VAPOR TRAILS

Then two weeks later, "Peaceable Kingdom" broke through, followed by, over the past few years, every other track. On no other record can I say that the majority of tracks have spent time as both "hit repeat over and over" plays and "skip it... it sucks" and gone back and forth (and in a few cases back and forth again!).

Because the production sound is muddy and chaotic (with lots of multitracking of vocals, guitars, and bass; the volume on the drums seems to move around as well, though whether this is technical or the latest trick in Neil Peart's arsenal is open to question), it is unquestionably dense. Tool & Radiohead (along with, at times, Rage Against the Machine) influences can be spotted, continuing in the grand Rush tradition of vacuuming up what the three guys are listening to in the months before writing and recording and synthesizing that with the Rush trademarks that we know and [presumably] love. What I noticed when a song grabbed me was that it wasn't the "whole product" that did it. It was a drum part, or a guitar riff, or a vestigial solo, or a lyric, or a vocal melody, or a bassline that drew me in, my mind keying on that part until the others, in due time, came through.

Take "Ceiling Unlimited", a song which has to join the pantheon of great Rush anthems. The drumming is inventive while staying mostly in the pocket (though when Neil takes control in a few passages, it's breathtaking). The midsection is a treat: Alex plays the vestiges of a solo (though you could argue that he's taking the traditional bass role of rhythmic accompaniment and playing through the changes as well) while Geddy and Neil seem to simultaneously solo (again, focusing on drums or bass really helps here). If you want a minute or two that summarizes Rush, you'd be hard pressed to top this.

"Freeze" sees Rush return to a neo-prog posture, with Tool influences flying thick at you. The beat is simultaneously simple and complex, and while it's built around a very limited sonic palette, the few "sonic colors" are used in nearly every possible permutation, in a way that makes sense and works for the song, conveying the quickened pulse as adrenaline surges through you when you confront the unknown, whether it's the "...unconscious and the secret places of the heart" or of the "back streets and the echoes and the shadows". This is prog-metal of the highest order, and shows that, while Rush have only rarely ventured into a world that they may well have created, they should still be welcomed with open arms!

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