jnoble

It's OK but still a little dreary. I don't hate it but it never excited me.

Just watched the new Roll The Bones R40 clip and don't like Geddy's bass tone at all. It sounds like he's playing through a blown amp. I wish he played the older songs with the instruments they were originally recorded with, hence the Wal would've sounded better to me than the overdistorted Fender tone he's beaten to death for 20 years now.

I don't know about going as far as calling it "effeminate", but Second Nature is my pick for one of the, if not THE, wussiest Rush song ever. Whenever I listen to this and then listen to Anthem or Bastille Day or 2112 Grand Finale, I weep bitter tears while asking "what HAPPENED to these guys??" :D

just my 2 cents, but this is one of Neil's worst lyrics. I relistened today on the way to work to get reaquainted and God does this song suck! Preachy whiney "whoa is us" crap that sounds like it was written by a 14 year old getting into politics. I can't believe the same guy who penned such classic albums like Hemispheres, Kings, Perm Waves, Moving Pictures, etc etc penned THAT drivel. And Geddy and Alex being OK with putting music to them which ironically turned out just as uninspired and downbeat as the words. This is why I wouldnt have been a good choice for the band to produce that album: Me (sarcastically): "Mr Peart, we still have 4 minutes of time left on this project...do you have any more lyrics about how much the world sucks and religion is scary to add to the pile of dull boredom youve already recorded? No? That's OK, don't get up, I'll show myself out...." :D

They were. I have a RTB era Guitar Player interview with Geddy mentioning his disappointment in how soft the album sounded

His performance on Tom Sawyer on The Colbert Report years back was pretty bad too. Maybe he wasn't warmed up that night.

His singing on Snakes (with the exception of Far Cry) is cringe inducing. I'd rather stab myself in the ear with a pitchfork then listen to, for example, Good News First ever again. Out Of The Cradle is pretty bad too.

Because they're still listenable. The clusterfuck brickwalled thick sound on CA with too much going on in almost every song is so tiring to listen to after only a couple songs. I can't do it, still haven't sat through all of CA (or S&As...or VT) start to finish. It's exhausting.

Funny how two people can listen to the same thing and come away with totally different opinions. I *LOVE* the upfront raw drum sound (and Neil overplaying everything) on FBN! Always have, always will.

The only Rush albums who's production bothers me to the point where it distracts me from the music is Signals (too washed out and foggy), Roll The Bones (Alex's guitar tone is so wimpy and pushed back in the mix, even more so than HYF) original Vapor Trails (wall of noise) and Clockwork (again, wall of noise)

and that is exactly why I don't like Nick as a producer. He's such an obvious fanboy he doesn't seem to have it in him to tell the band when something sucks. (hence most of the boring dreck of the Snakes album)

if anyone wants to hear a prime example of a modern album that was obviously cut and pasted together like a quilt on Protools, listen to GnR's Chinese Democracy

I'll buy Snakes on vinyl just so I can break it into a million pieces :D

I'm guessing maybe at the end of Hemispheres live in the late '70s just before the Sphere ending starts

Time And Motion is a cool song. But it does sound disjointed and a little thrown together. As for Test For Echo in general, I don't dislike it but I don't really care for it. It's just so....bland. And Alex's guitar tone bothers me. The whole thing just sounds fuzzy and overdistorted compared to Counterparts before it. Geddy's bass doesn't really cut through the mix like it did in CPs either. It's a very middle of the road mostly forgettable effort. I liked it at first when it was new but it didn't age well at all to my ears

Lose two of the CW songs and one of the S&A songs (TMMB is too long and pointless) and use those three spots to represent TFE, Presto, HYF and PoW

I don't hate Neurotica but it has the weakest lazyest chorus in a Rush song ever. The verses and bridge are fine. But the chorus with the "whooaaaaoooooaaaa" backing vocals was lame

Halo Effect and Wish Them Well and BU2B2 could've been left out without effecting the album whatsoever

Geddy used to do that one footed hop move as seen in the ASOH video. I wonder if he watches that and gets embarrassed now like he does regarding his mid '80s raccoon hat hair-do lol

The thin Rupert Hine sound worked better for Presto than it did on RTB. If only RTB had been produced by Peter Collins or someone else....

I wouldn't go quite that far, but it's been painfully obvious over the last couple albums that Rush pieces together songs from random riffs and parts they compose over time which makes a lot of the material sound clunky.

the Rio version of Secret Touch was awesome and played with so much passion.

I like the concept and return to epic storytelling but I get about a minute into the songs and lose interest once Geddy and his aging voice kick in and skip to the next track. I appreciate the effort they clearly made for CA,but seems to me that Rush is way better at coming up with riffs and parts but not so good at making them into cohesive memorable songs. And there are so many songs that I can't understand a single word Geddy is singing. There's a part in the title track where he sounds like he's singing though a speaker phone (like the verses in the studio How It Is) and it's pretty offputting.

Anyone find it odd that, despite it's high sales and billboard position and being out during when the MTV music video era was still relevant that Rush only made one video for the RTB album? They made three for Presto, two for CP and TFE afterwards, but just one (the title track) to promote RTB despite the other singles off that record. That always seemed strange to me.

I was listening to RTB end to end last night in the car while driving to and fro a friends place. The thing about RTB that really stands out to me is how weak-sauce Alex's guitar tone is throughout. Forget the lyrics, song structures, etc etc.....if they were able to remix/record that one with a way more upfront aggressive tone like what he had on Counterparts, I think that alone would make it a much better sounding album. The weak guitar on RTB stands out to me much more than it did on Presto or HYF. Certain parts of songs, like the pre-chorus chords on You Bet Your Life, sound like he forgot to turn his amp on or that he's playing two rooms away from the mics