This is where the real Rush starts - the classic Rush and to me this is still my fave album from them along with A Farewell To Kings. All of the short numbers on side 2 are good except for that terrible yawner Tears. But clearly A Passage To Bangkok was a call to Stoner-hood with mentions of Bogota, Katmandu and Thailand.
We followed those advices. Twilight Zone was still looking at the sort of track that was run-of-the-mill of By-Tor And The Snow Dog era. Side 1 holds the title track that helped me grow up and acquire a conscience but listening to this nowadays I see a few weaknesses and the simplicity of it all has not stood well the test of time in my ears.
How many times did I listened to this fascinating story of this man discovering via the music instrument (an acoustic guitar) the power of self-expression in a repressive society? A thousand time, maybe. For a 15 year-old rebel (were those Priests of Syrinx not our teachers or parents?
) , this was all I managed to think about for months and this Grand Finale was absolutely moving most of the times pulling a tear and wanting me to commit suicide just for the sake of it! Very few bands managed to make their feelings come through their music like Rush did in this album. Although looking or hearing this album now , I can see that it has not aged that well , sounding somewhat simplistic but still so expressive and with grat musicianship.
This is one of the most important album of my teenhood along with Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell as all of those tracks SPOKE and SAID something to me. Only four star because , this album has not aged that well to my adult proghead mind, but the teen I was would've given this album seven stars. Posted Tuesday, February 03, 2004, 10:37 EST |
This fourth album contains memorable songs.
It is probably the first album to become really popular. This is sophisticated hard rock, even mellow and progressive sometimes. It is the first time keyboards are introduced, but we are far from Power windows; Geddy Lee was rather minimalist here, but efficient enough.
The epic eponymic song, which lasts about 20 minutes, is a wonderful hard rock progressive song full of powerful electric guitar, complex bass and drum parts. The other side contains varied songs: the mellow acoustic "Twilight Zone", having a good guitar solo. The more hard rock "Passage to Bangkok", "Something For Nothing" and "Lessons".
The peaceful acoustic "Tears" on which floating keyboards and quiet lead vocals allows the listener to really relax. Posted Wednesday, April 14, 2004, 18:02 EST |
"2112" was more than an album; for pot-smoking male adolescents it was a rite of passage. To them, the title track was a fulfillment of their rock roll fantasies: toppling a totalitarian future-world with the power of music.
PEART's lyrics were carefully crafted to reference the listener's likely state of mind (notably on "Oracle: The Dream" and "Soliloquy"), and written for two voices (rendered by GEDDY LEE in a way that recalls "Jesus Christ Superstar") as if it were a play. And while it was a dramatic improvement over previous albums, musically the band still struggled with the epic format. The musical themes are incestuous from part to part, little time is found for flashes of instrumental brilliance, the end seems abruptly tacked on, and references to earlier storytellers (THE WHO, ELP) show a band slightly out of their depth.
The rest of the album returns to song format, including a paean to pot ("A Passage To Bangkok") that would have fit on "Physical Graffiti", "The Twilight Zone" (about the TV series of all things) and an impassioned manifesto on "Something For Nothing." If you're looking for concrete evidence on "2112" that makes a case for greatness, you won't find it. The appeal of this album is that so many fans listened to this album when they were young, when they were high, and have listened to it often since then.
Otherwise, except for the thematic shift from fantasy to science fiction, there's nothing on "2112" that wasn't already present on "Caress of Steel" and "Fly By Night". Of interest, the band does experiment with some new sounds, including the opening synthesizer section on "Introduction", and the ever-popular Mellotron on "Tears" (with Lee providing very Rutherfordian accompaniment on bass). This is the culmination of the band's first phase, a period marked by music that had yet to break free from the pull of past influences (GENESIS, LED ZEPPELIN, THE WHO et al).
In my opinion, "2112"'s is a subjective greatness, a first crush where adolescent emotions walked on a new moon, breathed the air, and found it good. Posted Monday, May 03, 2004, 19:41 EST |
My second Rush experience. While it wasn't quite as good as my first ( Hemispheres), there's no questioning that this is a damn good album.
The hilight is the epic title track, which is the most agressive song of theirs I've heard yet, and also features equally great mellow sections and a very nice solo courtesy Alex Lifeson. Geddy Lee's vocals are at their best on this track, and what can be said about Neil Peart's songwriting and drumming that hasn't already been said? The man is a genius.
As one would expect, the rest of the album fails to stand up to this brilliance, but it has some good moments. "A Passage to Bangkok" has a great riff, "The Twilight Zone" and "Tears" are good slow songs, and "Lessons" is a more simplistic but also pretty great rock song. "Something for Nothing" is hilighted by the guitar playing, but isn't all that great a song on it's own.
This is a somewhat more accessible effort from Rush, and not a bad starting point. That said, they've done better. Still, this is a fine album and it has kept me interested in their Posted Saturday, May 29, 2004, 01:38 EST |
The first RUSH masterpiece- it's not without its flaws, of course, but this is where hard rock and progressive rock successfully and accessibly came together.
Additionally, the sound rock "progressive-lite" bands like STYX and JOURNEY. You could party to this album, and you could also do some mind-expanding with it. Continuing the 'concept side/shorter song side' system, they also enabled you to get some action with it, given the right partner and loved it, stoners loved it, rockers loved it.
Being one of each as time passed, it has a the "2112" suite alone. I'm not saying this is the most polished or involving narrative in prog finish and leaves you satisfied. I suppose a labored analogy would be: RUSH is the fast food of 70s prog, PINK FLOYD is the meat-and-potatos, and KING CRIMSON is more of an only go so far).
Anyway, if you're any kind of prog fan, "2112" is one of those classic Posted Sunday, June 27, 2004, 22:26 EST |
and "2112" was definitely played in my house a ton. IMHO 2112 is the defining moment for RUSH prog a progressive rock.
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