New World Kid

I think it's a very polite, uncontroversial list from a very polite, courteous Canadian.

I've got a lot of Rush CDs, but I ripped the music off of them before I moved out of my parents' place years ago. They're all over there, so I can't go grab them and see what I've got.

I think you miss the mark here, perhaps projecting your own preferences of literature with Neil's reading habits and how they influenced his work. :cheers: You're probably right. I can only stomach so many "O gentle whatevers with your adjective nouns" before my eyes glaze over.

Out of the Cradle Rank: 134 out of 165 Overall Score: 2/10 (relative to the entire Rush catalog) Category scores out of 10: Historical Significance: 4 Fan Favoritism: 3 Lyrics: 6 Music: 6 Uniqueness: 6 Extra Credit: 7 You might expect me to reference the Walt Whitman poem in this review. The poem exists, go look it up. It’s the kind of mid 1800’s poetry that always feel more like a reading assignment than something worth consuming. Something a pseudo-intellectual will champion when I’ve always been more for the straight forward words of Kurt Vonnegut or Ernest Hemmingway. That’s my opinion on literature though, and I’m not really here to critique that. Maybe another time. But ever the dedicated reader, Neil Part must have come across the lines “Endlessly Rocking” and written this. Though the poem itself chronicles life to death, and is simply named for the first line, Peart only bothered to take most from the first few lines. I agree, it’s hard to get too deep into it Neil. It’s very ornate. But hey, you could make a pun out of this! Endlessly rocking and all that. After reading Ghost Rider, I think there’s another connection here, often overlooked, to Neil specifically. Often times int he novel, he’ll refer to his “little baby soul.” His more impulsive and easily impressed side. Something new and vulnerable that needed to be nurtured inside of him. Something seeking newness and novelty. So I think this song explores not only being that, experiencing that feeling… but also protecting it, nurturing it. Mixing this new soul with years of experience. Madness with method, smiles and sadness. Energy, inspiration. Musically, for Rush, this is a very moody and groovy piece at the beginning. I can’t ever remember the band including a shaker in their instrumentation, but it sounds nice and works great here. The upbeat tone in the lyrics is complimented with some frantic guitar and, particularly, bass work. Soaring Geddy Lee vocals reach the highest highs on the song. A middle section with some softer tones and “doo-doo-doos” is nice, but already done a few times on Vapor Trails. There is a background noise during the softer section that, I don’t know what it is or how to describe it. I’d have thought it was a keyboard, save for Vapor Trails not having any. It’s a nice effect. This is a solid song, but it’s honestly unremarkable in anything but the lyrics. Nothing particularly fresh, on the last track of an album that can be criticized as being “samey.” I love the optimism though. Neil once spoke about writing songs that were “optimism with a bloody nose,” and this is a good entry into that category. I just wish the guitar work could’ve gone somewhere. I don't particularly have a lot to say about this one, if I'm being honest. It's not a skip, but it's not a song I go out of my way to listen to. Previous Reviews: #39 Working Man #62 Caravan #88 Time and Motion #99 Nocturne #125 Between Sun and Moon #132 Making Memories #134 Out of the Cradle #136 Neurotica #139 Lessons #153 Dog Years #164 Rivendell #165 Anagram (for Mongo)

Caress of Steel is a necessary stepping stone. It is not a masterpiece. Vapor Trails is better.

My favorite Rush album. OLV and Secret Touch.

I assume you mean either Show Don't Tell, Scars, or Superconductor Don't ask me. Can't you see I radiate more heat than light? Are you talking about Rush song off Presto, or just in general? The song Presto. It's usually in a tie with Secret Touch for my favorite Rush song.

I assume you mean either Show Don't Tell, Scars, or Superconductor Don't ask me. Can't you see I radiate more heat than light?

Either Presto or Secret Touch is my favorite Rush song.

What if you own all of these albums digitally?

I've had this with other bands. Took a pretty hard break from Dream Theater after Systematic Chaos, but not Rush.

This needs explaining? It's my favorite Rush album.

Should I cut this person out of my life? He did officiate my wedding. There's only one reason to cut someone out of your life, that's not it, but you know what it is. Blackhawks fan? :P Cowboys fan Oh, God no. I'd rather eat what New Yorkers refer to as pizza (with enough liquid to swallow it without having to taste it.) What if I like New York and Chicago style? But St. Louis is obviously better than both.

