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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 5, 2011 15:31:10 GMT -5
Roll the Bones (1991)When I was 16, that album cover was the coolest thing ever. Roll the Bones is Neil's thesis on the meaning of life; the album where he ponders which worldview makes the most sense of love, hope, suffering, and purpose. If you guessed that Neil picks "atheistic humanism", you win the Captain Obvious prize. Fortunately for those who might pick a different worldview (like me), his ruminations are personal and his conclusions respectful. He doesn't get truly antagonistic towards theists until later albums (boy howdy). This album is like a metaphysical MadLibs. Just fill in the blanks with words like "fate", "chance", "faith", "heaven" and "destiny", and you too can be a nerd rock lyricist! The music is two steps ahead of the paper-thin Presto. The songs are half-a-step better. The guitar is almost back in the mix. Alex has some nice solos and Neil's drums sound like Neil's drums again. The overall mix is still drenched in shimmery chorus. The full return to loud, crunchy amps is still an album away, but at least we're getting closer. The songs: "Dreamline" might be the best song of this 4-album cycle. It's a nice pop-rock song built on a light riff from Alex's telecaster. It's all about how we long for limitless adventure despite our limited lifetimes. It's a feel-good winner! "Bravado" is a perfect template for their early '90s sound. What started with a couple songs on Presto is fully realized here: a mid-tempo, plodding, roomy verse building into a majestic-sounding chorus & solo section. It's a good song about taking risks even if there's no payoff: Follow your dreams, keep your pride, find love where you can, and if there's no reward (i.e. afterlife), it's still worth it. Aaaand we have our theme, ladies and gentlemen! "Roll the Bones". On the plus side, Geddy is no longer screeching on these albums. On the other hand, Geddy is rapping on this song...yes....rapping....*cough* Otherwise, it's an okay song, with a funky guitar line & drum groove. Well, as funky as Rush gets. The lyrics? More about how there's no cosmic purpose to anything, so get out there and take your chances. Roll the bones, as it were. "Face Up". FILLER ALERT! This one has a decent drive to it. It's one of the songs that gives the album it's overall sound, but there's nothing remarkable about it. Not bad, but not great. Filler. "Where's My Thing?" is their first instrumental since "YYZ". If "La Villa Strangiato" and "YYZ" are the Jefferson and Lincoln of their instrumentals, then "Where's My Thing" is Rutherford B. Hayes. Okay, that was mean. After all, it's bouncy & funky and is marginally interesting. So maybe it's more of a Franklin Pierce. "The Big Wheel". There's a bit of a Rolling Stones groove on this one. More lyrics about how when Neil was a kid, he believed in things; but now that he's older and wiser he only believes in chance. For some reason, this song always makes me think of The Price is Right. "Heresy" is a good angry song. Neil said, "The deconstruction of the Eastern Bloc made some people happy. It made me mad. For generations, those people had to line up for toilet paper, wear bad suits, drive nasty cars and drink bug spray to get high...and it was all a mistake? A heavy price to pay for somebody else's misguided ideology, it seems to me, and that waste of life must be the ultimate heresy." Of course, a case could be made that those abuses were born from an ideology that was decidedly anti-religious, but that would undermine Neil's worldview, so forget I mentioned it. Still, I find the title "Heresy" to be interesting and a bit ironic. Musically, it's right there with "Bravado" as a pattern for their '90s sound. "Ghost of a Chance" is a purple giraffe: odd, but intriguing. First of all, the lyrics are all about relationships and love. Neil never does that. Secondly, the music is inside out. The verse riff & melody are pretty standard fare that builds each step of the way. Then the chorus hits with a slow, spacey vibe. It's like rocketing through the atmosphere only to emerge in the openness & quietude of outer space. And the guitar solo is one of Alex's all-timers. Hearing them play this live (especially the solo) when I was 16 was a transcendent moment I still remember well 20 years later. (Just don't tell Neil I used the word "transcendent".) "Neurotica" is dull filler. There's a riff in there somewhere, but the song doesn't really go anywhere. "You Bet Your Life" is the summary at the end of the term paper. It might be my favorite song on the album because it's up-tempo and clever. It drives home the point that whatever you choose to believe, you're effectively betting your life. And in true Rush fashion, they also take the air out of the seriousness with a sense of humor by adding musical tastes to the list of what we bet our lives on. "The odds get even". A great album wrap-up. I've focused mainly on the ideology and lyrics of Roll the Bones, but musically, it's not a bad album at all. The mix is getting better, and the playing is starting to get impressive again, even though the songs are still the point. The next two albums have their moments, but this is probably my favorite album from this era of the band. ***1/2
