Rush Didact Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I figured I'd beat treeduck to the punch and start my own album shootout thread before he gets to it. This time it's the last three albums up for discussion: Vapor Trails, Snakes & Arrows, and Clockwork Angels. It's no contest, in my opinion: VT wins hands down. A stunning return to form for the band, so unlike anything they'd done before that it may very well be its own genre. The lyrics are dark and heavy, but also woven with threads of defiant optimism and infused with celestial imagery. It is unquestionably Neil's artistic peak as a wordsmith. It's also the last Rush album with truly great artwork. The bold and fiery abstract cover painting; Hugh's portraits of the guys; the tarot card imagery in the lyric booklet; the black, white, red and orange colour scheme - all of it works seamlessly in a way that sums up the music within. VT is up there with Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures as one of the band's defining artistic statements. S&A, on the other hand, hasn't aged all that well for me. I liked it quite a bit when it was first released, but with time and distance I've come to find the lyrics to be the weak point. With a few exceptions, it doesn't say much that hasn't already been said in Freewill and Roll the Bones, and I just can't get excited about 60 minutes of harping about religion. Musically it has moments of brilliance, but many of the songs sound disjointed and uninspired. There's enough good in it that I still consider it a mid-tier album, but it never rises into the upper half of the album rankings for me. Clockwork Angels - and I know I'm going to be a tiny minority here - is the worst album in the band's catalogue, in my opinion. I've tried to like it, but it simply doesn't work for me. I hate steampunk, I don't like carnivals, and I don't really care for concept albums based on a fictional story. Aside from The Garden, none of the songs really stand on their own, so you either have to buy into the story or just forget about the lyrics. I can't do either, so the album is a failure in my eyes. That said, it DOES have The Garden, which is a monumental work of art, a brilliant summation of a lifetime of experience and wisdom. If S&A had ended with The Garden, it would have almost single-handedly redeemed the album. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Analog Cub Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Clockwork Angels and it's not even close. The other two are middle of the road in the discography for me. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zepphead Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Clockwork Angels and it's not even close. The other two are middle of the road in the discography for me. But have you heard the remastered Vapor Trails, though? :lol: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST3V Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Clockwork Angels >>> Vapor Trails >>>>>>>>>>>>> Snakes > Vapor Trails Remix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST3V Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 This was my Desktop background for a while, except the version I have is more faded in color. I've never seen it like this before 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nova Carmina Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 It's got to be CA. While there are weak points, a rip-roaring career retrospective track like "Headlong Flight" is magnificent and is a "best of" track for me. I love the heaviness of "BU2B" and the storytelling of "The Wreckers." Plus, it has the perfectly melancholy tone to end an album and career, with "Wish Them Well" and "The Garden." SnA has a handful of songs I quite like, too, so I think Vapor Trails (remixed or not) is probably third. I return to listen to it very rarely, and I think most of my exuberance about it has to do with the fact it was just some new Rush, dammit. "One Little Victory" and "Ceiling Unlimited" are stone cold jams, though, no question. CASnakesVT 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughedatbytime Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 CA is great, VT is near great, and the other one never should have been recorded. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IbanezJem Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 CA by a fair margin, but with some of the fat trimmed VT would be closer. S&A... I`ve always felt you could construct a decent EP out of it. Or a little fort from the packaging. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fridge Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Who cares? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 For me it's Clockwork Angels, followed by VT and S&A way behind in third. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Who cares?You do care! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fridge Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Who cares?You do care! Being completely honest, I can't really remember most of the tracks on them...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Who cares?You do care! Being completely honest, I can't really remember most of the tracks on them...... :boohoo: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMontanaSKY Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Objectively it's Clockwork Angels. IIRC the whole band agreed that it was going to be the last studio album and they wanted to go out on a high note creatively. My personal favorite is Vapor Trails but that is neither here nor there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude_verret Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 1. CA1A. VTDistant 3rd. S&A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude_verret Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 1. CA1A. VTDistant 3rd. S&A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 All three albums are heavily flawed IMHO.So I would have liked to combine the positive from these albums into one awesome album:The emotion passion and energy of Vapor Trails with the much better mix of Snakes in a concept story line format of Clockwork Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormtron Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 CA and it isn't close. Imagine CA with Snakes' production though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 All three are longer than they need to be. Properly trimmed, Clockwork has the best music by far. Vapor Trails is the best lyrical and thematic achievement. Snakes is the best sounding, and would be a marvelous of an EP. Full album, VT takes top billing. A truncated, re-ordered CA is my personal favorite. Snakes has great instrumentals, but the balance of songs aren't much fun and have aged the worst thematically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytserush Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 I'd put those three up against any other three studio albums. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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