jnoble

He did sound good on the VT tour although Rush In Rio still sounds like they forgot to turn his mic on :eyeroll: I don't really enjoy listening to most of Rush's live material after RIR because their sound was too muddy and his voice wasn't very good anymore...all straining and creaky and yodel-ey

I don't know exactly what changed either but I've always noticed that too. It's not just that he wasn't singing high or screechy anymore but yeah, his...accent? was gone too and he sounded more 'American' for a lack of a better term. I can't really put my finger on it either but I know what you mean

Not by the band at least. They kept that one in the setlist almost every tour after CP. Geddy once referred to it as "our best instrumental ever"

I haven't enjoyed a lot of Rush's live stuff past, I'd say, R30 once Geddy went from somebody singing to sounding like someone trying to sing

Me too. Maybe I'm not listening at the right times but I still haven't heard a single song off Counterparts, TFE or Snakes yet. They did play the title track and Headlong from CA though a few times and The Seeker from Feeback. Odd. Also, can someone please tell David Fricke that his name is pronounced "PEER-T" not "PURT"? Isn't that basic Rush 101?

I didn't like how he smugly dismissed Everyday Glory as "crap" in one of his books. I think it's a good song with merit.

SXM's Deep Tracks channel (#27) is playing all Rush ,both obscure cuts and the hits, for the next two days. Heard songs I never heard on radio before like Face Up, Rivendell, Tai Shan, Territories, Different Strings, The Twilight Zone. I have all these on CD obviously but hearing them off the radio not knowing what to expect next is fun

I liked his drum sound and playing from that era more than the recent post Freddie Gruber traditional grip ones

The one on ASOH. Although I wish the video version wasn't edited

I've always liked it as well. The live ASOH version blows away the studio one. Its all in the ending. The album one fades out WAY too soon

I have mixed feelings on Time & Motion. I like the music (not including that convoluted synth loop most fans seem to hate) but the lyrics make little sense . The best part is the middle "The mighty ocean dances with the moon" section

Like it or hate it, the lyrics to Half The World are more relevant now then they were 23 years ago

Whatever he does I hope it doesn't include him singing because as most of us here admit, he really can't anymore

Show Don't Tell War Paint Superconductor

If I recall, Rush admitted they came into the sessions for Test without any real idea of what they wanted to do or what kind of record to make.Alex initially wasn't really into it and considered not doing one at all. It shows in the final results

The epic sounding title track was the most Rush-y thing on the album. The rest was meh. I also never cared for the mix or sound...its not as punchy or separated as Counterparts. Parts of TFE just sound like a wall of noise & distortion. I blame Alex's choice of guitar tones

The RIR version of this song was incredible

I can't remember the last time I even touched my Feedback CD. Its just there taking up space

Face Up only with Kevin Shirley engineering it...would've sounded a million times more powerful

I'm glad they retired when they did, Ged's voice really was getting to the point of embarrassing. But if you need your fix, all the albums are there for you to revisit.

I've always thought the songs of RTB with the production/sound of Counterparts would've been something very good

I never understood why the band signed off on the weak final mix of RTB just like how I never understood many years later how they were OK with the brickwalled unlistenable mess Clockwork was. Vapor gets a pass because Geddy admitted they were so burned out from the long recording process that they just didn't pay much attention to how the mix was done and just wanted to be finished with it plus the record label was getting impatient and wanted it out

My least favorite Rush albums are the debut, TFE, Snakes & Clockwork. I never listen to Feedback either but I don't consider that a "real" Rush album

I put on most of Bones yesterday while doing some office work at home. Its not unlistenable, even the lesser songs. I can easily get through RTB start to finish unlike later albums from VT to CA which are a chore. The problem was mostly Rupert's weak-ass production job. There is no grit or power or balls to almost any of it RTB and VT are both Alex's worst guitar albums but for completely opposite reasons. And its not his playing that's the issue, it's his choice of tone and place in the mix: On RTB his guitars are paper thin tinny and pulled back in the mix, on Vapor Trails his tone is wildly overdistorted thick and overbearing over everything else.

I actually like YBYL but man oh man was Alex's guitar tone tinny and gutless and pulled back too far in the mix. This and Face Up are the two songs on Bones that could've sounded much better if they had Counterparts type production.