Airbourne

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but Airbourne have a new album out so I thought I'd dive back in and take a look at these Aussie rockers. I often describe them as 'AC/DC, but now', and that is exactly what they are. There ain't no lofty artistic goals here, this is straight-up, in-your-face power chords for 3 minutes at a time. 

Airbourne, set up by the O'Keeffe brothers, are:

Joel O'Keeffe - Vocals and lead guitar

David Roads - Rhythm guitar (2003-2017)

Harri Harrison - Rythm guitar (2017-2022)

Brett Tyrell - Rhythm guitar (2023-Present)

Justin Street - Bass

Ryan O'Keeffe - Drums

Runnin' Wild (2007)

Like many other bands, my getting into Airbourne started with Guitar Hero. On 'On Tour', Airbourne had a song called Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast. It wasn't particularly hard or fun to play, but it was such a solid hard rock song that I went out and bought this album. And I'm very glad I did. 

There's a huge amount of youthful energy to this album. Barely out of their 20s, Airbourne brought a whole new life to the AC/DC template. Straight out of the gates, Stand Up For Rock 'N' Roll is a statement of intent for the band - 'drink your beer, drink your wine, let's have a good time; we're ready, so get ready, we're gonna rock, rock tonight!'. They're not here to make you think, to break the mould, to innovate. They're here to rock. 

The title track follows, the video of which guest stars one of their heroes - Lemmy. Runnin' Wild keeps up the breakneck pace, and is a perfect driving song. Third we have Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast - the whole reason I bought the album - and though the tempo drops a tad, the intensity remains at peak levels. 

Much like AC/DC, Airbourne suffer a bit due to the general similarity of sound throughout their albums, so that it is more difficult for songs to stand out from the pack. Having said that, Runnin' Wild suffers from this the least of all of the Airbourne albums. Diamond In The Rough, Blackjack, Girls In Black, Cheap Wine & Cheaper Women are all great tracks that could have stood alone as singles. If I want to be a bit critical, Fat City and What's Eatin' You are the most 'filler-ey' songs here, but they still deserve the places here. 

Up to 2025, this might be the best Airbourne album. Maybe it's because it's the first, maybe it's the youth. But I also think the songwriting is particularly strong here. Sure, it's all verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus, but the riffs are heavy and memorable, and for the most part the lyrics are pretty good in a 'classic rock'n'roll lyrics' kind of way. 

Before moving on, it's worth mentioning that Runnin' Wild has several versions with bonus tracks. If you collected them all, you would have 4 bonus tracks, and 3 songs which were re-recorded versions of their very limited release 2004 EP. Some of these are decent songs, though I think their songwriting improved a fair bit between 2004 and 2007...

No Guts, No Glory (2010)

You can get a good feel for this album from the cover art. A screaming, topless Joel thrusting his guitar high - yep, that's what it sounds like. But also, far too much going on around him - there are visual representations for about 7 songs in that background. 

This is an overstuffed album. The standard edition runs at a reasonable 13 songs, while the special edition adds 5 extra songs for a total of 18. It's impossible for a band like Airbourne to fill an 18-song album without resorting to filler in places. And, honestly, I think it might have been better to swap in some of those bonus tracks for standard tracks (e.g. My Dyanamite Will Blow You Sky High for White Line Fever, and Kickin' It Old School for Get Busy Livin') and leaving the album as is. 

The energy which permeated throughout the entire first album is a little more restrained here - being allowed out only on some tracks. Born To Kill, Raise The Flag, It Ain't Over Till It's Over are all played with speed and ferocity. But elsewhere the tempo is a lower, and the playing a bit more relaxed. Admittedly, this is because some of the songwriting is a tad more considered and thoughtful than perviously - Bottom Of The Well stands out well above the rest in that regard. 

In terms of subject matter, the first album was all drinking, partying, women, and rock'n'roll. This second album is pretty much the same (see Blonde, Bad And Beautiful), but has a bit more of a working-class, industrial edge. No Way But The Hard Way, Steel Town, Get Busy Livin', and Kickin' It Old School all cover topics like factory-working, striving for a better life, and clocking off your shift and kicking it back with the guys. It's not particuarly nuanced social commentary, but I think it reveals both a bit of the background of the bandmembers, and of the audience they (think they) tend to attract. This is hard-working rock for hard-working people. 

Black Dog Barking (2013)

Ripping themselves off entirely, the opening track is too easily comparable to Runnin Wild's Stand Up For Rock And Roll. A long introduction, building and building, before bursting into a song about how hard this album is going to rock. This isn't a complaint, really, but I think it's worth pointing out that Airbourne seem to have returned more to the Runnin' Wild template.

And I think that first-album feel continues throughout the album. The youthful intensity was only let out for certain songs on No Guts, but here it's back to being all over the album. In fact, the tempo only really slows up on tracks 3, 4 and 9 - No One Fits Me [Better Than You], Back In The Game, and Cradle To The Grave. Now, Airbourne had flirted with some wink-nudge innuendo on No Guts with Armed And Dangerous, but No One Fits Me is the first hint that they may be willing to be a little less subtle...

Best song on the album - Live It Up, by an absolute mile. The build up takes absolutely ages, but when the song kicks in it really kicks in. A classic chorus that fans can sing along to at gigs, and a general YOLO message. It also has, what I think, is a pretty fun line of wordplay in 'The devil may care, but I don't give a damn'. Great song. 

It just feels like there's a lot less filler on this album. The standard edition's 10 tracks are all-out rock with no letup. The only track I'm not a huge fan of is Hungry, but even then I'm a fan of the twangy intro and the main riff. 

Unlike No Guts, the 3 bonus tracks on Black Dog Barking are a nice extra rather than being better than some of the standard tracks. Jack Attack could have comfortably fit on the album proper, pushing it to an 11-track length. But the other two are kind of forgettable and were rightly left as bonuses. 

The special edition also has an 8-track live album, recorded at Wacken 2011. This has some nice versions of Blackjack and Girls In Black from Runnin' Wild, and it does a good job of sounding fast and heavy - like Airbourne actually are live. But it has two main problems with the vocals: they're mixed too low, and also it's clear that Joel can't quite hit the high notes on a consistent basis. I found this when I saw them myself live - Joel often sings an entire octave lower. 

Breakin' Outta Hell (2016)

Noting above that Joel's voice seemed to be unable to hit the high notes live that he lays down on the albums, Breakin' Outta Hell is very noticably lacking in high-notes. Airbourne were never a screamy band, but most songs had that 'hold the final syllabus in the chorus as the song goes into the guitar solo' thing that rock bands often do, and in those Joel would often reach higher. There were also songs like Blonde, Bad and Beautiful where Joel gets high-ish throughout the song. 

In Breakin' Outta Hell, I just couldn't help but notice that the songs were lower, and there were fewer high holds. Which is a real shame, and it made me hope that Joel hadn't wrecked his voice in only 10 years...

But anyway, what about this album? Well, it's a bit mixed. The title track opens, and is probably the best song. It's fast, heavy, and mixes the messages of Bottom Of The Well and Live It Up. Actually, it might better be described as what might have happened if AC/DC had been asked to rewrite Bat Out Of Hell. 

Like No Guts, it feels like the energy is contained to only a few of the songs rather than throughout. The title track, Thin The Blood, and When I Drink I Go Crazy all have that up-tempo, headbanging feel to them. But elsewhere, we're a bit slower and stomping. I think I prefer my Airbourne fast and loud. 

It's All For Rock 'N' Roll is worth a shoutout as being a tribute to Lemmy. It's a nice, steady tribute with some poignant lyrics - but I can't help but wonder if Lemmy would have preferred something a bit more amphetamine-fueled...

