TEST FOR ECHO

Rush followed up the hard rocking "Counterparts" (their best album since the early eighties) with this mixed bag. It starts out promising. The first song, the title track, is as good, and a similar style as the previous album. It's followed by Driven, which has a great bass line and rhythm, but loses momentum in a humdrum verse section.

There are enough good tracks on this album to make it worth owning. Time And Motion, the instrumental Limbo and especially Virtuality are all excellent Rush tracks. And as usual, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart are talented enough to make even the lesser songs listenable.

If you, like me, are resigned to Rush only inserting small flashes of prog into their music, then I would say you would appreciate much of this album.