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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 6, 2011 17:33:50 GMT -5
Counterparts (1993)Let's see...how many bands sold millions of albums in the '70s, followed up with creative and consistent output in the '80s without selling out, and then had the #2 Billboard album with release number fifteen? Not in the rock & roll hall of fame? Yeah, makes sense to me. Counterparts reunites the band with Peter Collins, their producer from my favorite album of theirs ( Power Windows). This time, he finally (FINALLY) gets the heavy rock sound back into the band. The story goes that in order to appease Alex's demands to get rid of Geddy's keyboards, Collins made Alex get rid of his compressors and chorus pedals first. By the time they started recording, Alex was playing his Gibson straight into a Marshall stack again. In 1993, grunge ruled the world. Everything on rock radio was performed by the Collective Sound Pilots of the Stone Soul Pearl Temple Jam Garden Nightlife Jazz Messengers Orchestra Band. And every other band tried to adapt to the no-frills, low-end, growly rock sound. Counterparts was Rush's attempt, and at the time, it bugged me. I thought it was a cop-out, especially for Neil's drumming. Ever since, I've had a negative opinion about the album. As an added bonus, this is the album where Neil writes about love and relationships almost exclusively. He tried to be nerdy and tie it to Jungian theory about gender roles, but that just makes it more uncomfortable. Boy was I in for a surprise. The songs: "Animate" starts off with a shock-- Neil playing a basic, simple rock rhythm! Also, his drums sound like drums again for the first time in about a decade. This is that Jungian gender roles song, and the lyrics are all about masculinity and femininity. I won't lie, it's a bit weird. But it's so nice to hear heavy rock from these guys again. "Stick it Out" is a great, low-end riff. Alex adds some ugly notes to the chords, which just makes it sound even cooler. The chorus is another fun riff, and the lyrics are a fun goof on the titular phrase about perseverance and every other possible meaning. "Cut to the Chase" Boy, the riffs just keep coming. It's so nice to hear Geddy's bass again. Everything might be straight and simple here, but it sounds so doggone right. Alex's solo on this one is a definite highlight on the album. "Nobody's Hero" is a chipper acoustic ditty about a guy who died from AIDS and a girl who was murdered, and how it seems the world doesn't care. A real pick-me-up. "Between Sun & Moon" is a great song with a truly perplexing chorus. Alex's verse riff is a total Keith Richards knock-off. The lyrics are poetic and enigmatic. But the chorus of "Ahh, yes to yes to ahh to yes, why the sun?" has always left me with a "what the hell?" feeling. At first it's ridiculous. Once you get used to it though, it's a good time. I'm still not sure if it's cool or not, though. "Alien Shore" keeps the album humming along at a brisk pace; it's another uptempo rocker that doesn't disappoint. What we have here is filler that keeps up with the rest of the album. The lyrics are more of the theme that women be different from men. "The Speed of Love" is the weak link, but it doesn't stink. It would have been a decent B-side. Lyrically, it fits the album with it's talk of how love is like fireworks and storms and hearts connecting blahblahblah. It also fits musically, even if it's not altogether impressive. "Double Agent". Did I mention awesome low-end riffs? Geddy does some spoken-word poetry on this (NOT rapping), which is strangely effective. I mean, he's no Henry Rollins, but the riff behind his rapping talking is cool enough to carry him through. "Leave That Thing Alone" is the sequel to "Where's My Thing" from the last album. If that one was Franklin Pierce, then this one is Barry Goldwater. Seriously, if these guys are going to do instrumentals, they should do something especially complicated and impressive. These two entries are repetitive pseudo-funk jams and the boys just sound bored. "Cold Fire" is a very good song. Alex