And then we get three Steel Panther-alikes. Down On You, Never Been Rocked Like This and Do Me Like You Do Yourself are all just a bit misplaced on an Airbourne album. The first and third of those in particular feel weird. They're not as ridiculous as Steel Panther songs, but they're still a bit too 'single-entendre'. On the first listen I was thinking 'really?'. To be honest, I'd rather they leave that kind of material to Steel Panther and concentrate on other topics. Or, at least, only having one song of this kind per album. 

The special edition of this album only has one bonus track - Bombshell. I have no idea why this wasn't added to the album proper - it's good enough to be on it and it feels a bit silly to just have a single bonus track given Airbourne's historical penchent for bonus tracks. 

Boneshaker (2019)

Blink your ears and you'll miss this album. 10 songs and barely coming in at 30 minutes. But don't worry, Airbourne haven't become a punk band. They just decided that some songs only need to be 2 minutes long when they're played fast and hard. 

I'm quite surprised on writing this blog that I've found a pattern in Airbourne's album output. They seem to go fast-slow-fast-slow-fast. And after the surprising plod along that was Breakin Outta Hell, Boneshaker feels like it's just downed 3 pints and run straight into a mosh pit. 

Burnout The Nitro, Blood In The Water, Switchblade Angel, and Rock'N'Roll For Life (see the acronym under the skull on the album cover...) are all about as fast as Airbourne can go. It's not speed metal or anything like that, but it's definitely Motörhead-esque. 

The slower (as in mid-paced) songs also just feel a lot more purposeful than anything on Breakin Outta Hell. The prior album felt like they were going through the motions, whereas here it feels like they've been reminded exactly why they like playing those power chords. We also get some bluesyness on Sex To Go, which is a nice change. 

But we've got to talk about some of these songs. The title track, Sex To Go, Backseat Boogie, She Gives Me Hell, and Switchblade Angel are all on one topic. Sex To Go (a series of puns about fast-food) and Backseat Boogie (which unironically uses the phrase 'hoochie coochie') are still a bit Steel Pangher-ey. The other 3 songs mentioned can just about get away with it with some not-so-subtle metaphors. But the other two are a bit too obvious for me, and make me cringe - a feeling I'm sure they weren't hoping you to have on listening to their hard rock album.

Overall, though, I think this is a big improvement over Breaking Outta Hell. And, I haven't even mentioned yet that it sounds like Joel's voice is fine. There's plenty of chorus screaming going on, phew. 

For the first time ever, the bonus edition of Boneshaker doesn't have a single original bonus track! All we get are live versions of Heartbreaker (solid version), and Raise The Flag (slightly better than the live version on Black Dog Barking, but not so much better than you need to get it). 
This is a particular shame because the album is so short. Reviewers used to joke that you had to read Douglas Adams novels twice to get your money's worth because they were so short. The same applies here - lucky, then, that it's pretty good. 

Airbourne (2026)

Well, this took a long time didn't it? Seven years after the sub-30 minute Boneshaker comes Airbourne. A big swing, naming an album (other than a debut) after the band. Sometimes it works (Metallica), sometimes it's just baffling (Dream Theatre). In time, I wonder if this will get a nickname like The White Album... Gutsy, perhaps?

What happened in those seven years? Well they toured, and toured, and toured. And wrote 12 songs. Well, they wrote more than that but unlike with prior albums where the off-cuts got served as bonus tracks, here they seemed to focus more on making the 12 as good as possible. Quality over quantity. And, unlike Boneshaker, which sounds as if it was rushed off in about 3 days, this album does sound like they've spent a very long time tinkering and tightening. They also worked with some outside songwriters, getting some pointers from Bryan Adams (what?), Mutt Lange, and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard). 

Every Airbourne album is a variation on the AC/DC theme. No Guts is the 'long and samey' one, Breaking is the 'slow' one, Boneshaker is the 'quick and dirty' one. This one? Maybe this is the 'arena rock' one. 

Opener, Gutsy, is your big, stompin, fist-pump rocker. It's Live It Up, it's Runnin Wild, it's Breakin Outta Hell. The groove is guaranteed to have you bobbing your head along no matter what you're currently doing. So far, we're in familiar territory. But then things go a bit... different.

Alive After Death (Last Plane Out) is the first of many songs where you detect much more melody than one is used to with Airbourne. Not that Joel doesn't sing melody lines, he does. But probably 90% of Airbourne choruses are shouty anthemic calls to rock. Alive After Death has more peaks and troughs, even hints at harmony. It all sounds a bit 80s-inspired, in a good way. I love it. Next song, Here She Comes, has the same thing. Joel is putting far more thought and effort into melody lines and vocal hooks (over a Thunderstruck-alike riff, obviously). One doesn't want to gesture to Nashville too much, but it definitely has a country feel to the chorus. 

We still have plenty of straight-up rockers, don't worry. Kid in a Candy Store sounds straight off of Black Dog Barking, with some 1.5 entendre lyrics. Who Put The Rhythm in You has it's extra entendre slightly more obscured, but not by very much. Bogota is perhaps the only song here which sounds like a Boneshaker outtake, being dirtier and more distorted than anything else on the album. Thematically, it feels like a reference to Motorhead's Going to Brazil. 

Competing for my favourite song on the album are the closing two tracks. Hell's Got No Vacancy is a fast-paced bluesy rocker with an infectious chorus; you can hear Joel grinning through the lyrics. Then closer Send Me To Rock'N'Roll Heaven is a tribute to all of the dead rockstars of the last few decades. I reckon this is a much better tribute than the Lemmy-specific It's All For Rock'N'Roll from 2 albums back. 

One has to concede it is difficult to make 12 songs of AC/DC-like rock sound entirely different from each other, and one has to congratulate Airbourne for achieving significantly better song-identity than pretty much any of their other albums since their debut. Alas, a small number here fade into background obscurity: Sky High, Last Man Standing, and Rock'N'Roll Ya. All three are great songs, but with the quality of the rest of the album being so high, these 6 and 7/10 songs end up being less interesting. 

But I have missed a song out! Buried right in the middle of the album is Airbourne's first stab at a Christmas song! Christmas Bonus has all of the sleigh bells you could wish for, and the guitar solo has little references to classic carols. Lyrically, we're in quite strong innuendo territory. Basically, think The Darkness' Don't Let The Bells End, but more rockin and less silly. I'm looking forward to this one popping up in my Xmas song playlist. 

So what we have here, essentially, is Airbourne's best album. Objectively, it just is. The songwriting is better, more varied, more interesting. The lyrics are smarter when they need to be, and not when they don't. Sure, there's not a serious 'war' song like on some earlier albums, but there's not a single song here which would fail to cheer you up and get you pumped for life. In time, this might even become my personal favourite album, but it's too soon for that sort of evaluation. In the meantime, I'm cranking it up on repeat. Cheers, lads!

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (Solo Albums)

Ian Anderson wrote pretty much everything Jethro Tull ever recorded (certainly after the first album). The other members obviously pitched in, and Martin Barre helped a lot I'm sure. But Ian was the primary driver, and very few Tull songs are credited to anyone other than him alone. 
Despite Jethro Tull basically being the Ian Anderson Show, he has at times felt constrained by the band dynamic and structure, and so has gone out on his own to do something under his own name. 
Since the effective end of Jethro Tull in the mid-00s, Ian has been touring and releasing music under the moniker "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson", to signify that it's Tull but with him being the only member. Like Jeff Lynn now with "Jeff Lynn's ELO". I sometimes feel sorry for Martin Barre though... 

Well I'm seeing Ian in April 2018 for Jethro Tull's 50th Anniversary, and I thought I might talk about his solo studio efforts. 
His first attempt, A (1980), ended up being released as a Tull album (and it's discussed in that post), but it's notable for its hard electronic left-turn from the previous folk sound of Tull. And it's with that in mind that we start...

