to mind is cinematic.

Analog Kid has a killer opening riff. great energy through the verses, busy bass. Nice contrast in the chorus where it slows down, you move me, you move me, with your buildings and your eyes, autumn woods and winter skies... very pretty. Then the mind boggling solo. Then the uptempo ending... too many hands on my time, etc. Great dynamic tune. And the ending has the so cool keyboard (moog?) sound, like a spinning flying saucer lifting off. A showcase tune. Why the hell do they never play it? PLEASE PLAY ANALOG KID!!