starts with some angry jangly chords, throws in some patented reverb arpeggios, and tops it off with a hot fudge solo. This is also the one song where the relationship lyrics are an asset and not a liability: "I said, "If love has these conditions, I don't understand those songs you love." She said, "This is not a love song. This isn't fantasyland." It's as direct as Neil ever gets, and it holds together well. "Everyday Glory" continues the band's amazing streak of perfect album ending songs. The riff and vibe close out the album perfectly. Lyrically, it's all about how each day is another opportunity to rise from the ashes and blaze new glory. A near-perfect rally song. Every MSTie has an episode or two that they don't like at first, only to go back and watch it a couple of times and realize that their first impression was off. Maybe they're at a different place in life, or in a better mood this time, or whatever, but suddenly "The Dead Talk Back" is a funny episode. That's what Counterparts did to me this time through. I've always considered it to be a subpar effort, but I really enjoyed preparing for this review. Even Mrs. Atari (who hates Rush) commented that she enjoyed listening to it over the weekend with me. It's far better than I remembered. ****
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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 10, 2011 3:30:53 GMT -5
Test for Echo (1996)Three Great Things About This Album (for my RAM chip): 1) The playing is drool-inducing. It's their best instrument work and progressive gymnastics since 1978. 2) Neil took lessons from jazz legend Freddie Gruber, which completely altered his groove, making everything feel looser. (Check out this video for proof. And also to have your frickin' mind blown.) 3) Two of their best songs of the '90s are here, as are two of their best riffs ever. Three Poopie Things About This Album: 1) The songs aren't very good. Many of them stink on ice. The melodies are instantly forgettable. The vocal harmonies are weird. The lyrics tend towards the goofy. 2) When the lyrics aren't goofy, they're really preachy. Neil's always worn his worldview like a billboard, but now he's starting to tackle social issues and religion. There's a fine line between philosophical and pedantic, and he crosses it a lot here. 3) Every song is at least one verse & chorus too long. Long songs work in prog rock when the arrangement shifts around and features interesting and intensity-building movements. Simply repeating another round of Verse-Chorus changes isn't the same thing. I haven't listened intently to Test for Echo in years. When it came out, I remember being very disappointed. I was so put off, I skipped the tour (and I NEVER miss a chance to see Rush live). Every so often, a song from this album would pop up on "shuffle", but I never gave it much thought. Forgettable, I reasoned. Worst album since Caress of Steel, said I. How about some nachos, methinks. This time through, I was taken aback by the musicianship once again, especially after the last 4 albums where the songs came first and the playing second. Here, the playing comes first, and the songs, well... at least the nachos were delicious. The songs: "Test for Echo" starts the album off right. No tricks, no frills. Just guitar, bass, and drums weaving around each other in instrumental acrobatics like only Rush can. That guitar riff is a brain-sticker; it wakes me up in the middle of the night sometimes. "Driven" is the best song of the set, and rivals "Dreamline" as the best song from this era. It's an amazing riff, as good as anything in their career. There's also an off-beat ride cymbal groove and fancy bass line that complement the riff perfectly. The live versions of this feature a brief bass solo that make it even more of a standout track. "Half the World" has that mid-'90s two-chord strummy rock feel. It's got a decent hook, and some nice vocals. It's also a great song if you need to give your social conscience a pep talk and get a refill of white guilt. "The Color of Right". If the last song didn't completely spank you for your selfish ways, try this one: "You're so full of what is right, you can't see what is good." Sorry, Neil, but I don't think a self-righteous lecture is the best way to make a point about self-righteousness. (*says the self-righteous critic*) "Time and Motion" gains major points for being so ding-dang interesting. It sounds a lot like the song "Hemispheres" from 20 years earlier. The progressive elements are most welcome here, as is the marvelously noisy guitar solo. It's too bad the song is missing a chorus and doesn't ever go anywhere. "Totem". Ah, solipsism. You so crazy. Apparently, every religion is suspect