CARAVAN / BU2B

Wow, Rush has set phazers to kill! This is probably the hardest rocking Rush ever. The Caravan and BU2B single makes for an extremely tantalizing glimpse of what is coming down the pipe for fans next year with the now impending release of studio album number 19, Clock Work Angles. Both of the tracks certainly err on the commercial side. Which one might expect, you know, on a single. I have to say though in spite of that, they are both very very good. The hooks sink in and I just want to crank in right up to eleven. The musicianship and production are both top tier, nothing short of what we've come to expect from rush.

The first question that is on the minds of all Rush fans is not, is it "Moving Pictures again?" but rather the far more realistic "How does it compare to Snakes and Arrows?" My answer to that: Favourably. I like both tracks better than anything that can be found on the last album, with the exception of maybe Hope and The Main Monkey Business. Some of the same themes seem to have trickled through to this effort. The exploration of faith through the lenses of Neil Peart is back of Brought Up to Believe, although much catchier. Caravan on the other hand is like Passage to Bangkok on cocaine though.

Something interesting happened while I was listening to the single this time, instead of moving on to something else I just let my album play and the next thing that happened to come up was "Finding My Way" off of Rush (and Chronicles as it happens), and it offered an interesting comparison to their earliest work. I can't help but feel the same freewheeling spirit of a couple of kids throwing together and album and doing some touring. As shocking as it may seem, the best may still be yet to come from everybody's favourite Toronto based power trio. These guys still have what it takes to make (moving) picture perfect rock music. If you haven't already picked up this single, do so. This is rivalling Heaven and Hell for the best $2.50 ever spent.

My rating, 4 out of 5 for overall content (owing to some repetitious lyrics near the end of both tracks and the fact that two songs can't rightly be "essential") and 11 out of 10 for rock and roll!