VAPOR TRAILS

Let me start off by saying this is by far the coolest album cover Rush has ever put out. Props to them for that at least, because the music within the crazy cover is very disappointing. I don't know why the band felt that Geddy needed vocal overdubs to sound good, but they are just stupid. Geddy is not the kind of singer that works with overdubs, and they use them so much that it is just annoying to listen to. The mix is absolutely horrid as well. The bass is intolerably high and you can't even descern half of the music because the bass and guitar sound the same. In some songs it seriously sounds like a tractor accompanied by great drumming. If the mix had been done better, this album would probably be a strong 3-stars, but as it is it just adds onto the hurt.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a throw-away disc. There are three songs that I can in honesty call "great", and those would be "Earthshine", "Vapor Trail", and "Ghost Rider". These three songs sound the most like Rush out of the entire album. The rest of the tracks don't have that great "Rush" sound. When I hear them, it just sounds like some other band with a Geddy-like singer who uses too many vocal overdubs, a decent guitarist, and a crazy drummer. Now don't get out your torches and pitchforks because of the "decent guitarist" line, because I think Lifeson is great. He just isn't very good on this album (excluding the three songs I mentioned earlier, he really helps the mood of each tremendously and has some nice work in each as well). I really can't stand most of this album though. If "Earthshine", "Vapor Trail", and "Ghost Rider" weren't on the album, it would be a definite 1-star release. But thanks to those two songs, this album gets the slightly better 2-star rating from me. It is a borderline 3 album I'd say, but due to the terrible mix, the bad songs, and the unnecessary vocal overdubs, I will give it 2 stars. Fans may like this album, and collectors/completionists will of course get it to add to their stack of Rush CDs, but anyone who hasn't really heard Rush before and wants one of their CDs to hear thier stuff should stay away from this. Here's to Neil and his great drumming and lyrics though.