Neurotica Rank: 136 out of 165 Overall Score: 2/10 (relative to the entire Rush catalog) Category scores out of 10: Historical Significance: 4 Fan Favoritism: 4 Lyrics: 4 Music: 6 Uniqueness: 6 Extra Credit: 7 One of the most frustrating songs in the Rush discography. Neurotica starts brilliantly. A anacrusis of spooky synthesizer is interrupted by a drop-kick into a moody-as-hell verse. Subtle guitar chords, off-beat drums that are actually much trickier to play than you’d think, and a subdued, maybe brooding, Geddy Lee almost speaks the opening verse. Those first 32 seconds are really something. I’m not sure Rush has ever played with that exact tonal style before. There’s so much space in that opening verse, and it’s there for good reason. I’m certainly not in the camp that “synths are bad”, and this synth is bone-chilling, yet subtle. But as with all good things, those opening 30 seconds come to an end. And then we’re greeted with some of the most generic, mid-tempo, Rush-in-the-90’s stuff ever. It’s hard not to call the 2nd verse style in this song filler. The part starting “life is a diamond we turn into dust” is where I’m focusing right now. The riff Alex Lifeson is playing sounds very much like either a left-over, or precursor, to the stuff on his solo album, Victor. But it’s slow, predictable. Hummable, jangly, but not adding anything. Then we hit the chorus. We double time, lose every sense of mood we had, and enter, musically, a very, very generic chorus. With some very humdrum Neil Peart wordplay that's better done on tracks like Animate. We head back into the 1st verse style, and that moody synth comes back. But now Alex is over-playing it, and Neil adds in a snare int he back half. We lose that pensive mood. If the opening verse has tension from the openness, the agoraphobia of it all - then the second time around on that first verse style, the band covers up the unknown areas in a detrimental way. Back to the generic 2nd verse, then back to the humdrum Chorus. One of the things that is criticized about this song, is the Geddy Lee moaning in the choruses. But I actually don’t mind it so much. It’s the only different thing going on. The only signature to the song. And with a different treatment, it could have fit a very spooky mood. And I do think the band was going for a spooky vibe on this one. Sometimes I wonder how much influence the album covers have on me. Test for Echo always feels chilled, Vapor Trails hot, Hold Your Fire simple. But no, on Neurotica’s second verses, there’s a synthisizer that sounds like its straight out of phantom of the opera back there. After the second chorus, we come to another highlight, and no coincidence, it captures the mood of the opening. This comes in around 2:47. There’s some held-out chords over top of another mysterious synthesizer. This instrumental section lasts about 15 seconds. And it’s beautiful. Give me a song with the tone of the first 30 seconds, and these 15 seconds, and this would be one of the most underrated gems in the catalog. But no, after those 15 seconds, we go to a bridge section, “Snap - hide in your shell, let the world go to hell.” And again, the band in the background is just coasting through the song. Where’s the spooky synths! Where’s the moodiness! C’mon, give me some Pink Floyd, some Porcupine Tree, some… thing! We get a fairly average Alex Lifeson guitar solo (average meaning technically impressive, but nothing that stands out among Alex Lifeson solos), and then we get dumped into that walking-paced chorus again. This is frustrating. The band stumbled on some great moods, sounds, themes, textures, tones… and then abandoned them for the majority of the song. It’s okay to be atmospheric guys. You don’t have to always be a powerful power trio. And considering this isn’t even powerful, you’re not even striving for that here. But the listener will be okay if you don’t outline every track with a bass/snare groove and safe guitar riff. Previous Reviews: #39 Working Man #62 Caravan #88 Time and Motion #99 Nocturne #125 Between Sun and Moon #132 Making Memories #136 Neurotica #139 Lessons #153 Dog Years #164 Rivendell #165 Anagram (for Mongo)

The Stars Look Down, with its fatalistic quasi-spiritualistic outlook, probably belongs thematically on Snakes and Arrows. Along with the fact that musically, it's a mid-tempo slog lol

Should I cut this person out of my life? He did officiate my wedding. There's only one reason to cut someone out of your life, that's not it, but you know what it is. Blackhawks fan? :P No, but it's kind of Chicago related, though. Oh. Cubs fan! No. If someone invites you over for pizza. Then serves you some sloppy casserole that you need to use a knife and fork for to eat. Run and defriend them. If i had the good stuff, I sure wouldn't share. I'd grab a piece of cardboard, sprinkle some cheese and as thinly as possible spread some tasteless tomato sauce on it and if they actually thought it was good, know better than to ever invite them again. NWK, I've heard something about St. Louis (style) pizza but have never had any. It sounds intriguing. I have a whole pep talk for out of towners that visit, before having them try it lol

Should I cut this person out of my life? He did officiate my wedding. There's only one reason to cut someone out of your life, that's not it, but you know what it is. Blackhawks fan? :P No, but it's kind of Chicago related, though. Oh. Cubs fan! No. If someone invites you over for pizza. Then serves you some sloppy casserole that you need to use a knife and fork for to eat. Run and defriend them. Is pizza without provel cheese even pizza?

