2112

Is it a real masterpiece?

Let's see.

Side A is occupied by the suite 2112, lasting about 20 minutes, which starts with spatial, cosmic sounds, then Lifeson's hard rock guitar enters, and we witness a continuous change of rhythm, marked by the virtuosity of Neil Peart. As soon as the Overture closes, the voice of Geddy Lee is heard, at first sweet, then, when the hard-rock music starts again, shrill, screamed in that typical way of heavy metal that I don't like, it reminds me of the Neapolitan melodrama: when you go beyond the tone, the real emotion is absent, it is more form than content.

However, this short second song is certainly overwhelming, and ends with an acoustic guitar, then, with the sound of water, the narration of this futuristic and dystopian poem continues where music is prohibited. The piece is acoustic, soft voice and acoustic guitar. Then the rhythmic Presentation starts, very heavy, with the shrill voice in the foreground; a hyper-fast guitar solo ends the piece; Oracle still starts with a sweet voice and acoustic guitar, then becomes hard rock, with the characteristic shrill voice. The sound of spring water returns, and again an acoustic melodic piece is the prologue to a hard rock piece, the formula seems clear enough and repetitive. Finally, the Grand Finale, a short virtuoso show. As happened with the second side of the previous album, even here, more than a real suite, this long piece of music is only the set of many songs united by the same theme, songs that do not have a true unitary musical development.

Great effort, but in my opinion we are far from the masterpiece.

Rating 7,5/8

Side 2 2. A Passage To Bangkok (3:34). An oriental jingle, a guitar riff, the voice of Geddy Lee, and we are facing a conventional rock ballad, with a good guitar solo. Rating 7.

3. The Twilight Zone (3:18). Inspired song, partly electric, partly acoustic, with rhythm changes. A small prog-rock pearl, which however ends too early with a Lifeson's solo. Rating 7.5 / 8

4. Lessons (3:51). Acoustic guitar, rhythmic progression, screaming and scratching voice, we are faced with a good conventional hard-rock with guitar solo. The arrangement suffers from the exact same solutions. Rating 7+

5. Tears (3:32). The song begins with a melodic and romantic, acoustic piece, then arrives the mellotron played by Syme. Sweet song, very melodic and slow. The singing by Lee is finally whispered and not howling. Too short. Rating 7,5/8.

6. Something For Nothing (3:59). Concluding song with an acoustic beginning that soon becomes electric and very sustained, coarse voice, central guitar solo (I can't deny that the sound seems rather monotonous to me), again coarse voice. Rating 7.

There is very little progressive in this second side. In general, both for the arrangements and for the singing, Rush seems to me only a group of simple hard rock, very competent, ready to write suites which, however, so far (the first two albums) are more than anything else the union of single songs always hard rock. Good music rock, visceral, engaging, but rather simple, and short songs seem uncared for. A step forward compared to the previous album, a discreet but still immature album.

Quality Side 2: 7+.

Medium quality between side 1 and side 2: 7,5. Three stars.

Share this RUSH review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to jamesbaldwin
• Report this review (#2347532)
• Buy RUSH music online with PA partners
• Show all RUSH MP3/Stream
• Go to RUSH page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to 2112 page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for RUSH related discussions