jnoble

Totally agree. Rush has definitely Fallen prey to this. CA too. Way to long. I'm pretty sure that album wouldve have been loved just as much by the fans if Halo Effect, BU2B2 and Wish Them Well were left in a jumble of tape on the mixing room floor Not by me. Well if the songs were never recorded thus never heard by the fans, you wouldnt know what you were missing in the first place. And that album would still have gone on to be loved by most fans I'm sure

GUP sounds a little too much like the Police sound-wise. I didn't realize until all these years later when I started getting more into the Police and hearing the similarities.

I agree it's the toughest thing to cover. It's not like guitar where you can just go buy a pedal and sound like Alex. I personally don't like the people who try to sound like Geddy cause they always miss. He has the most unique voice and I love him for it! I personally just sing like me and go for the notes and the feel of the song. Just doin' the Best I Can. I played in a Rush cover band for awhile and we had a woman singer. She could hit all the notes just fine and sounded pretty good while at the same time sounding like herself and not someone trying to imitate a voice. Huge difference. I also get uncomfortable when the bassist/singer is obviously trying to look and act like Geddy Lee. It comes across as contrived and douchey. Some tribute bands you have no choice but to get someone to pretend to be someone else iconic....Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger, Aerosmith/Stephen Tyler etc etc. But Rush never really had a gimmick or legendary look....just three normal guys who happen to be fantastic musicians....so doing the dark glasses and long dark hair etc just looks forced to me. Never liked that. The best Rush tribute band I ever saw was Power Windows in the NJ area. They broke up around 2007 after many years. I have good memories of seeing them at the old Wreck Room in Wallington NJ and coming home at 2am half deaf because of the terrible acoustics in that place with it's concrete walls.

TFE is a "strong" album? Ok then. Different strokes for different folks.... :D

from what I know, all three like Permenant Waves and Moving Pics the best. Both Ged and Neil really like Power Windows and Geddy was always fond of RTB. Geddy dislikes Signals, GUP, Presto and Counterparts. He also describes Test For Echo as "a weird record". Alex dislikes the mid '80s material because he was buried behind the keyboards and Counterparts because of the lyrics. He also thought they put too many layers of guitar on Snakes. Neil dismisses all the '70s material as immature kid's play. He also really likes Power Windows. I think all three were happy with Clockwork and all three wish they had a re-do on Presto because some of the songs "could have been fleshed out more"

I'm pretty sure it was HYF

Even though Geddy was using his 4001 to record starting with FBN, his sound didn't really start to get aggressive until AFTK. If you listen to FBN,COS,2112, his bass sound isn't as punchy as it would get in later years.

the make or break of any Rush tribute band is the singer. They either sound pretty decent or sound like someone doing a poor imitation of Geddy Lee instead of using their natural voice. Mostly the latter from all that I've gone to see

Totally agree. Rush has definitely Fallen prey to this. CA too. Way to long. I'm pretty sure that album wouldve have been loved just as much by the fans if Halo Effect, BU2B2 and Wish Them Well were left in a jumble of tape on the mixing room floor

Having not one, not two, but THREE instrumentals on one album just reeked of "we're trying to fill space" to me when I first got this CD. And only one of those three songs even fit the tone of the album. Malignant Narcissism, as fun as it is, sticks out like a sore thumb to my ears. Oddly enough, some of Rush's best songs on certain albums turned out to be the ones they recorded literally last minute as an afterthought: Force Ten, New World Man, Far Cry, Twilight Zone, Malignant Narc.

just pound an 'E' on two octaves on the nearest keyboard and you too can play the piano part to 'Spirit'!

overall it's the Rick. His late '70s-early '80s sound was fantastic. I also really like the Wal because, even though it doesn't have a deep bottom end or aggressive punch, it's the most distinct "you can hear every single note clear as day" tone I've ever heard on record or live. My least favorite is the Steinberger. It's ugly and had a tone somewhere between the Rick and Wal but not close enough to either to be fun to listen to. I have mixed feelings about the Fender Jazz. On Moving Pictures and Signals (Digital Man) and much later on Counterparts it sounded great. Starting with TFE onward though it started to get too distorted and overdriven and I can't make out many of the notes in the wall of guitar sound they've taken to. Live it sounds like shit unfortunatly. Way too much overdrive with no finesse.

HYF, as much as it's gotten rightly critized for it's softness and total lack of anything close to really 'rockin' out, is still one of my favorite '80s era albums. It sounds so much warmer and melodic than the two albums that came before it. That being said, I'd love to hear a remix with all the oh-so-80s reverb stripped off the tracks a bit. And Second Nature, Tai Shan and High Water edited out. That album would've been so close to almost perfect if it wasn't for those three songs, definatly the last two that finished the album. Turn The Page would have been such an apt last song. In fact, I like to pretend that Tai and High Water are just extra bonus tracks the label threw on at the end and TTP was really the last one :D

when I first heard the studio Beneath Between And Behind I couldn't make out one word, NOT ONE! At least not in understandable english. It sounded like Dr Suess: "Plastic dreams come doo inventing subcanoe the drainage mines forever flowing..." etc etc lol

Rush committed what I consider the worst offense any rock band could commit with the Snakes album: It's boring. Rock albums can be overwrought, over produced, silly, cheesy, off the wall, convoluted, but just never be f***ing BORING

I didn't realise they themselves didn't like it if you read any of the books about the band and later interviews, both Neil and Geddy admit that Presto is the one album they wish they had a do-over with and flesh some songs out better and take some of the ideas further. Fun Fact: Hand Over Fist was going to be an instrumental until the music was used to go with Neil's lyrics for same.