Should I cut this person out of my life? He did officiate my wedding. There's only one reason to cut someone out of your life, that's not it, but you know what it is. Blackhawks fan? :P No, but it's kind of Chicago related, though. Oh. Cubs fan!

Should I cut this person out of my life? He did officiate my wedding. There's only one reason to cut someone out of your life, that's not it, but you know what it is. Blackhawks fan? :P

Dog Years Rank: 153 out of 165 Overall Score: 1/10 (relative to the entire Rush catalog) Category scores out of 10: Historical Significance: 1 Fan Favoritism: 1 Lyrics: 2 Music: 7 Uniqueness: 8 Extra Credit: 3 You know what: Dammit, I like this song. From a lyrics stand-point, I agree, for Rush, it’s very tongue in cheek. Bordering on cringe. Certainly when Geddy belts “for every sad son of a bitch” it comes across like a twelve year old that just found out that’s what you can call a female dog. The little immature giggle at being able to say the word in technicality that he never could previously. But once you listen to this song enough, as one might, the lyrics stop being so aggressively kitsch, and you too can settle into a less advanced headspace. Yes, most Rush songs will deal with philosophy, politics, the human condition… but can’t we just slow down and appreciate something goofy? Can’t Rush fans just have a little fun? Maybe that’s why the song is so adamant in it’s…. Dog Years-ness. The play is the thing, and maybe the existence of the song is the message of the song? Don’t take it so seriously. Make some time to go outside and play. Alright, so very generous interpretation of the lyrics aside… yeah, they’re objectively not great. I think candle on the icing on the cake here is the interlude. “I’d rather be a tortoise from Galapagos, or a span of geological time.” You’d rather be a turtle, or an abstract concept of time measured out in an arbitrary length of time dependent on geological change? You’d rather just be really old. Got it. Alright, these lyrics aren’t great. At best, they’re fun. At worst, they’re just stupid. But honestly, I’ve made my peace with that. No no, where this song gets high marks is the music. My oh my, this is one of the hardest rocking, smoothest, punchiest songs they’ve ever done. That opening riff is major league, big boy heavy. Punctuated with an incredibly aggressive ride+snare combination on that & of the beat from Neil. (I know drum things). Is Rush flirting with ska there? Well, they’ll need to go faster. So no. But it sure is unique. The heaviness backs off just enough to give Geddy room to sing after the opening. And Geddy, never mind the words, is actually doing a great job vocally here. This is the voice of a singer who has been working on his craft for decades, and has found his home. He can punch it up an active to get a point across, he can sustain a note with perfect clarity and crispness, he has inflection in the way he says things, rather than desperation to hit notes… heck, he can harmonize with that back up singer Gary Weinrib remarkably well! Sometimes there’s a debate around when Geddy Lee sounded his best. The answer is on his solo album. But considering the proximity of Test for Echo to My Favorite Headache, I don’t think this is far off at all. Neil is all over the hi-hat in the verses, by the way. In a good way. A very good way. He should have a talk with the lyric writer so that his work can be featured on better songs. About all this song is missing, formulaically, is a ripping guitar solo. Now that would have been a treat. But this heavy duty number is what we’ll have to settle for. Part of me wonders if the success of this song, on the music side of things, is because Rush weren’t too in-their-own-head about things. Obviously the lyrics were what they were, why not just throw whatever you want into here. Just a rough and raw rip for some fun and a good time. Have fun, and intellect be damned. So it’s fun at best. After you listen to it enough to surpass the massive cringe factor. But even with Dog Years colored glasses (I don't know what color the lenses are, but the frames are clearly tortoise shell), there’s nothing here that pushes the boundaries of Rush, of a genre, of their playing… it’s unique in just how heavy it is in the canon, but it’s still a steady 4/4, with some dynamics problems and comfortable steadiness. Nothing ventured, so nothing gained really. It's positive moments are enjoyable, but forgettable. It's negative moments are unforgivable. Except for being able to belt out the word bitch. Maybe that’s a career highlight after a few decades? So this comes in at 153... and I seriously expect riots whenever this random order brings me to number 154. So uh... stay tuned, in a few months, you'll probably hate me even more! Previous Reviews: #39 Working Man #62 Caravan #88 Time and Motion #99 Nocturne #125 Between Sun and Moon #132 Making Memories #139 Lessons #153 Dog Years #164 Rivendell #165 Anagram (for Mongo)

What an interesting club the Rush club is. It's easily my favorite off of Counterparts. No challenge intended and no explanation forthcoming. It's just been consistently interesting to me how so many major fans of Rush nevertheless hold such wildly different opinions. A testament to the band's versatility and variety I expect. Right! The reason I'm so harsh with the rankings is that it's really easy to give your most hated Rush song a B- grade or whatever. I see a lot of lists do that and it's like, "well, okay, but what's the point." So keep in mind that it's score is relative to the entire catalog, in my opinion, and I still love Between Sun and Moon, and have tried to hit the Geddy notes in it (and many other rush songs) on many a highway lol.