Walk Into Light (1983)

So Ian Anderson solo album take 2. Sandwiched between the Tull albums Broadsword and Under Wraps, Walk Into Light is a full, headlong dive in to electronica. Only two people play on it: Ian and Peter-John Vettese. Peter had been the keyboardist for Tull since the recording of Broadsword, and is surprisingly heavily involved in the writing on this album - being credited as co-writer on 5/10 tracks, which is the most Ian has basically ever shared writing on an album. 

There are no drums on this album, and guitars are few and far between. It's basically flute, vocals and SYNTHESISERS. Synths layered on synths layered on synths, layered on synth-affected vocals. This is basically pure electronica. 

So what are the songs like? The opener is the best by a long way - Fly By Night. The riff and beat are catchy, the vocals are simple but also catchy. It's hard to dislike, even with the 80s screaming at you with every second that passes.

The rest of the album is mixed. A lot of it is fine, and some songs hint at proggyness with some changing tempos and sections (the title track, Toad In The Hole, Different Germany). But a lot is forgettable, and kind of blends together. I've had this album for 2.5 years now, and I couldn't remember what the songs sounded like by name. Which for me is very poor.

An album for completionists, sure. And it would have been improved with some more guitars, and real drums. But it's no better or worse than A or Under Wraps. 

Divinities: Twelve Dances With God (1995)

It took over 20 more years for Ian's second solo effort. And it has absolutely nothing in common with the previous. Again, to set the context this lives between the Tull albums Catfish Rising and Roots To Branches. In fact, Roots was released the same year, 4 months after Divinities. 

Divinities is an instrumental and worldly exploration of religion and faith. No room for lyrics here. In fact, no room for any rock instruments at all - this is basically New-Age Classical music. And no single faith or religion particularly - as the cover tries to represent that this is a holistic view of them all. 

Musically, we explore a lot of areas here. In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff has a folky feel - almost a jig. In The Moneylender's Temple has a more straight-up prog flute riff (and so feels like one of the more 'Tull'-ish songs). Some of the others have more obvious influences. En Afrique, In The Pay Of Spain, and In The Times Of India all sound, you guessed it, African, Spanish and Indian. 

If you've read my Tull post, you may put 2 and 2 together and note that Roots To Branches is when Tull started sounding more 'World Music'-ey. Well it seems to have started here folks. I would argue over half of this album, given some electric guitars and vocals, could have slid without any difficulty on to Roots, or even J-Tull Dot Com. 

I do like parts of this album, but it's very light, very airy. There isn't a lot of meat to chew on. It's good as background music, but it doesn't demand to be listened to. 

The Secret Language Of Birds (2000)

Coming between the Tull albums J-Tull Dot Com and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is this naturalistic sounding album. The title track was a secret bonus track on J-Tull Dot Com too, as a tease/trailer of sorts.

This album basically carryies on the world and ethnic sound of the previous solo effort, and the recent Tull albums (Roots and J-Tull), but with vocals. We get a mix of Indian, African, Russian and Celtic influences smattered across the album. It's unclear with this was a purposeful move to differentiate this solo album from the band, but there aren't many electrical instruments in sight. This is flute heavy, and almost entirely acoustic throughout. As such it has quite a light and airy feel, and if not for the lyrics would basically be the New-Age Classical music of the previous album. Although this album is a bit more jolly sounding...

The liner notes of the album have little introductions penned by Anderson to give a little explanation for each song. I can leave you look those up on Wikipedia. But examples of the weird array of topics covered are: birds (the title track, obviously), bottled water (The Water Carrier), chilli peppers (The Habanero Reel), and Boris Yeltsin (Boris Dancing - apparently Ian saw a video of Boris dancing and decided to try and put music to it...). 

I'll be honest. Much like half of Fly By Night, I can barely remember these songs by title alone. This just isn't an album I put on very often. Because of the light, acoustic sound (and perhaps when I bought it), I associate it with summer. And as I live in England, it very rarely feels like summer so that it's a good time to put the album on.

However, flicking through the songs now, all of it is pretty good. Though I can't particularly highlight anything as standing out. I think I prefer the next solo album overall, but there's nothing bad to say about this one.

Rupi's Dance (2003)

According to my iTunes, I've listened to Rupi's Dance about the same amount as Secret Language, but somehow I remember this album a lot more. I think each song has a more distinctive sound, and the lyrical topics are more accessible than on the previous album.

This album came out a few months before Tull's last album: The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. And it's with this album that we kind of mark the beginning of the Anderson solo albums that could quite have easily been labelled as 'Jethro Tull' and no one would have noticed. The only obvious omission is Martin Barre, which means that the electrics are few and far between, and not a single guitar solo - they're all replaced by flute solos. Although unlike Secret Language, there is more electric guitar sprinkled throughout (most noticeably on Lost In Crowds). 

My favourite track is probably the aforementioned Lost in Crowds. It switches between light acoustic verses, and heavy choruses. And the lyrics are easily empathised with - they concern the experience of feeling lost and alone in crowds of other people. But also, more personally for Anderson, they describe being famous enough to get invited to celebrity parties, but not famous enough for anyone to recognise him. 

Calliandra Shade is also worth mentioning as a song about drinking cappuccinos in a café while watching the world go by. Two Short Planks seems to be about feeling really stupid when it comes to doing DIY. We also get a number of songs about Anderson's cat (Rupi's Dance, Old Black Cat), who it seems the album was dedicated to.

I guess what makes this album stand out more so than Jethro Tull/Anderson songs more generally is that the lyrics are all about every day life. There are no ridiculous fantasies (see below...), no pretentious musings on the big questions. It's an everyday album for everyday life.

In terms of music, we seem to depart slightly from the 'world music' influences a bit. Anderson primarily sticks in a folky, but still slightly proggy, rock lane. Sure, we get some tambourine drums, and a string quartet in places, but it's quite Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll. And, as I say above, all it needs is the odd guitar solo and no one would bat an eye if it was labelled a Jethro Tull album.

Thick As A Brick 2 (2012)

I discussed TaaB2 and the next album briefly in an old post on a different blog about my favourite 'Modern' albums. So apologies if you have read that, there may be some repetition.

Jethro Tull sort of came to end as a distinct entity in the mid 2000s. Soon after, Anderson assembled a band and styled it as 'Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson'. As such, this is technically an Anderson solo album, although it was clearly marketed in a way that highlighted the Jethro Tull name. This isn't surprising at all, given that it's a sequel to the 1972 Thick As A Brick. 

Bear with me. Thick As A Brick was a joke concept album, which involved an 8 year old boy named Gerald Bostock. Bostock allegedly wrote a lengthy poem about growing up, which Tull then put music to and released as an album. Of course, the whole think was a joke as Anderson had written all the lyrics himself, taking the perspective of the fictional Bostock (although many believed the story to be true at the time).

In many ways, it's odd calling TaaB2 a 'sequel'. Because this isn't a second poem written by Bostock. Instead, Anderson is explicitly writing as himself, but the album lyrics describe 5 alternate histories which Bostock's life may have taken. 

The album is sort of split in to 3 phases or Acts. The first 3 songs introduce the concept, and concern 'What ifs, Maybes and Might-Have-Beens'. In other words: throughout our lives, we make decisions and take paths... but what if we'd made a different decision, or taken a different path?

The middle 10 or so songs are split in to groups of 2, each describing a different life. In order, Bostock either: became a rich 'high flown banker', a homosexual homeless man (some of the lyrics for this bit are a tad cringey), a soldier, a preacher, or an ordinary corner shop owner. Quite the range. And the musical styles try and reflect the tones. 