If I've said it once I've said it a million times on here regarding Presto/RTB and Rupert Hine...... you're NOT GOING TO PRODUCE a hard-rock aggressive sounding album recording with a Wal bass and Signature/PRS guitars run through a ton of processed effects and chorus!!! Geddy himself admitted years later that the Wal isn't a very good "rock" bass to play that style of music with. Unless you run it through a distortion/ overdrive effect, it's going to sound as clean and bouncy as it does on all the Wal-era albums (PW, HYF, Presto,RTB, etc) Yes, Rupert went for a stripped down sound but the band themselves where the ones who chose to use those instruments. Ironically, the guitars that Geddy and Alex mimed with in the Show Don't Tell video (Fender Jazz and Gibson 355) shouldve been the ones they recorded the album with.

Yep, this. Back in the pre-early internet '90s, excitedly driving to the record store to get the new CD, see the cover-art for the first time, struggle to open the packaging without snapping the plastic casing, looking at the shiny no-fingerprints or scratches yet CD, playing it and taking in all the songs in for the very first time. No spoilers, no message boards, maybe if heard one of the songs on FM radio I might have some idea of what I'm going to hear. I remember very clearly sitting in my parents living room taping on cassette the radio premere of Counterparts. I still have it somewhere. The first song played was Between Sun and Moon which I assumed was going to be the first song on the album.

That's pretty much it. They can still play their instruments just fine, it's just that Geddy's voice is nowhere NEAR what it used to be. I was listening to ATWAS in the car yesterday and What Your Doing (which always makes me want to violently headbang and/or want to run through a brick wall) was playing and I got sad remembering how Geddy used to have such a great hard rock voice. He could wail like a young Robert Plant, hit those super high notes without strain, the whole nine. Also visually, seeing these guys age takes away from it a bit too. Geddy still looks pretty much like he did 20 years ago for the most part but Alex and especially Neil havnt really aged too well and I guess I like to associate rock and hard rock with younger fresh-faced guys running around the stage with energy. Again, like they did circa 1976 not the balding chubby faced guys sweating and struggling to make it through a show. I don't mean that with any disrespect towards the guys. Time is a bitch none of us can escape.

:eyeroll:

when I was first getting into Rush and a friend made me a mix tape with the ATWAS version of 2112/temples, I thought he was singing "We've taken care of everything, the words you eat, the songs you sing....." and later... "Never need to work or have a wife...." which seemed to make sense within the storyline I was trying to follow. I may have already pointed this out but in the studio cut of Working Man the way Geddy enunciates the final verse sounds like "Well I get up at seven-YAY and I go to work at nine... and then "well they call me the working MAY-AAID! I guess that's what I am...."

The only Neil lyrics that, I won't say 'offended' me, but annoyed the crap out of me because they came across as uncharacteristically preachy and negative was most of the Snakes album. I like my Rush upbeat and energetic and dynamic and that entire album was one mid-tempo whiney "the world sucks and here's why" dirge. Grace Under Pressure was an uptight gloomy album but it was listenable. Snakes on the other hand was too much. Three or four songs too long, non-existant melodies, no good riffs or hooks. I rarely listen to any of it outside of Far Cry and Malignant Nars once in awhile.

I went from an annoying super-fan in high school and most of college to a more level-headed normal fan now. They'll always be one of my favorite bands, but I'm not nearly as gung-ho about them as I used to be. There are plenty of other artists and music out there that I spread my attention to equally. I think my Rush-fandom peaked in 1997. After that the honeymoon was over and I started to find things about them I didn't like too much. I have a hard time listening to them comfortably now only because Geddy's voice has worn down to the point where he can't sing with any range or power anymore and he's constantly straining into notes and cracking live. It's painful to listen to unfortunatly. Even the middle range Power Windows stuff on the new DVD he's having a hard time singing evenly. I don't think it's healthy to be an uber-fan of anything. It comes across as obsessive and a little scary to other people. Weather it be a band or a TV show or whatever.

I hate to be the turd in the punchbowl on this thread, but I've always found Signals to be mostly dreary and drenched in chorus and echo effects with Geddy's voice drifting over the fog. I don't DISLIKE it, but its never been one of my favorites. Song by song it's pretty good, but I can't listen to it end to end without getting a little bored

I disagree about Grace being better than Power Windows. I mean, they're both good and music is very subjective, but Power Windows is SO much bigger and brighter and richer and optimistic sounding both musically and lyrically than the uptight tense Grace album that came before. Night and day difference in multiple ways. I don't mind reverb on vocals to spruce them up but there are some Rush albums that went overboard with it (Signals and Power Windows) and some that got it just right (Moving Pictures, HYF, Presto come to mind)