WORKING MAN (A TRIBUTE TO RUSH)

I'm not normally a fan of tribute albums, but occasionally one impresses me. Working Man is an all star tribute to prog metal pioneers (and art rock stalwarts) Rush. A good selection of the band's influential non-epics (La Villa Strangiato and Natural Science bieng the longest cuts), it manages in places to catpure the spirit of that highly spirited band. Billy Sheehan is the man most present on this disc, and his highly technical bass playing retains the complexity of Geddy's performances, but I belive they lack the personality of the originals. Still, I've been a fan of Sheehan for a while and was glad to see him here so often (also playing the bass a lot is fellow technical bass god Stu Hamm; Geddy got the royal treatment when it came to bass tributes).

The best covers are a shortened Working Man, the Steve Morse and Billy Sheehan driven version of La Villa Strangiato, and Devin Townsend's masterful take on Natural Science. Devin's version actually sounds better than the original in my opinion, and, had they played the full song, Sebastian Bach and co.'s Working Man would have eclipsed Rush's.

However, the rest of the tracks are only pretty good, and only fans wishing for interesting renditions of their favorite Rush tunes should give this a go. Worth it just for Villa, WM, and Natural Science, but the rest of the album is surpirsingly enjoyable. By no means essential, but I'd recommend this to open minded fans.

Grade: C