For the banker, we have heavy electric guitar riffs which create an upbeat and flush feel. The preacher has some organ, the soldier has strings, and the corner shop owner has horns. 

We then get the 8-minute long song Change of Horses. Which has a bit of a military feel about it, while the lyrics describe coming home, and living a life free of regrets. It feels like a transition in to the final part of the album.

The last 3 songs return to the topic of the first 3. They bring together the 5 different lives and compare how they would feel in old age. Kismet In Suburbia is my favourite song on the album, in fact. 

This album takes a lot of describing, but I really love it. There are musical throwbacks to TaaB1 as well. The album opens very similarly to the second side of TaaB1, which creates a feeling of continuity and ease as you slip into this second album. Old School Song's primary riff is taken straight from (approximately) minute 35 of TaaB1 - old school indeed. And the final seconds of the album replicate the final seconds of TaaB1 too. I only wish Martin Barre was playing the guitars.

And for those who thought that this concept was hard to follow, I wish you luck for the next one...

Homo Erraticus (2014)

You might need a drink for this one. Remember, this is all a fictional set-up made up by Anderson:
Gerald Bostock, now in his 50s (unclear which one of the 5 potential futures from TaaB2 came true...), discovers a book in a local shop, 'Homo Britanicus Erraticus'. This book was written by the (also fictional) historian Ernest T Paritt who died in 1928. The book was written by Paritt after a particularly bad case of malaria which induced extremely vivid hallucinations. In those hallucinations, Paritt thought that he was remembering his own past lives as different people throughout the history of Great Britain. Not only that, but he had visions of his future lives as well. It is within Homo Britanicus Erraticus that Paritt detailed these visions. Bostock finds the book intriguing, and decides to once again turn his pen to poetry as he did so many years ago for TaaB1. Bostock hands the poems to Anderson, who decides to put music to them for this album.
If that isn't the most ridiculous, prog, concept for an album ever then please tell me what is!

The result, is a collection of songs which each tell a little story about an individual (only one of whom is famous: Prince Albert) in British history. Of course, as the fictional Paritt died in 1928, the songs about the period afterwards are a bit sketchy in their historical accuracy, and get pretty wild once we get past the period we're currently in. But I'll come back to that. 

So what periods are covered? Well we start with the first settlers who came to Britain over the Doggerland (the piece of land which used to connect Britain to mainland Europe). Then we move through the Iron Age, the introduction of Christianity, the beginnings of pub culture, grammar schools, the building of the railways and industrial revolution, and the aforementioned Prince Albert.
Following this, we get the first round of 'prophecies', the first of which covers World War II. The second covers the normalisation of international travel, and the package holiday. 
The second round of 'prophecies' firstly concern our present. About out of control capitalism and austerity for the poor, destroying the countryside, and overpopulation. Then we enter the future, with a spoken word piece about space travel, and how alien civilisations don't want us to spread our problems across the galaxies - but it's ok because we'll probably end up destroying our own planet before we get the ability to spread. The final song is basically a lament on the self-destructive nature of man. 

Now, this is probably the most political album Anderson has ever written. And here are some things I take away from it (I may be wrong). Anderson doesn't understand the anti-immigration, nationalistic feelings that many have, as we all came from somewhere else, and to travel is to be human (Homo Erraticus is Latin for Wandering Man). The theme of preserving the countryside and environment arises several times. In The Browning Of The Green, we get the (some might say controversial) sentiment that part of the overpopulation problem can be sourced to families who have too many children that they (and society) can afford to keep (there is also a negative reference to 'child benefits coming for free'...), and possibly religious doctrines which teach against contraception. And the end note of the album certainly leads one to suspect Anderson has become more cynical about the direction humanity is going in, in his old age. 

Oh right, the music! Yes there is music too. But before that, a note on Anderson's voice. Clearly, he's getting older. And he was never a fantastic vocalist. And the throat surgery in 1987 didn't help. On TaaB2 you could detect some cracks, some stretches. And on Homo Erraticus it's even more prominent. To help out, there is a back up singer (Ryan O'Donnell) who pops up here and there. It isn't a huge deal, but it's a sad reminder that Anderson just can't quite hit the high notes any more. 

So the music: it's fantastic. The roots are plainly in folk and prog rock, although there is a slight metal feel to some of the guitar work (see Turnpike Inn). The flute work is still top notch, and the keys are quite prominent which is a slight change. As other reviewers have claimed, this is as close to classic prog rock as you're going to find in 2014.
Of all of Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson albums, this is the album with the highest average listen count according to my iTunes (Although I put this partly down to it being a new-ish album when I got my current iPod, so the numbers don't include pre-2014ish listens, which would of course be a lot). 

Before moving on, a quick note on track 3, Enter The Uninvited. This track is meant to cover the Roman invasion of Great Britain. And it does, for the first half. But, probably in an attempt to purposely confuse the narrative, the latter half describes C21st pop culture. We get references to Mad Men, The West Wing, and The Walking Dead. And even a line about Officer Rick killing zombies. I can't help but point this out, because Anderson's daughter is married to the actor who plays Rick - Andrew Lincoln. It's weird detail that always pulls me out of the experience. 

Jethro Tull - The String Quartets (2017)

Why have I included this, but not Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull? Because I consider the latter a 'live album', and I don't include those. Yes it's arbitrary. If you'd like a quick word on it: I don't like it very much, the song choice is odd, and Anderson's voice isn't great. 

So is Jethro Tull - The String Quartets a Jethro Tull album, or an Ian Anderson album? Who knows? I'd say it's the latter because Anderson is the only person in it other than the string quartet (and his usual keyboardist, but shh). 

This album is a kind of 'best of' Jethro Tull, but with almost all of the vocals stripped out, and the main instruments being strings and flute. Anderson seems to have quite the appreciation of classical instruments, so doing this is unsurprising. 

My favourite thing about this album are the names of the tracks. Each is slightly altered in some way to distinguish it from the original song it's based on (e.g. Aquafuge for Aqualung). There are also some fun mash ups (Songs and Horses is a mashup of Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses). 

The music is clearly very impressive. And there are some variations and additions to the arrangements which are interesting to hear. As I said, the vocals are mostly removed, with Anderson's flute providing the melody lines. 

I think this album is nicely summed up by how I think when I hear one of the songs come on: 'huh, that's nice for a change'. But that's just it, they're not what I reach for regularly. There isn't quite enough 'meat' to latch on to. 

---------------------------------------

So that's Anderson done. I imagine this will be updated soon-ish though as he is set to release a new album early 2019. Although he has been vague about whether it will be released as a solo album, or as a full blown Jethro Tull album (which would be the first in 16 years!). We will see... It doesn't really matter though either way, especially if it is as good as TaaB2 and Homo Erraticus.

Update - Never mind! After Homo Erraticus, Anderson revived the Jethro Tull brand name. So new albums are dealt with under that title...

Rush

I wasn't going to do Rush. I'm half way through Blake Shelton and partly way through Steeleye Span. I should probably finish one of those instead of starting a new one, right? And Martin Popoff has done it again (well, he's done lots, but relevant to me is the one on BÖC) and basically done an album-by-album analysis of the band's career (called, imaginatively: Rush: Album By Album). So what can I add?

Well, I only got in to Rush in about April of this year (2017). Which is shocking for someone who claims to like 70s prog. But somehow I'd mostly avoided them. Sure I knew Tom Sawyer, and the whole of 2112 (the song) is on Guitar Hero 6, but I'd never been gripped. After streaming 2112 from Amazon Music for like the 30th time, though, I felt I owed it to the band to buy the damn album. Coincidentally, a few months earlier a 40th Anniversary edition of 2112 had been released, so I got that and Clockwork Angels as a punt. Well, I LOVE Clockwork Angels, and so I set upon the quickest completion of a discography I've ever done. I bought all of Rush's studio albums in a period of 2 months and have listened to almost nothing but them since (Alice Cooper has a new album out on the 28th of July, so that will break the chain). I also bought the aforementioned book by Popoff.

