The
story I told you about Marillion the other day is definitely applicable
to the Canadian trio Rush. This
band, with the same line-up for many years, tries to change its musical
direction with each album they release.
Time and time again the multitude of fans keeps waiting for yet
another 'La Villa Strangiato" of "2112 Volume H". In
2004 it will be 30 years since the release of the band's debut-album
"Rush", so there's no doubt they altered their musical course
drastically more than once. A
producer can greatly influence the sound for a significant part, in
dialogue with the band's management and their record company.
That's one reason why we cannot or may not judge "Vapour
trails" too fast and analyse each track separately. The
producer on this album is Paul Norhtfield who mixed formerly the live
album "Different Stages” and featured as (a) co-producer on
albums such as “Moving Pictures”,
“Signals” and even on Neil Part’s tribute to Buddy Rich.
He even worked together with Ozzy Osbourne, Hole and Marilyn
Manson. Currently he’s
incorporated in the production of the new Porcupine Tree CD as sound
engineer. For
this album “Vapour Trails” the band equally decided to keep out
most, if not all keyboards and lengthy guitar solos.
Considering the fact that these two elements were often the main
reason to buy a Rush album, it’s understandable that many fans find it
difficult to get adjusted to this new sound.
The band is well informed on the matter and they even invented an
advertisement with the slogan “If you hated them before, you’ll
really hate them now !” Neil
Peart wrote down a quote on the wall of a bar in Montana : “Success is
not the result of spontaneous combustion; you must set yourself on fire”. It’s
the red thread throughout this album. Five
years after their album “Test for echo” the trio tried to work out
the same chemistry that lead them to make 16 albums over the past 27
years. Approaching the
album as a whole in a contemporary way and framing the, mostly
well-considered and psychologically founded lyrics, the 13 songs on this
new Rush album are ‘food’ for the younger generation.
Perhaps they won’t even be frightened listening to the odd
voice of Geddy Lee. It’s one way to attract the attention in the music scene. The
atmosphere of the album is set right at the beginning.
The opening track ‘One little victory’ sounds like a ‘barmitzva
on speed’. Since the modern alternative rock-scene is very
guitar-orientated, it’s obvious that, having decided to eliminate the
elaborated keyboard works, the track gets a more present sound. The elimination of a whole range of instruments means that
the remaining one’s allotted (or alocated ?) a bigger part and ‘Ceiling
unlimited’ is a good example.
Geddy Lee’s bass guitar almost takes over.
In ‘Peaceable kingdom’ the bass dominates enormously.
The structure of the tracks is well considered and ‘Ghostrider’
could easily be a sturdy Eagles song.
This polyphony is found again in ‘The stars look down’ where,
for once, Geddy Lee’s mostly enervating voice doesn’t pall. Throwing
the keyboards overboard means also that you need to thrill the audience
in another way. Rush tries
to do so by integrating acoustic guitar solos in ‘How it is’, a
track that could easily be found on the last U2 album.
This doesn’t mean that the musical production isn’t good. Probably my absolute favourite track from this ‘reformed’
Rush is without any doubt the powerful ‘Secret Touch’.
I let the other 5 tracks went by, without paying the least of
attention, hoping the next album Rush produces will revert to their
roots, because it’s regrettable that an artist gets lost of his track
in order to follow someone other’s footsteps.
That’s why I have to conclude, unfortunately, that the
integration of producer Paul Northfield has influenced the musical
direction of Rush far too much. The
trio Lee/Peart/Lifeson should have worked with Peter Collins, a man who
knew how to prepare this recipe in order to make it sound fresh,
renewing, contemporary and still recognisable.
Reviewed by : John ‘Bobo’ Bollenberg Translated by : Walter 'HaHa' Haentjens |