because...well, Neil doesn't really say why. But his subjective experience trumps all because it's his. And when his feelings change how the world appears, then it's okay. This song mentions Buddha, Allah, Vishnu, Gaia, Aztecs, Mayans and astrology, so at least he's an equal-opportunity agnostic. On the plus side, the song itself is eminently forgettable. "Dog Years" is dog-awful. It's a rumination about getting older, filled with every terrible canine-related pun and metaphor you can fetch a stick at. A reference to scratching? OH YEAH! Howling at the moon? YOU BET! Dogs having their day? BUT OF COURSE. A pun on the word "bitch"? DON'T YOU KNOW IT! Sheesh. Bottom 3 ever for this one. "Virtuality". What do you get when you mix a testosterone-filled, punch-in-the-face riff with horribly dated lyrics about the internet in 1996? Okay, I'll give you the answer. You get this song. It's simultaneously aggressive and embarrassing. It's aggrerassing. "Resist" sounds like a protest song, but I've never been very clear on what the protest is about. I suppose it's pretty if folky protest songs are your thing. They do this as an "unplugged" number on their tours now. It's just the thing for a bathroom break. "Limbo". Hey, remember when Rush did instrumentals that showcased their skills and were majestic symphonies of complex arrangements? Apparently they don't. Their skills are still there, but this one sounds like they just forgot to record a vocal track. "Carve Away the Stone" isn't nearly as good as the album closers on the last few records. But it is the best song on this album since track 2, so that's something. There's some real nice jamming in the middle, and the chorus has an interesting time signature turn-around. I wasn't expecting this review to be so sarcastic and negative. I really did like the playing here, as well as the return to progressive elements. Maybe I do like this album more than my tone would indicate. But probably not. **
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Sept 10, 2011 7:53:56 GMT -5
The album may be bad, but it made you invent the word "aggrerassing." Therefore, I give it 5 stars.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 15, 2011 2:04:24 GMT -5
Vapor Trails (2002)Vapor Trails is a comeback album. It is a messy album. It is a powerhouse album. It is a tragic album. It is a poetic album. It is a noisy album. Rush is still complex, but not like the '70s progressive era. This is a new kind of complexity. After the Test for Echo tour, Neil Peart went through hell on earth. His 18 year-old daughter was killed in a car accident. His wife of 22 years died of cancer a year later (he later wrote that the cancer was the weapon, but the broken heart was the killer). He coped the only way he knew how-- by getting on his motorcycle and riding for thousands of miles and dozens of months. Alex & Geddy (and everyone associated with Rush) shut the organization down out of respect, with no expectations of ever playing again. So it is with sensitivity and sympathy that I listen to this album. It's impossible not to feel the weight of Neil's grief in his lyrics. It's a dark album, but deeply personal and incredibly poetic. The other infamous note on this album is that it is Exhibit A in the loudness war; the poster child on how NOT to mix and master an album. Everything is mixed too hot, and the digital noise and over-compression is horrible. If you listen to this album on a pair of good headphones, you will get a headache after 3 songs. This is especially unfortunate because underneath the buzz and white noise is a tremendous album. The sound is raw, unpolished, and packs a Joe Louis right-hook wallop. There are no keyboards and hardly any guitar solos. Geddy's voice is an asset; his voice has character and emotion, and he actually sings well for once. The arrangements defy the verse-chorus-verse pattern, and there is hardly any straight chord playing anywhere. There are layers and layers and layers of tracks-- probably too many. The bewildering and stunning lyrics don't fit nicely into a simple melody, so the songs don't immediately grab you; instead, they reach down to a different level of your psyche. The melodies are awkward, the harmonies are like tin foil on a metal filling, and the mix can be infuriating. But the overall cacophony and depth to it all is maddeningly intriguing, so when the moments of clarity hit, they're that much more impactful. Listening to this album is like reading James Joyce. And I love it. The songs: "One Little Victory" announces the band's return with a machine-gun double-bass drum opening that says, "We're here to chew gum and kick ass, and we brought enough gum for everyone!" Alex's riff is a fast-picking, noisy