So I think what I can add is a fresh perspective. Some of the albums I have listened to a lot (Hemispheres has an average of about 32 listens), and some I haven't (Hold Your Fire and Signals average in at around 7-8 listens). But we'll see how I get on.

[Edit 18/02/19 - Geddy and Alex's solo albums have been added at the end]

Rush is:

Geddy Lee - Vocals and bass guitar

Alex Lifeson - Guitar

Neil Peart - Drums (1974-Present)

And also

John Rutsey - Drums (1968-1974)

Rush (1974)

Rush entered the scene in 1974 with their self-titled debut. The only album to feature John Rutsey on drums, who would soon after quit the band due to health issues, it didn't exactly set the world on fire. In fact it was barely played on radio at all for a while, before a radio station in Cleveland, Ohio thought that their working-class population would appreciate the album closer Working Man. That got the ball rolling and eventually the band were getting regular radio play over most of America.

So what is the only Peart-less Rush album like? Well I'm going to partly agree with almost every critic ever and say that it sounds like a Led Zeppelin tribute band. I don't really like it a whole lot...

Finding My Way is a fantastic speedy rocky opener, followed by the groovy Need Some Love. But then Take A Friend is a bit of a dull straightforward bluesy rocker, followed by the unjustifiably long Here Again which plods along, and along, and along. The next 3 songs are kind of fine but not spectacular (What You're Doing hints at a proggy future, but no more than hints).

We close with the song that made them: Working Man. To be fair, this is a good song. Slow, heavy openers and closers sandwich a speedy solo middle. What is noticeable, however, is the simplicity of the lyrics. Throughout the album, actually, the lyrics cover the same old rock staples of women, women and, uh, working hard? But they're not interesting to listen to.

On the whole, Rush is fine.

Fly By Night (1975)

Immediately, the opening 5 seconds of Anthem on Fly By Night punch you in the face in a way which their debut album wouldn't dare. The ferocity of the playing pulls back a bit for much of the rest of the song, but you can tell this is a different band. The lyrics as well are already on a higher plane, for the most part.

Beneath, Between & Behind is similar to the previous album musically, but elevated by the fantasy lyrics. This is then followed by Rush's first proper stab at a 'long song' (at 8.40 minutes) with By-Tor And The Snow Dog... Although one can appreciate the endeavour, this Snow Dog bit off more than it could chew. It's mostly coherent until about 4.30 where there is literally 2 full minutes of ambient sounds with chimes. This is allegedly meant to symbolise the aftermath of a big fight, but it doesn't half kill the buzz (and feel like filler).

Fly By Night is a pretty perfect Rush radio-song. It's upbeat, light and accessible. Hard to dislike.

The final 3 songs of the album kind of leave a bad taste for me personally. Making Memories would be ok as a (mostly) acoustic song to break things up, but it's then followed by the super soft Rivendell and In The End.

Rivendell is a slow, beautiful acoustic song which describes the elven land from the Tolkien books. But it's got no place on a Rush album. Would have sounded good coming from John Martyn, or perhaps Al Stewart, mind.

In The End has a good middle 2 minutes, but the looooong build up and repetitive outro do drag on. It very much feels its 6.47 length.

So Rush are improving. They're trying to progress and be more inventive, but they're still not hitting their stride.

Caress of Steel (1975)

Rush are very good at picking opening songs. In fact, almost every album opens with often the (or one of the) best song on the album - and this is allegedly on purpose according to Geddy in some interviews. Bastille Day is my favourite song on this album by a mile. It follows Anthem in having a blistering opening few seconds before settling in to the song proper, but it's still great and has some proggy turns at the end of the solo.

The second song splits people a bit: I Think I'm Going Bald. Written as a kind of jokey response to KISS's Goin' Blind, whom they were touring a lot with. Some think it's a bit too silly for these revered prog rockers, but I think it's fun.

Lakeside Park is alright. That's about all I have to say about that.

We end the album with 2 long songs. The first is The Necromancer (12.32), another Tolkien tribute. The middle section (called 'Under The Shadow') is a heavy Sabbath-like song, and I quite like it. But it's sandwiched by about 4 minutes of ambient noise with distorted spoken voice over at the start, and 4 minutes of jolly soft rock which is a bit meh.

The second long song is properly long: The Fountain of Lamneth (19.58). It's hard to describe or review Lamneth... it's kind of a mess. There's no real flow from each section/movement to the next. The lyrics often feel forced, and it's kind of hard to tell what the song's about. I'm in good company, though, as the band themselves don't look back very fondly on their first attempt at a properly long prog epic.

I do like parts of the opening and ending though.

Interestingly, Popoff believes that Caress might be the first ever 'prog metal' album. So even if on the whole it's not great, it's very significant.

2112 (1976)

Here we go, now we're talking. The title track, 2112, was Rush's second stab at a 20 minute song. This time, they got it spot on. Split in to 7 sections, 2112 tells the story of a dystopian future where music has been eradicated and forgotten. Our hero finds a guitar in a cave, and enthusiastically shows off his discovery to the rulers of the world: the Priests of Syrinx. The Priests are unimpressed, and our hero is left to ponder whether he should try and spread music amongst the masses against the Priests' wishes.

Every section is interesting, the instrumentation is impressive and compelling. I love this song. Plus, the final section rocks like hell.

The rest of this album often gets overlooked, including by me, but there's a lot of good stuff. A Passage To Bangkok is a fun ode to the green leaf. Lessons and Something For Nothing are reasonably simple rock songs which hark back to the sound of earlier albums.

To me, The Twilight Zone is neither here not there. The verses are ok, but the weird vibe they go for in the choruses loses me.

Tears is a gentle acoustic song like Rivendell, and like its predecessor sounds completely out of place. But unlike Rivendell I think Tears sounds ok coming from Geddy's voice. And also unlike Rivendell, Tears is surrounded by rock songs, and so it feels more like a break than an extension of punishment.

A Farewell to Kings (1977)

Recorded in my own back yard of South Wales, A Farewell To Kings is a properly prog album, though a tad less heavy that 2112 and Caress.

The opening title track seamlessly skips between several different movements, though I think this might be one of the only albums in Rush's history where the opener isn't quite a strong as it could have been. The problem, I guess, is that Cinderella Man is the only song on the album which doesn't start soft, but it's not quite good enough to warrant opening.

The second track is the fan-favourite Xanadu (11.07). 2 minutes of ambient noise intro lead in to a twangy guitar 7/8 section, followed by a more standard 4/4 band-wide rock out... with synthesisers! Although they'd been hidden in the background of 2112, they are front and centre on parts of this song (and album). 5 minutes in and we get the first vocals which focus on a quest for immortality. This is how to do an interesting and fun 10+ minute song. Eat that Necromancer and By-Tor.
Also, when played live Alex and Geddy both play double-necked guitars (Ged's has bass and guitar) and it looks ridiculous and brilliant.

The next 3 songs do feel a bit like filler to me, if I'm honest. Closer To The Heart is also a fan-favourite, and does just enough for me to reach the kind of level of Lessons from 2112, but I'm less convinced. Cinderella Man also fits in to that kind of 'yeah it's a Rush rock song' category. Madrigal, however, I always skip: slow synthy fantasy nonsense.

