TEST FOR ECHO

Counterparts wasn't quite a return to form - when "on form" for Rush includes classics like Moving Pictures, 2112, and A Farewell to Kings, returning to it is a difficult proposition indeed and Counterparts didn't quite get there. But it was their strongest album for some time and had some pretty good songs, so Rush fans had plenty of reason to be hopeful about the followup. "Maybe," everyone thought, "this is it, the breakthrough, the comeback, the definitive blowing away of the cobwebs which puts Rush back at the top of their game."

Spoiler: it isn't. Test For Echo isn't a terrible album, but it doesn't feel very necessary either; musically speaking, it's essentially Diet Counterparts, a retread of that territory with the sound toned down a little and a bit less inclined to get heavy from time to time. If you liked that album, Test For Echo might do it for you, though I suspect many of those who embraced Counterparts will find Test rather lightweight.

If Counterparts didn't impress you or seem like much of a comeback, and if you absolutely cannot stand the lighter sound Rush adopted for their synth period (and which still stuck around in a less synthy way on Presto and Roll the Bones), then Test For Echo certainly won't win you over. That said, if you like the idea of something that sounds like an intermediate step between Roll the Bones and Counterparts in the heaviness stakes, then Test For Echo isn't half bad. I suspect it won't be many people's favourite Rush album, but I think it's possible to be too harsh to it, because it's not a total embarrassment either.