Between Sun and Moon Rank: 125 out of 165 Overall Score: 3/10 (relative to the entire Rush catalog) Category scores out of 10: Historical Significance: 7 Fan Favoritism: 5 Lyrics: 4 Music: 6 Uniqueness: 3 Extra Credit: 9 This is a good song, and it’s hard to see it down this far for me. I think if it were just one criteria, my own personal tastes, this would easily make it into the Top 50. When this song briefly made it to the setlist, Rush dedicated the song to the, at the time, recently passed John Entwistle of The Who fame. And I think it’s an apt song to do this for. Everything about Between Sun and Moon on the musical side sounds like a subdued song from The Who. Most particularly, the main riff. But even during the choruses, you have some clean strumming that falls on the half-notes of the measure. While it’s Alex Lifeson playing the song, you can just imagine Pete Townshend’s windmill-esque strumming all over this. As an aside, the guitar tone also sounds slightly ahead of its time. Does anyone else think, compositionally, this song could have sat on a Smash Mouth record and not felt out-of-place? Save for the clearly Neil Part level drumming and Geddy Lee vocals. Speaking of, that same chorus has a drum pattern that fits snugly with Peart’s current jazz-based explorations, while also fitting the hard rock/The Who style. What would it sound like if Keith Moon had to play In The Mood? No, not that In The Mood, the other one. The Jazz standard! I think it’d sound something like this. But all of those comparisons… guitar work that sounds like The Who, composition like Smash Mouth, drumming fit for a Glenn Miller record… it’s just too much imitation and flattery from a group known for a high amount of individualism and creativity. And I think a lot of that has to do with Rush trying to sound so much rawer on Counterparts as a whole. When you’re looking over the shoulders of others, or even less productive, looking backwards at a younger version of yourself, and trying to imitate that feeling, you might miss the mark ever so slightly. Rush knew how to be raw and untempered in 1974, but in 1993, almost 20 years later… well, it was an effort. Much like Time and Motion, I think what this song could use is a slight tweaking upwards on the tempo. Energy isn’t always synonymous with tempo, but when you’re not breaking out any surprises, it’s certainly a direction to look. There’s also a lack of dynamics in the song. It stays in the same place for almost the entire song. The volume stays the same, the tempo stays the same. The rhythm guitar and drums stay firmly planted around 4/4. The break section in the middle is the only exception, but it could have been done better. The part starting, “Some need to pray to the sun at high noon,” is where I’m focusing. Through the entire section, the hi-hat and bass drum continue on. The bass guitar also continues on with eighth notes. Which is a nice call-back to the introduction of the song, but it doesn’t evoke a mood as sufficiently as it could. There’s a keyboard back there, and some good vocals. Why not let them stand on their own? Look back at Circumstances as an example. Through the middle section of that song, there’s a building of dynamics. First with just reverb guitar. Then adding in percussion through melodic bells. Then a synthesizer joins in. There’s no 4-on-the-floor drums and thumping bass guitar to get in the way of the mood. And you don’t have to stick to that formula. In fact, one of the reasons I admire Rush is because they so often abandoned their own formulas. But it’s the fact that it sounds like they wanted to go for a shift in the dynamics, and then tripped over their own feet a little. As a quick add, the singing is fairly even through out. Very polite for Geddy Lee, which also lacks in excitement. Lyrically, I know Pye Dubois has a hand in this one, and I’m unsure of the exact meaning of the lyrics. If I had to guess at a meaning, I’d say, “the Earth sits in a special place in the cosmos in the same way love and lovin’ is, too, unique.” And that’s okay I guess. But there’s nothing mind blowing there. It’s a solid song that barely covers any new ground. And that’s exactly the kind of song that gets hit the worst for categories like “uniqueness” and “musicality”. I do think this song is a bit more than the sum of its parts, and its a great live rocker. That helps contribute to the extra credit score. Previous Reviews: #39 Working Man #62 Caravan #88 Time and Motion #99 Nocturne #125 Between Sun and Moon #132 Making Memories #139 Lessons #164 Rivendell #165 Anagram (for Mongo)

Yes is a bit too flowery outside of their big staples for my taste.

No, sorry. Just been otherwise creatively engaged. I'll try to get back into this soon.

He was unintelligible on certain tracks. It ruined a few of the songs on Clockwork Angels for me. Seven Cities of Gold is indecipherable and almost unlistenable to me. And it sucks because the music around it sounds great.