VAPOR TRAILS

I'm a huge Rush fan, and I do mean "HUGE" fan, cause I could spend the rest of my life only hearing these guys' songs. But Vapor Trails has to be the weakest of their 17 studio albums, by quite a big margin. Once I heard they didn't use synths on this recording, I already became a bit suspicious. Then I heard it, and could confirm it was all way below their average (which is quite high anyway). Most tracks lack inspiration and sound unfinished somehow... there are a few great tunes like "Ghost Rider" and "Earthshine", but then guess what... the sound quality of the album is poor as well! All the volumes are so high - drums, guitar and bass - and combined with dozens of layers of guitar and bass, it ends up in an awfully "dirty" sound. And, oddly enough, Neil's drumwork is so plain in this album, that it doesn't even sound like Neil Peart - come on, for someone who drums "YYZ", "Subdivisions" and other of their golden-era masterpieces, Vapor Trails was really poor. All in all, I'll give it two stars cause it has some good tracks, and it celebrates the return of Rush. But if you're new to the band, I urge you not to start off with this album, cause it will most likely lead to disappointment.