wall of sound that hits all the right emotion. Lyrically, it's the perfect way back from tragedy, finding meaning in the smallest of victories along the way. "Ceiling Unlimited" keeps the fire hose flowing full-blast. There are at least 6 killer songs on this album, and this is one of them. It gets better every time I hear it. It almost has a Foo Fighters vibe to it, which is a comparison Dave Grohl & Taylor Hawkins would LOVE to hear. "Ghost Rider" is the most autobiographical song here, detailing Neil's motorcycle therapy. Unfortunately, it's one of the lesser songs on the album. "Peaceable Kingdom" is a veiled commentary on terrorism and the events of 9/11. Again, it's unfortunate that it's not a better song. These two songs feel like they should be the standouts, but sadly, they're the weakest of the litter. "The Stars Look Down" holds together nicely. It's all about Neil's raging against a God he doesn't believe in, and concluding that the universe doesn't provide meaning, it just looks at us. It's got a nice drive and an even better chorus. (Pointless aside: The band I drummed with for a time had a song called "The Stars Look Down", recorded in 1999, and I was simultaneously honored and bothered when I pretended that Neil ripped us off.) "How it Is" is another great riff with a quick pulse. I used to think of it as filler, but I enjoyed it a lot this time through. The chorus has a bright '60s rock vibe, like early Who. "Vapor Trail" is a good title track because it represents the feel of the whole album. It's needlessly busy and over-tracked, yet with a pattern in its seemingly disjointed tangle. "Secret Touch" might be my favorite song here. It starts off with a light refrain then explodes in a mess of syncopated growly guitars chugging away. It doesn't sound like anything they've ever done before, but it really cooks. Especially the break after the guitar solo, when Neil goes a bit jazzy and Alex is ripping up a fast repetitive low E-string riff. "Earthshine" is another superlative song. The main riff is world class, and the oooh-oooh pre-chorus is a nice transition to the catchiest chorus on the album. It's also a fun astronomy-laced metaphor that hearkens back to vintage nerdy Rush. " Floating high in the evening sky, I see my faint reflection. Pale facsimile, like what others see, when they look in my direction." Man, that's good. "Sweet Miracle" has some nice punchy low end. It's a track like "How it Is", in that it should be middle of the road filler, but it's better than that, especially Geddy's vocals. It's another one of Neil's anti-supernatural, humanistic rants, but it doesn't bother me as much as his others for some reason. "Nocturne" is flat-out awesome. There's a moment between the verse and chorus where the instruments go into sonic chaos and Geddy has a distant wail in the background that is both intense and haunting (and NOTHING like the screechy Geddy wails in the '70s). Did I mention this song is all about nightmares and the twisted logic in dreams? Intense and haunting is right. "Freeze" is part 4 of Neil's "Fear Trilogy", the first addition since 1984. If you recall from previous reviews, the trilogy is all about the causes and effects of fear on the human psyche. This entry is about the fight or flight instinct, and the all-too-common tendency to freeze up when the fear is too great. Knowing the context and timing of this song makes it even more profound. Oh yeah, the music is ten kinds of awesome on this one, too. "Out of the Cradle" ends the album with a slight drop. It's not bad, but it doesn't compare to the previous five songs. Amazing bass on this one, though. Geddy's playing never disappoints, even if his vocals miss the mark a bit here. I won't lie, this is a hard album to listen to. Sonically, it's awfully painful, and there are just too many overdubs-- which is all the more frustrating because the songs are outstanding. With decent production, this could have been one of their top 3 albums ever. Alex announced back in February that they were going to remix the whole shebang and fix the compression issues. Here's hoping they cut out some of the atonal harmonies and clean up the guitar collage while their at it. Even with the mix issues, this is a wonderfully dense album; one that rewards the listeners the deeper we go. Writing and Performing: ****1/2Mix: 1/2 star
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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 28, 2011 16:02:11 GMT -5
