Finished the Reviews

[The Lofty Oaks]

Finally finished all 12 song reviews and the summary review. The summary is titled: "Perfection of the Fifth Incarnation of Rush" and is quite lengthy (sorry) but I had lots to say and still did not quite say everything I wanted to say. I think the die-hard fans will enjoy the reading.

 

Please check it out if have time and leave a comment or two.

 

 

SUMMARY REVIEW

 

Links to all 12 Song Reviews

 

Thanks.

[Gedneil Alpeart]

Enjoyed reading it and really admire your passion for Rush! Appreciate your bigger picture insights and your writing is very articulate and thoughtful. Thank you!

 

[launchpad67a]

Nice work! I enjoyed the whole read.

[Toasted Ghost]

excellent!!! Thanks for the read!

[The Lofty Oaks]

Thanks for reading and commenting. I love writing about

[robertrobyn]

First class blog and great detailed reviews. Keep up the good work.

[deslock]

Interesting reading; thanks for posting.

 

I tend to group Rush albums into tiers rather than ranking them individually, though I order songs rather than group them. If I were to group Clockwork Angels', mine would be very different than yours:

 

Group 1: BU2B, Clockwork Angles, The Anarchist, Headlong Flight

Group 2: Caravan, Carnies

Group 3: The Wreckers, BU2B2, The Garden

Group 4: Halo Effect, Seven Cities of Gold, Wish Them Well

 

Like you, I see many incarnations of Rush, though I don't generally think of them as being as cleanly divided by the live albums through Different Stages (since there's so much overlap). From Rush through Hold Your Fire, their style seemed to evolve gradually, and then with Presto they regressed. It retained Hold Your Fire's reserved song structures and reduced jamming, but was written acoustically and stripped down, emphasizing lead guitar more than the previous several albums. It saw the unfortunate influence of Rupert Hine (who suggested the wretched vocal arrangements).

 

Roll the Bones was Presto, but with stronger songs.

 

Counterparts thankfully ended Rush's restrained phase that had started with Hold Your Fire. Test For Echo was Counterparts, but with more Lifeson (awesome!) and worse lyrics and vocal arrangements (noooo!)

 

Lyrically, Vapor Trails was a huge improvement over Peart's output from the 1990s. Musically, it was dense and moody with both moments of brilliance and awkwardness. It was similar in some ways to the previous couple albums, but lacked their punch (mostly due to the horrible production and lack of solos and spontaneity from Lifeson).

 

Snakes and Arrows was a very strong album, but with too many mid-tempo songs. Some fans felt it would've been better if more of its music was like Far Cry and Malignant Narcissism (these especially lively songs were written later in the process, when Nick Raskulinecz was influencing them more).

 

Clockwork Angels has delivered in every way. Musically, lyrically, and thematically, it's Rush at the top of their game.

[The Lofty Oaks]

QUOTE (deslock @ Jun 30 2012, 07:54 AM)

Interesting reading; thanks for posting. I tend to group Rush albums into tiers rather than ranking them individually, though I order songs rather than group them.  If I were to group Clockwork Angels', mine would be very different than yours: Group 1: BU2B, Clockwork Angles, The Anarchist, Headlong Flight Group 2: Caravan, Carnies Group 3: The Wreckers, BU2B2, The Garden Group 4: Halo Effect, Seven Cities of Gold, Wish Them Well Like you, I see many incarnations of Rush, though I don't generally think of them as being as cleanly divided by the live albums through Different Stages (since there's so much overlap).  From Rush through Hold Your Fire, their style seemed to evolve gradually, and then with Presto they regressed.  It retained Hold Your Fire's reserved song structures and reduced jamming, but was written acoustically and stripped down, emphasizing lead guitar more than the previous several albums.  It saw the unfortunate influence of Rupert Hine (who suggested the wretched vocal arrangements). Roll the Bones was Presto, but with stronger songs. Counterparts thankfully ended Rush's restrained phase that had started with Hold Your Fire.  Test For Echo was Counterparts, but with more Lifeson (awesome!) and worse lyrics and vocal arrangements (noooo!) Lyrically, Vapor Trails was a huge improvement over Peart's output from the 1990s. Musically, it was dense and moody with both moments of brilliance and awkwardness.  It was similar in some ways to the previous couple albums, but lacked their punch (mostly due to the horrible production and lack of solos and spontaneity from Lifeson). Snakes and Arrows was a very strong album, but with too many mid-tempo songs.  Some fans felt it would've been better if more of its music was like Far Cry and Malignant Narcissism (these especially lively songs were written later in the process, when Nick Raskulinecz was influencing them more).  Clockwork Angels has delivered in every way.  Musically, lyrically, and thematically, it's Rush at the top of their game.

I'd have a hard time arguing with your track groupings. One of the cool things about a Rush album is that the songs are so dynamic and diverse that your favorite songs change with time.

 

Appreciate your feedback. You make some great points.

 

So far I totaled up about 10,000 words of reviews and analysis that I have written about CA and Rush. I could dig deeper and write another 100,000. There is so much to talk and write about with this band.

 

Appreciate everybody checking out the blog. I plan to add more.