CLOCKWORK ANGELS

I am really loving this record. I love how it sounds. The sound has balls when it needs balls and is mellow at the right times--even pretty, in the case of Halo Effect and The Garden. I love all the tandem guitar/bass playing. I can't recall Geddy and Alex really doing a whole lot of that in the past, but it sounds powerful, reminiscent, to me, of "Outshined" by Soundgarden. Is this album perfect? No, but what Rush album is? Plenty of fans would say Permanent Waves is, but plenty of others would say that Jacob's Ladder is goofy and boring and Different Stings is a weak link. Same goes with Moving Pictures and The Camera Eye/Vital Signs, Power Windows and Emotion Detector/Mystic Rhythms. For me, like Vapor Trails, this is a mature album that could only have been written by someone who had lived some life and had some dreams truly, ruthlessly crushed, but now has gotten more beyond it, owned it, conquered it. With VT the pain and anger, yet amazement that life could still be beautiful was pretty fresh. That same kind of perspective comes through yet again, but seems wiser, more insightful now. I love that Rush finally went full-concept with a record, including having written intros for each track. My inner-nerd rejoices. Certain elements of the story have me quite intrigued. I haven't been able to geek-out this hard over alchemical references since Bruce Dickinson's The Chemical Wedding. In Seven Cities the adventurer doesn't know if the glimmer of gold is the discovery of unfathomable riches or an illusion of the dessert, luring him to his death. Wish Them Well, with it's message of live and let live, reminds me of how The Sphere gently summarizes the point of Hemispheres, but the message has grown more practical and cynical over the years. Is Geddy's voice the same as the old days? Certainly not. To me it has some wear-and-tear, some edge, some strain and weariness, even, at times. To me, it fits the lyrical themes of getting the shit kicked out of you and fighting back. I'm finally enjoying Caravan and BU2B, now that they have their proper context and a final mix. Would anyone really have thought all that much of In the Flesh? and The Thin Ice without the rest of The Wall? And as far as comparing tracks goes, I'll certainly take Caravan over One Little Victory and think that BU2B is as competent a track as Ceiling Unlimited, though my mild preference is for the latter. With Vapor Trails and Snake and Arrows, I find myself skipping about half the tracks. Clockwork Angels really works as a whole for me. The title track, Halo Effect, Seven Cities of Gold and The Garden are emerging as favorites. A perfect record this is not, but, I feel that it does what Rush intended it to do--that it hit the mark.