Snakes and Arrows (2007)[Quick admission: I'm having a rotten few days, and I'm as frustrated and upset with life as I've ever been. Please bear that in mind as you read the following...] I hate this album. I absolutely hate it. Loathe? Yeah, loathe. For two weeks now, I've been trying to get over my issues and give it a fair listen so I can write an objective review. I can't get through an entire song. Any song. So instead of an objective review, I'm going to write an honest one: This album is full of spite, condescension, self-righteousness, double-standards, intolerance, and divisive, preachy rhetoric. Oh, the music is pretty lame, too. If you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all. I'd like to follow that advice, but Neil spends the entire album not following that advice. He claimed that this album was all about his "reflections on faith", but it's more like his "belligerence towards faith." There's an arrogance and a smugness here that is miles beyond Roll the Bones, which was his real "reflections on faith" album. Anyone who doesn't share his anti-supernatural views is labeled, "empty vessels, fools and thieves, barking dogs and wandering madmen, and superstitious fools" intent on persecuting and endangering those who disagree with them. And yet in making that point he exudes an intolerance of anyone who disagrees with him. His tone undermines and contradicts his entire argument. "So it's come to this, it's like we're back in the dark ages. From the middle east to the middle west it's a land of superstition," he laments in "The Way the Wind Blows." Since we're all merely products of our culture, no one should be able to tell anyone else what to believe. Unless it's that belief, which Neil lectures the listener to believe with both barrels. Let me be clear here-- it's not his atheism or humanism that bugs me. He's been pushing that ideology since the first song on the first album he was on ("Anthem"). It's the inflammatory rhetoric and victim mentality that he uses to justify some pretty weak philosophy. He's moved beyond "You can choose ready guide in some celestial voice...I will choose freewill." Now he says, "What happened to your old benevolent universe...that revolves around you?" You can almost hear the bitter venom on his tongue, even though Geddy sings it. He trots out freshman-level Problem of Evil complaints, as if he never read Pascal or Dostoevsky or Chesterton. He throws out one insulting generalization after another that people of faith are anti-science, necessarily violent and harmful to others, as if he's never heard of Isaac Newton, Martin Luther King, or Mother Theresa. Here's a nice tidbit from the song "Faithless": " All the preaching voices, empty vessels dream so loud as they move among the crowd. Fools and thieves are well-disguised in the temple and the marketplace. Like a stone in the river against the floods of spring, I will quietly resist." Okay, A) You're not noble. Just stop. B) You're not quietly doing anything, you're attempting to influence millions of listeners. Which is fine, but just admit it. C) In arguing against religion, you're modeling all of the characteristics of religious people you hate-- intolerance, aggressive evangelism, smug self-righteousness, and divisive rhetoric. Once again, I don't have an issue with his decision not to believe. He's entitled to his opinion, and he's earned the ability to broadcast that opinion because of the amazing band he's in. But his opinion seems to be that people who disagree with him aren't entitled to their opinion. Considering what happened with his wife and daughter, I can't begin to fathom what he went through and how he processed his beliefs in light of the tragedy. I respect that. And if he wants to lash out and be angry at people who believe in a higher, benevolent being, I could even understand that. But that's not how this album comes off. Instead, it seems like he read him some Dawkins and started trumpeting weak, dime-store atheism, complete with misrepresented arguments and a martyr complex. At worst, it's insulting and offensive to someone who is a theist (like me); at best, it's disappointing that such irresponsible and irrational thinking could come from such an intelligent and influential thinker. But what about the music, you ask? Well, the mix is a vast improvement over Vapor Trails (which wasn't hard). They wrote a lot of the songs on acoustic guitar, which gives it a feel of their early '90s output. It sounds far more like Roll the Bones than any other album in their catalog. There are three short, pointless and dull instrumentals, and none of the songs have any real hooks. The album opener, "Far Cry", is very good, and the only one that is worth a listen here. 1/2 star
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Post by Skyroniter on Sept 28, 2011 21:04:38 GMT -5
Sorry it's tough, Mr. A. Hope it gets better. YouTube video link doesn't work. I'm getting "Removed by User."
