TEST FOR ECHO

At the time of this review, TFE is Rush's lowest rated album. I can't say I'm surprised by that as I would only rate Roll The Bones lower then this one. But at the time of its release I was very surprised and disappointed indeed. I had appreciated the "Rush-goes-grunge" style of Counterparts a lot and the few songs from TFE that I had heard on the radio sounded great. As it turned out, the radio station had clearly picked the only tracks worth hearing.

The opening track contains some great moments, especially at the start. Lifeson's 12 string picking and Lee's pensive vocals create a very spacey and warm atmosphere, it's immediately followed by a vintage Lifeson circular riff. The remainder of the song tends to drag a bit though. I think they should have cut this one down to under 5 minutes.

It is followed by Driven, another song that combines some splendid riffing with rather bland vocals. It's a complaint I have with the entire album really. Geddy Lee is simply not into it. He sounds tired and a bit bored frankly. Still the main riff is so powerful here that it saves the entire song. Then comes a blow, a nasty one. Half the World must easily be the cheesiest song ever recorded by Rush, or no, it must be the following one, The Color of Right, or no Totem, or no, sorry for all this confusion, it's definitely Dog Years that wins the "poorest Rush song ever" award.

The remainder of the songs are average at best, except for one. Rush managed to craft one song here that must be amongst their best since the material from Power Windows. Time And Motion is a powerful track building a strong tension and a weird alienated feel. Judging from Lifeson's Victor album, this must be clearly one from his hand.

Apart from a few tunes this album lacks the good songwriting that Rush had kept going for so many years. Better avoided.