We close with a second 10+ minute song: Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage. This is the first part of a 30 minute piece which is finished on the next album. Book 1 tracks our protagonist who decides to explore a black hole (X-1) in the Cygnus constellation, and basically flies a spaceship straight in to it. The music, though, is fantastic. The changing time signatures keeps the listener on their toes, and I still haven't worked out what they're playing between 8.07 and 8.33. The last 3 minutes really help picture the pilot's experience as his body, mind and soul are ripped apart as he approaches the black hole. (Yes, liberties with the science of black holes are taken).

On the whole, the long songs rule this album, and the short songs are fine to break them up.

Hemispheres (1978)

Easily my favourite Rush album, Hemispheres has a whole 4 songs!

We open with Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres (18.08). Lyrically, going through the black hole has led us to Olympus where there is currently a great battle being waged between logic, led by Apollo, and emotion, led by Dionysus. Nice and simple, then. Book II isn't quite as... well, mad as Book I musically. Sure, there are still lots of time signature and tempo changes, but it's not as jarring or heavy. For my money, I prefer Book I, but because I group the two songs together I never really listen to one without the other.

Next is, coincidentally, both mine and Popoff's favourite Rush song: Circumstances. As he says in his book, the song is 'in a sleight-of-hand bend of the universe, somehow under four minutes long' (p54). The complexity and length of the riff, the synth breakdown in the middle, the solo... somehow all coming in at the length of a 'normal' song. It's heavy, and I just can't get enough of that riff man. Plus ça change.

The Trees is third. It starts of acoustic and slow, and has lyrics about a conflict between different types of trees (sometimes Neil, I wonder...) giving one an unease that we've got another Rivendell on our hands, but then breaks out in to a rock song. Phew. Solid Rush song, no complaints.

Closing the album is the instrumental epic La Villa Strangiato (9.35). This song allegedly took longer to record than the entire Fly By Night album, and you can tell. It's so intricate, so self-indulgent (the subtitle to the song is 'An Exercise in Self-Indulgence), and so brilliant in every way. You can't help but marvel at their technical prowess.

So yes. If you want Rush at their proggiest and best, get Hemispheres.

Permanent Waves (1980)

So this and the next album are Rush in a transition period, from prog rock/metal to synth-pop. There are still heavy-ish elements on this album, but on the whole this is a much softer affair than the previous few albums.

We're back to a 'first song is best' mentality with this album, as Spirit of Radio is just amazing. There's something about the riff used to transition between sections (at 0.15-0.20 and 3.35-3.40) that I just love. We get a bit of reggae influence at the end as well, which is interesting. Peart was listening to a lot of The Police around this time apparently, and we get more reggae nods in future albums too.

The second song, Freewill, is also pretty great, and acts as one of the two most explicitly 'atheist' songs Rush wrote (the other being Faithless on Snakes & Arrows). It describes the virtues of freewill, and that not making a choice is itself a choice.

Jacob's Ladder is the first long song, though it's a short one at only 7.29. I'm not a huge fan of this song. I like the outro, but it's a bit slow and plodding for a lot of its runtime. Entre Nous which follows falls in to that 'yep, that's a Rush rock song' category of being fine but not stand-out. Then Different Strings is an acoustic driven song which does nothing much for me.

Closing is the other long song, Natural Science (9.18). After what I'm just now realising is the usual ambient intro with some spoken vocals, the song proper starts about 1.45 in. There's some great 7/8 in there, and it's just generally quite a nice song to listen to. It never quite feels 'heavy' though, signalling the softer direction the band was going in.

This is a weird album for me. I love the opening two tracks, the final track is quite good, but the rest I never feel compelled to seek out. This was also the last album I had to get to complete my collection, so maybe it'll grow on me more (currently has an average play of 13, though Spirit skews the average up quite a bit).

Moving Pictures (1981)

The most popular Rush album, Moving Pictures shot the band into superstardom. If anything, this is slightly heavier than Permanent Waves (going in blind you might swap them around in terms of sound progression of the band).

What can I say about Tom Sawyer? Most people know this song as a classic radio rock song which, when you think about the amount of 7/8 in it, is kind of odd. Those drum fills tho.

Before listening to live versions, I didn't really like Red Barchetta that much. And to be honest, I still don't like the studio version that much... it just sounds a bit passionless to me for some reason.

If La Villa Strangiato is one of the best rock instrumental 'pieces' of all time, then YYZ is one of the best rock instrumental songs. Unlike a lot of instrumentals, YYZ genuinely feels like a song. Written as an ode to Toronto airport (which is the band's home airport), the musical skills on display by all 3 members are just astounding.

Another fan favourite, Limelight is pretty great. The lyrics are a response to Peart's unease at his fame, and how it intrudes in to his private life. If I'm being critical, it sounds a bit too radio friendly, but I like it.

For being the Rush's most famous album, I don't really care much for the final 3 songs. The Camera Eye is Rush's last ever long song (11.01), and takes a full 2.45 before anything exciting starts happening. I appreciate some of the latter parts of the song, but I rarely make it that far.

Witch Hunt is dark, slow and broody. Vital Signs has chop guitars throughout, giving a distinct reggae feel. Neither of these songs do much for me, though the latter is alright live.

So a mix. One of those occasions where I think the popular songs on the album are popular for a reason.

Signals (1982)

Seconds in to this album and you can already feel the layers of synthesisers and keyboards weighing down on you. As it happens although the opener, Subdivisions, barely has any audible guitar in it until the solo, it's still probably the best song on the album (and infinitely better live as well).

I feel for this and the next 2/3 albums I'm not going to have much interesting to say... You see, Rush are not merely a 'prog' band, they are literally progressive. That means experimenting. In the 80s, new technologies and ways of making music opened even more avenues for experimenting. Although Rush would eventually return to a more classically 'prog' sound, which I believe I'm right in saying most fans prefer, I think we would have been disappointed had Rush not continued trying to push the boundaries. (See a similar argument I make for Tull's Under Wraps)

So with that mini-speech out of the way... I kind of like New World Man and Countdown? The former sounds like a distant cousin from something off Permanent Waves, and the latter sounds like a similar relative of Moving Pictures.

The rest though, I can't say I like it. Popoff believes that this is the best of the 'synth' albums, and is much better than some give it credit for. He might be right about it being the best of synth, but I can't agree with the other half of that.

Grace Under Pressure (1984)

Umm... That artwork is pretty amazing isn't it? The water is so life-like and the way the storm clouds blend with the red inky patches is pretty lovely.
Oh the music? Right.

The opener, Distant Early Warning, is pretty good to be fair. I'd quite happily listen to that almost any time. The Enemy Within has a pretty catchy 80s chorus too. And Red Lenses has some fun 'Red Terror' lyrics.

I can't say I much care for this album though. Maybe it's one of those albums I'll rediscover in like 3 years and decide was actually genius. Who knows?

Power Windows (1985)

Not so keen on this artwork. Equally not keen on the music.

Once again, the opener Big Money is probably the best we get. Although Marathon has its moments.

A tangent: if you've read my Jethro Tull post then you may remember Under Wraps, the album where Tull when full synth-pop. I liked that album because although it was a huge left turn for Tull, it still sounded like Tull. For all of the stuff I don't like about Signals and Grace, they still sound like Rush. Power Windows does not sound like Rush. It sounds like 3 people on keyboards who are backed by Rush.

We still get some great bass (mainly Marathon) and Neil Peart is always great. Alex, however, may as well not be there.

Popoff thinks that Alex's guitars sound 'jagged', and I agree. Maybe reflecting his frustration with being side-lined?

As an 80s album, Power Windows is fine. As anything else, it's not.

Hold Your Fire (1987)

Somehow, not being content with the level of 80s Rush had achieved on the previous 3 albums, they decided to turn the 80s up even more. (By the way, Peter Collins produced this and the previous album. Of course he did.)

