![]() ![]() This review was originally published in Classic Rock 172, in July 2012. The storyline traces a young mans journey through a world of steampunk and alchemy and an unyielding Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily. And that, more than anything else, is the mark of true greatness. The sound of a band who are entering their fifth decade more confident than ever before? Undoubtedly. The best album Rush have made? It’s up near the top. So, is Clockwork Angels the best album of the year? It’s too early to tell. There are echoes of Rush’s past – you can catch a sniff of Bastille Day here and an echo of Working Man there, but it looks forward far more than it looks back. Kudos here to co-producer Nick Rasckulinecz, a man whose motivational skills are clearly matched only by the band’s own willingness to be motivated. The Eastern-tinged flourishes that weave through the muscular The Anarchist enhance rather than overwhelm it there’s a tangible warmth to the exuberant Wish Them Well, the album’s most uplifting moment and the ringing chords of The Garden provide a suitably stately finale to the whole show. And it’s a terrific-sounding one, too – copper-bottomed but crystal clear, dense but light of touch. It all adds up to a clear-sighted, modern rock record. And Neil Peart has never sounded looser or livelier as he races around his drum kit. They keep a lid on extending songs beyond their natural life only three songs exceed the seven-minute mark. Of course, the musicianship is impeccable, but it’s never showy. There’s some stuff about watches and anarchists, and a nagging feeling that it’s all about being a tiny cog in some vast celestial machinery.Ĭonceptual leanings aside, Clockwork Angels isn’t a prog album. That will be useful, given that it’s not especially clear what Clockwork Angels is actually about. They’ve roped in sci-fi author Kevin J Anderson to help out with the conceptual heavy lifting via a spin-off novel that will presumably spell out what’s going on. The lyrical spine of Clockwork Angels is apparently a tale written by drummer Neil Peart and inspired by both the steampunk movement and Voltaire’s 18th-century French satire Candide. Of the pair, Caravan edges it thanks to the way it hops between a muscular, circular riff and wide, chiming spaciousness in a heartbeat, though the admirably cynical BU2B – or Brought Up To Believe – is crucial to the album’s concept.Īh, The Concept. For example, BU2B is probably the heaviest Rush song. Both appear here, opening the album in a punchy one-two. Sounding a lot like a hard and heavy 2112-era album, elements of Clockwork Angels border on nu-metal. The two teasers they handed out last year as part of Record Store Day, Caravan and BU2B, are representative of the album: taut but inventive, intricate yet never flashy. Where their last few albums have felt like triumphs of intention over execution, this one finds a band not just firing on all cylinders, but also doing a very good job of sounding more relevant than ever before. Clockwork Angels doesn’t sound like the work of men entering their fifth decade as a working band. Whether the wave of goodwill spurred them on while making the album isn’t clear but, if the end result is anything to go by, it certainly hasn’t done them any harm. Check out the best Prime Day deals for music fansĪnd so, as Rush return with their first record in five years, and their 20th in total, both their stock and their profile are higher than ever.This led to Rush appearing on US comic Stephen Colbert’s top-rated chat show, which pushed them further into uncharted territories. The 2009 documentary Beyond The Lighted Stage rightly saluted them as one of rock’s original frontiersmen, with celebrity fanboys such as Trent Reznor and Billy Corgan lining up to ladle on the love. Those who worship at the temple of Rush will be in raptures for those who remain agnostic, there may well be enough here to justify a leap of faith.Recently, though, the Canadian trio have found themselves engaging with everything they’d previously run away from. While it might not have the immediacy of their previous release, Snakes and Arrows, this is the three-piece's most solid and compelling set of songs in years. Indeed, the churning, chunky riff on BU2B wouldn't sound out of place on a Mastodon record. Yes, there is the complex musicality of prog at its most refined (Caravan, Headlong Flight) nestling beside emotive AOR anthems (The Wreckers), but – remarkably for what is the band's 19th studio album – Clockwork Angels never sounds dated. And for fans of 2112, their conceptual opus from 1976, Clockwork Angel's narrative about "an individual trying to follow his dreams in a dystopian future" will seem rather familiar – but this isn't a mere reboot. It may come as a surprise to casual observers that this is Rush's first concept album in over 30 years, given they might reasonably assume the Canadian prog overlords only release concept albums. ![]()
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