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Sept 28, 2011 22:23:12 GMT -5
Indeed. Sorry to hear you're down. I'll try to be helpful in my own way by not giving you any snarky skeptico-political crap. And by not listening to this album. I've listened to about half of the others, usually right after your review. Once I digest a bit more, I feel like you deserve a thoughtful response, especially after all the work you've put into this.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 28, 2011 23:21:10 GMT -5
Sorry it's tough, Mr. A. Hope it gets better. YouTube video link doesn't work. I'm getting "Removed by User." Thanks for the sympathy guys. I'm sure it'll turn around. Just dealing with a lot of work anxiety. Thanks for the heads up, sky. It looks like the guy took down all of his Rush videos. I had posted a few of his, so I went back and replaced them with other versions in my posts.
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Torgo
Moderator Emeritus
-segment with Crow?
Posts: 15,420
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Post by Torgo on Sept 29, 2011 22:33:05 GMT -5
Sounds like you're having about as good a week as I'm having, Mr. A. If it makes you feel any better, I'm sharing a slice of suck-pie myself. Misery loves company?
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Post by Mr. Atari on Sept 30, 2011 18:06:06 GMT -5
I don't want to end the project on such a sour note, so here's a positive conclusion to this epic Rush review:
One of my great pursuits in life is to be a world-class musician. For 25 years I have sat at the feet of these three, who taught me more than any other teacher or artist. I have spent countless hours trying to master the technique and musical imagination of Geddy, Alex, and Neil. Along the way, I was deeply influenced by Neil's intelligent and poetic lyrics. Even when I disagreed with the worldview, I was still affected by the ideas and admired the profundity.
MJ once accused me of liking "precision" instead of "guts". I understand the sentiment, but I disagree. I admire musicianship, but I also demand groove, hooks, and oomph from my music. Unlike their prog rock peers, Rush has it all. The groove might be precise instead of sloppy, but it's still there. The hooks might be complicated instead of simplistic, but they're still hooks. The complexity of the notes and the words are perfectly matched to the oomph of the songs.
With Rush, the whole is exactly as good as the sum of its parts. And because the individual parts are this superlative, that's some good eatin'.
Another component not mentioned in my reviews is their sense of humor. These guys have lasted so long because they don't take themselves seriously. They're private family men, who happen to play to hundreds of thousands of fans every tour. Geddy loves baseball, Neil likes his motorcycles, and Alex might be the funniest man in music. Their new concert DVD (The Time Machine Tour) opens with a five minute comedy bit that totally takes the piss out of the band:
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Post by Mr. Atari on Oct 2, 2011 15:00:05 GMT -5
Okay, one final Rush post, and then I'll be done.
Time for my favorite fifteen Rush songs. Why fifteen? Because 20 is too many and 10 isn't enough.
These aren't necessarily their best songs, and certainly not their most famous. But they're my favorite, and this is my blog. So eat it.