Although Power Windows has a weak claim to being synth-rock, Hold Your Fire is a synth-pop album through and through. The main single, Time Stand Still, and its accompanying video, are so 80s it hurts. But it's a decent pop song.

Nothing on this album has any bite though. Nothing grabs you and demands to be listened to. Worth mentioning is Tai Shan, an embarrassing attempt to sound a bit Chinese - it makes you cringe in the same way that Let Go by BÖC does.

Skip this album if the reason you like Rush (like me) is that you like the 2112 era stuff.

Presto (1989)

Almost out of the 80s. Unlike the last 4 albums which had each progressively dug Rush's synthy grave deeper and deeper, Presto feels like they realised what they were doing, threw away the shovel and began the slow process of clawing their way out. Only tentative steps, mind.  

Show Don't Tell right off the bat places Alex's guitars front and centre with an almost heavy intro into an almost rock song. Later on, Superconductor is also almost a rock song. I like these songs more than they probably deserve, if just because it feels like they're trying harder than songs on previous albums.

Honestly, the rest of the album is pretty synth-poppy though. Red Tide in particular over-synths itself. But I like this album so much more than the previous 4. The only way to explain this really is through the songwriting, which feels tighter, more focussed, and more interesting.

Anagram (For Mongo) is particularly fun, with each line of the lyrics involving anagrams of some sort.

I often like to listen to discographies in chronological order and experience the evolution. With Rush, the last two times I've done this I skipped Signals, Grace, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire, restarting with Presto.

Maybe this is sacrilege. But I just feel it's like skipping the Sam and Frodo bits in Two Towers and Return of the King.

Roll The Bones (1991)

I think you can call this a rock album, just about. It's pretty similar to Presto in all honesty. A couple of rock songs (Dreamline, Roll The Bones (sort of)) mixed amongst a lot of synthy pop.

Lyrical themes across the album are about taking chances, rolling them dice (bones). Peart is on form for the most part here.
My two stand-outs here are Roll The Bones and Where's My Thing? The former became a tad infamous for that rap verse. Yep, Rush made a song with a rap verse. Somehow, it's both awful and amazing at the same time. Where's My Thing? is an instrumental and, while not on YYZ level, is interesting for its funky sound.

Songs like The Big Wheel, Face Up and Neurotica showcase Rush's ability to write good 80s pop songs. Bravado, Heresy and Ghost Of A Chance slow things down and ask to be taken seriously.

Much like Presto, I feel like Roll The Bones is a step in the right direction. The songwriting had a vague concept to work around, and they were writing the songs with the assistance of technology rather than being guided by it.

Counterparts (1993)

I met a guy recently who had the nut and screw on this album cover tattooed on his arm. I called it out and he said that I'm the first person to 'get it' in 3 years. Odd.

Anyway, Counterparts continues the journey out of the synthy grave. The album has kind of been mythologised to an extent, as at the time it was seen as 'Rush are back to rock!'. But taking a step back, sure the guitars have been turned up but other than the opening two songs, Animate and Stick It Out, which are both reasonably heavy (relative to the rest of Rush's output since Moving Pictures), we're still kind of in Presto and Roll The Bones territory songwriting-wise.

Nobody's Hero is a pretty touching song about people who are everyday heroes, and The Speed of Love is a decent ballad. Alien Shore also deserves a mention as one of my favourite songs from the album.

It's often said that Counterparts feels a bit grungy, a bit indie, as Rush often draw on contemporary influences. I'm not as persuaded by this argument as some others, but some of the remaining songs do have an indie air about them. On the other hand songs like Everyday Glory are quite bright sounding, acting as a counterpoint(/part?) to the darker sounding songs.

But on the whole a solid album, if not quite as proggy or rocky as their 70s heyday.

Test For Echo (1996)

Sometimes I can't quite put my feelings towards an album in to words unless I read someone else's opinion. So it is with Test For Echo.

I like this album, I do. The opening, title, track is proggy and rocky. The second and fifth songs, Driven and Time And Motion, have some odd time signatures and are heavier than much of the last 10 years of Rush songs. Virtuality has a great riff which, had they thought of it 20 years earlier, would have made a better song.

But despite the heavy songs, it doesn't feel heavy. Popoff describes it as 'weirdly heavy on paper but softly appointed to death' (p142). He's right. The songwriting may have been right, but the production is just a bit too light, a bit too airy, a bit too glossy. But it's not just the production. Apart from, perhaps, Driven, it all feels a bit like the band are going through the motions. On autopilot.

Which is a shame, I think. This album needs revisiting. Steeleye Span did this with Now We Are Six (1974), rerecording it in 2011 as Now We Are Six Again. It might be too late given their eyes towards retirement (and fans' preference for new music), but I think it might be worth a second attempt.

Vapour Trails (2002) & Vapour Trails Remixed (2013)

This album can't be discussed without a bit of context, so for those that don't know Rush's history, in 1997/8 Neil Peart's only daughter and wife died (which is understating it). This led to a long hiatus period and uncertainty about the future of the band.
Eventually, Peart decided that he wanted to continue drumming, and so in 2001 Rush entered the studio. 14 months(!) later, they were done. Unlike every other Rush album ever, no songs were pre-written before entering the studio. Basically, the band would jam for hours and days at a time, recording as they went. Then they would listen back and try and pick out the good parts. Those good parts were then assembled and 'songs' were made.

Now, Popoff picks this album out as one of his favourites. I'm not as convinced. I agree with him that this was the only album they could have made in the circumstances. It was an album they had to make. You can feel the passion, the energy, the drive. And it's actually quite heavy - there are no synths at all... somehow.

But my god does it sound a mess. The songs feel unstructured, and don't really go anywhere. They sound very much the 'spliced together jams' that they are. Moreover, a lot of the songs feel very samey. When one of these songs come on at random, I usually think 'well this could be one of 3 or 4 songs from Vapour Trails'.

All of this is not to say that this album is bad. One Little Victory, Ghost Rider and Earthshine are all interesting songs. But this album isn't for me.

It also wasn't for a lot of people, originally. The original album was mixed 'hot', loud, and heavily used dynamic range compression. There was so much criticism, in fact, that Rush eventually commissioned a remix which was released in 2013. The difference is a bit staggering actually. The remix is much better in every way, but it doesn't change the songs.

Feedback (2004)

So... next for Rush was an album (well, a long EP? What do you call an album of 8 songs at <30mins?) of covers of rock classics... Rarely predictable, are they?

It's very strange hearing Rush just turn the volume up and do an all out rocking album. No weird time signatures here. It reminds me of the recent Hollywood Vampires album actually - taking old classics and making them heavier and louder.

I'm not particularly well qualified to talk about this album... I'd previously only heard of 2/8 of the songs before (The Seeker and For What It's Worth). So I'll make this one short: It's pretty good. It doesn't break new ground, but there's something weird and fun about hearing Rush play some 'ordinary' songs.

Snakes & Arrows (2007)

This album starts so intensely: Far Cry hits hard and fast. You get the impression that this album is a statement. Kind of 'Last time, we were finding out feet again. This time, we know exactly what we're doing'. There's a sense of purpose, of drive - but this time it's moulded and not just flailing wildly. The lyrics weave around themes of faith (well, a lack of) and one's place in the world: Rush are back, now what?

Honestly, this and the next album factor in to my top 5 Rush albums. Far Cry, Workin' Them Angels, The Way The Wind Blows, Bravest Face. They're all heavy (with a smattering of acoustic guitar) with proggy elements. And they all feel like songs.

As mentioned on Permanent Waves, Faithless is a relative of Freewill. A kind of atheist anthem to rival Imagine by John Lennon, and one of Geddy's favourite Rush songs apparently.

