In defense of 'Test for Echo.'

[goose]

TFE isn't horrible but it's.....bland. Like eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream compared to what all came before.

 

There's also a fuzzy sound to the whole thing. I think it's the distortion tone Alex was recording with. Parts of Limbo for example just sound like a wall of noise. It's not as good sounding production-wise as Counterparts.

 

That being said, I do like the title track and Half The World and Time and Motion. The rest are......meh. Like they went to the studio without much new ideas or motivation to really hit one out of the park.

 

The funny thing is I have an issue of Guitar Player magazine from that time with the cover proclaiming "Rush's newest and BEST ALBUM since Moving Pictures!" :crazy: :laughing yellow guy:

Regarding that final magazine quote, I remember the album really grabbing me at first. Amazing how this one has aged so poorly. After my recent re-visiting prompted by this thread, my thought is that these songs come across as "assembled" from random parts rather than really composed. That sort of align with what you say in the middle of your post, that they just kind of phoned this in in terms of songwriting.

[The Analog Cub]

The title track is a top 10 Rush song for me. Absolutely love the drums and the guitars. Time And Motion is also fantastic, albeit a bit weird.

 

Driven, Totem, The Color Of Right, Virtuality, and Carve Away The Stone are all good as well, though aren't their finest work.

 

Limbo's a good instrumental, but they've never done a bad one. Love the bass.

 

Resist is good but I never listen to the studio version. It's much better on Rio/R30 as an acoustic track.

 

Dog Years has some of the most cringeworthy vocals they've ever recorded, and Half The World sounds extremely phoned in and repetitive.

 

 

Not their worst album, but definitely not their best.

[The K Man]

Despite the wretchedness that is Time and Motion, this is mostly an enjoyable listen, but there is just nothing on it that makes me stand up and take notice. I do like Carve Away the Stone more than most, I will say that. Overall, it's a solid record, but still the band's worst.