jnoble

It's the first Rush song I flat out didn't like after becoming a huge fan in the 2 years previous leading up to Counterparts

As far as I know Power Windows, RTB & Clockwork were Geddy's personal favorite albums. All three of them seemed really happy with Clockwork especially Neil who also once named Power Windows as an album he'd like the most if he took the mindset of a fan outside the band

Geddy cited Neurotica as one of those "What was I thinking???" songs in an interview a few years ago which I found interesting considering he claimed for many years that RTB was the album he was most proud of for the songwriting

Anyone else notice how the rhythm of High Water sort of sounds like the La Villa main theme? (the repeating three bass notes which I think are also on a C)

You're spot on 100%. Neil was providing lyrics on the last few records which simply couldn't be put to a good song. They were far too wordy and (IMHO) better off as poems on his personal website or somewhere else, not as a Rush song proper. Geddy had to do a lot of awkward phrasing & shoehorning to cram in all those words. I remember reading the lyrics to Snakes after I got the CD and most of his prose came across as long bitter jaded rants few of which stuck around in my brain even after repeated listens/read-alongs. Any fan can easily recite the classic songs such as Spirit or Limelight or Xanadu or 2112:Temples or the chorus to Dreamline etc etc. But songs like Good News First? The Larger Bowl? Only the most dedicated.

What a shyster

I **LOATHE** their hit 90's song It's Been Been One Day or whatever they name is. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE

*got into the band. Stupid autocorrect

Between Second Nature and Tai Shan, it really was stunning how wimpy polite and soft Rush got. When I first got into the bandit in 1991 it was jarring how this was the same group who wrote 2112, Anthem, Something For Nothing, etc

It was the mid/late 80's and it was popular and common for rock albums to have loads of echo & reverb on almost every instrument. I'd love to hear a modern remix of HYF with all that reverb stripped away and pushed back and a drier sound

Spindrift is a song which I enjoy the beginning: the omimous guitar riff, the slow fade in. But as soon as Geddy starts singing I totally lose interest in it

I liked Double Agent when it was new and I was 17. But it didn't age well and now sounds gimmicky and kind of lame

Face Up is very average and horribly mixed...if they held that over to Counterparts with the beefier sound maybe it would've been much improved. However, I *love* the middle part "You get all squeezed up inside..." leading to the kick ass (as much as Rupert Hine's wimpy producing allowed) guitar solo.

I've said it many times on here and I'll continue saying it: HYF should've ended appropriately with Turn The Page which would've cleverly hinted at the band ending it's keyboard phase and looking towards the new direction of wherever the next album took them. But nooooo...They just had to ruin it with the final two songs which not only aren't that good but lyrically don't really fit with the rest of the album So basically I like to pretend Turn The Page was the last song and Tai Shan/High Water were bonus tracks

Counterparts had a great mix from the get-go in 1993 so I didn't hear any difference at all in the 1989-2007 studio album remasters box set I got a few years ago of it

It's an uneven album. It's one half very good songwriting and then other half mediocre. Add on top of that the airy gutless mix and sound. It's my vote for Alex's worst album not because of his playing which was always great but how tinny and weak his tone was from recording with single coil guitars. Geddy's tone wasn't much better with his dinky plinky Wal basses. The return to a beefier in your face sound with Counterparts by the entire band a few years later was well needed.

I much prefer Rush over LZ any day of the week. Zeppelin were OK but I've always contended that most of their albums were poorly recorded and could've sounded a lot better with a legit producer behind the console instead of the band doing it all themselves

I second what somebody else said years ago on this thread. I liked Neil's lyrics way better in the era pre-Vapor Trails before he came across as a cynical cranky-pants. I understand and sympathize WHY he changed (age and personal experiences) but I still don't enjoy the songs much

I like MalNar for what it is but never understood the appeal for MMB. It just repeats a couple mid-tempo riffs over and over and over and over again over the course of 5 or 6 minutes

There were what I thought were a few really good songs on Victor. I Am The Spirit in particular

Both are flawed albums. If there was a combination of VT's passion energy and lyrics combined with the less harsh better mixed sound of Snakes plus toss in the Rushian tradition of an instrumental it could've been something really special. Instead there are two half-baked records. Three if you want to include CA but that's best left for a different thread

I liked the optimistic lyrics on HYF. I'll take them any day over the sour "people are mean, religion is dumb, the world kind of sucks" themes of the last three Rush albums. (And yes, I'm well aware Neil's losses in the late '90s changed him and altered his outlook. I'm just sayin'...Upbeat optimistic Rush moves me more than cynical cranky downbeat Rush)

It's actually one of my fav '80s era Rush albums but yes, that dated echo-y everything-drenched-in-reverb sound... I'd love to hear a modern sounding remix from the master tapes. Lose the reverb and dry out the sound a bit.

I think a lot of the lesser songs on RTB would've sounded a LOT better if Alex wasn't using that damn tinny single coil echo-ey guitar sound. It's my least fav Alex album of all. Not so much what he's playing but the tone and how Rupert Hine shoved it back in the mix. Ironically years later he would overdo it the other way going overboard with thick too loud too aggressive distorted wall of noise tones on Vapor Trails

Vapor Trails for both good and bad reasons