Although Rush often had a token instrumental on their albums, this one has 3! The Main Monkey Business has a La Villa Strangiato feel about it (though not as complex), Hope is an Alex solo venture on acoustic guitar, and Malignant Narcissism is a grammy-nominated song inspired by Team America on which Geddy plays a fretless bass... Cool.

There's so much to like about this album. It's not nostalgia driven, or particularly backward facing. But it evokes the Rush of the late 70s period.

Clockwork Angels (2012)

And here we are, somehow with Rush's first ever concept album. Sure, the long songs were always concept songs but, given their status as prog legends, it beggars belief that it took until album 20 for the entire record to be a concept.

So, what's this about? Well, it's set in a sort of steampunk world ruled over by the Watchmaker - a sort of detail obsessed dictator. Our protagonist goes on an adventure after being labelled an anarchist. It's about the battle between chaos and order. Though ultimately our protagonist rejected both camps and goes away to live his own free life. So not a million miles away from 2112 in the 'pro freedom' message. There's a book and graphic novel of the story as well, though I've not read them.

What's it sound like? Amazing. The fullness of the sound is like no other Rush album. For the fans who 'survived' the 80s albums, if it took that foray in to synth pop for them to come back around to make this album then it was all worth it.

Caravan and BU2B open the album. However heavy Caravan is, and however many sections it has, BU2B feels like it's trying to outdo Caravan at every turn. Oddly, I think BU2B sounds a bit like an early Muse song. But don't let that put you off...

I could pick out and talk about every single song on this album. I love all of them (BU2B2 is a bit meh but works in the story as a reprise of the first BU2B). And although there aren't any long songs, 5 songs are (approximately) 7 minutes long! 

But The Wreckers deserves special mention. It's a bit radio-friendly perhaps, but in a good way. As in it's just so damn catchy. I just can't get the chorus out of my head whenever I hear it. 'All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary, of a miracle too good to be true'.

The strings as well. Much like how in the early synth albums, they were used to enhance the sound rather than drive it, on The Garden a strings orchestra (who are around for much of the album) really comes in to its own and builds the album to a beautiful finish.

Just, get this album.

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So, Rush. Reading back, you get the impression I don't actually like a lot of these albums. And... well that's kind of true. If you like a band, you don't have to like everything they do. Aerosmith, Jethro Tull, Blue Öyster Cult. They all have duff albums or periods. It just so happens that, in my opinion, Rush had a particularly long duff period.

Sandwiched around the 80s, though, is some of the most interesting, inventive and moving prog music I've ever heard.

I guess I should try out Yes next?

The Solo Albums

[Added 18/02/2019]

When I go all in, I go all in. Not being satisfied having all of Rush's albums, I dived into the solo material. What I found was... exactly what I expected, if a little low on quantity. 
Neil has never recorded a solo album, though he has guested on a variety of other band's albums. He has also produced a few compilation/tribute albums but I've yet to feel the need to explore these. 
Alex and Geddy, however, have one a piece. And it is to these I will now turn...

Victor (1996)

This is a peculiar album. Firstly, the artist is officially also labelled 'Victor', as Alex did not seem particularly interested in promoting the album due to commitments to recording the next Rush album Test For Echo. This also makes (and made) the album annoyingly difficult to find. Secondly, this album is a concept album... Or, at least, it seems to be.

Victor is a poem by English poet WH Auden, published in 1938. It's quite long, and chronicles a timid man's love for a women, who may have been unfaithful, and his eventual descent into insanity where he kills her. It's more complicated and nuanced than that, but you get the gist.
The title track, second to last on the album, is an abridged spoken narrative of the poem, by Alex, set to what sounds like the soundtrack to a 70s detective-cartoon.

The concept-y-ness comes from the fact that the rest of the songs from the album seem to attempt to add to, and flesh out, the story and themes from the poem. But according to some interviews with Alex, other than the title track, he approached the songs without any particular ideas in mind. So either he's being obfuscatory, or he made a concept album by accident.

The links between the album and poem are much more interestingly dealt with in this blog post, so I'll instead focus on how I, as a Rush fan, feel about this album.
http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/20040900chapterverse.htm

Honestly, it's a rollercoaster. Track 3, Start Today, is frankly my favourite song I've heard in months and I can't stop listening to it. The lady vocalist, Dalbello, sounds suspiciously similar to Geddy Lee, but puts in such an impressive vocal performance I don't care - just listen to her hold the notes on the word "To-day".
The rest of the rockers (Don't Care, The Big Dance, Promise, Sending Out A Warning), which all use Canadian vocalist Edwin of I Mother Earth (me neither...), are all good enough, though none stand out. Softer rocker, I Am The Spirit, is also fine, and has some nice solo work in it.
The instrumentals Mr. X and Strip And Go Naked are also pretty fun for showcasing Alex's (often overlooked in favour of Geddy and Neil's) skills. I also like the fact that even the seemingly straightforward rock songs mix in some proggy time signatures and section-breaks.

And then there are the spoken word pieces At The End and the aforementioned Victor. They work as conceptual pieces of art, but they don't half dull the (mostly) rocky sound of the album. I tend to skip them now...

Also here is the admittedly novelty/joke song Shut Up Shuttin' Up. Which is a rocky instrumental with Alex's wife and her best friend having a wine-fuelled bitch about men and their failings. I did chuckle the first few times, but, like the spoken-word pieces, it kind of just gets in the way on repeat album-listens.

So overall - I'd definitely recommend it to Rush fans. The good is great, and the rest is... kind-of forgettable.
It showcases Alex's guitarwork soon after the Rush period where he may as well have not been there, plus Alex wrote all the lyrics, which is a first.

My Favourite Headache (2000)

Geddy's album was written and recorded when it was thought by most that Rush was over (see above under Vapour Trails). Like Alex, he wrote all of the lyrics which was a departure from Neil doing them. Unlike Alex, this isn't a confusingly complicated concept album. And I think it's a great album title...

The first (title) track is by far and away the best one on the album - which is a classic Rush move. The bass riff is hard and funky at the same time, and the slow breaks keep things proggy. 
It seems the album was purposely book-ended, because the other track that clearly stands out is the last one - Grace To Grace. It's not particularly rocky, but it's just got good songwriting. 

I'm finding it difficult to say much of interest about the 9 songs in-between. Home On The Strange is a really fun proggy track. Runaway Train is also a song I stop and pay attention to. It's not that the middle 9 songs are bad, it's just that they're not quite as interesting as the book-ends. Perhaps it's because there isn't a huge tempo variance that some of the tracks blend together. 

A general negative that I think runs throughout the album is the (mostly) impenetrable lyrics. I read that Grace To Grace is allegedly about his mother's WW2 experience. And the title track, on the surface, seems to be about watching too much TV. But there's a general feeling that Geddy is trying to write like Neil, in that he's trying to tackle big issues with intelligence and detail, but can't quite make the metaphors obvious enough for the average person to 'get' them. I certainly don't - most of the lyrics don't really make sense to me. 

But does that matter? No. Because for all intents and purposes this is a Rush album. The headline message is: it basically sounds like Test For Echo. Other than the opening track, the album isn't particularly rocky - it's 'medium' rocky. But if you like Test For Echo, you'll like this. 

Holistically, I prefer this album to Victor, simply because it's much more consistent. There isn't a bad song - it's all either good or better. However, Start Today off of Victor is the best song from between the two. So I'm glad I bought both!

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Hopefully, Geddy and Alex will record something again. Neil may have retired, but the other two have expressed interest in recording again in some capacity. 
And if they can produce music of this quality, then I'm all for it. It can't be worse than Grace Under Pressure!