My Favorite Fifteen Songs
1. La Villa Strangiato- The greatest instrumental ever. 2. The Big Money- Everything that makes them great rolled into one song. 3. Marathon- Incredible bass-line, incredible lyrics, incredible orchestration. 4. YYZ- AKA The greatest instrumental ever, short form. 5. Analog Kid- A great riff on a song that feels like my life story. 6. Cygnus X-1- The band at their sci-fi best. 7. Red Barchetta- The song that first hooked me on the band. 8. Time Stand Still- The older I get, the higher this gets on the list. 9. Manhattan Project- Another perfect gem from Power Windows. 10. Something for Nothing- My favorite obscure early-era song. 11. Afterimage- So good it should be in the top 10. 12. Natural Science- Their best mid-sized epic. 13. Secret Touch- Representing all of the great songs from Vapor Trails. 14. Driven- The best song of the '90s era. 15. A Farewell to Kings- My favorite of what I call their "glockenspiel period".
If you don't know anything about Rush beyond Geddy's screeching and "Tom Sawyer", these are all good places to start. And a good place for me to finish.
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Torgo
Moderator Emeritus
-segment with Crow?
Posts: 15,420
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Post by Torgo on Oct 3, 2011 3:04:52 GMT -5
More Rush please.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Dec 1, 2011 4:36:46 GMT -5
I had a realization tonight that put a lot of things in perspective. Okay, a few things. Okay, hardly anything. But I still felt like it was a breakthrough.
First a little backstory:
So the other night, I was having beer and wings and theology with a good friend. I once gave him drum lessons when he was in high school, and he's about to graduate with an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering and Astrophysics from CU Boulder. The other thing we have in common is our musical taste. Whenever we meet, we share new music recommendations. He was positively gushing over his new favorite bands, Mumford & Sons and The Head and the Heart. So I came home and checked them out on iTunes. (I had heard rumblings about Mumford, but had somehow missed actually hearing them until now.)
I enjoy me some bluegrass when the season's right, and I'm always in favor of good musicians being creative and original. And I understand why, in the age of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and Nickelback and Kanye and Taylor Swift and autotune, when everything sounds pre-packaged and overproduced and corporate music rules the day, the backlash leads to stripped-down arrangements of down-home instruments like pianos, acoustic guitars, banjos, harmonicas, accordions and foot-stomps, with plaintive and reflective lyrics that are still clever, all recorded without an iota of reverb. (Good Lord, that was a long sentence.) I get all that. But when I listened to those two bands, I was really unimpressed and even found myself making a crinkle face.
And that's when it hit me: I don't like folk music.
Maybe it was never about Bob Dylan. Maybe it's the entire genre. The Guthries. Simon & Garfunkel. James Taylor. Nick Drake. Elliott Smith. Even folk chicks like Carole King or Joni Mitchell or the Indigo Girls. Give me an album of acoustic singer-songwriter melancholy and I'll be polite, but I'll hate it.
The breakthrough for me was even deeper: It's not just folk artists I eschew, it also seems to be rock bands where the skeleton of their music is based on folk. The Eagles, for one. Also, Neil Young. Maybe it's why Springsteen never did much for me. Name any trendy indie band. Wilco? Yep. Arcade Fire? You betcha. Sufjan Stevens? And how. Mumford & Sons? Sadly, yes.
The thing is, I've tried. I've really tried to like these artists. And I freely admit that they all have something creative and amazing to offer. I just didn't realize the common denominator was this simple until tonight. If the core of the sound is based on folk, I'm just not going to like it. It's not for lack of hooks or musicianship or melody or performance. It's something more elemental than that. Something in my subconscious musical brain identifies it and finds it abrasive. Folk music is the raspberry pip that gets stuck in between my musical teeth. Motown soul and bluesy rock & roll is the floss.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Dec 1, 2011 5:36:36 GMT -5
Out of curiosity -- how do you account for your appreciation of the folky "Over the Rhine"?
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