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Rating: Millennium mid-turn already underway for the fifty-year-old Rush.
We are in the full thirtieth anniversary of their career, eight long years since 'Test for Echo' went somewhat unnoticed but still appreciated. The 70s don't come back for anyone, let's enjoy them with their rich repertoire of prog-hard-rock masterpieces. They still provide great emotions; it's not always possible to create "Caress of Steel" or a "Moving Pictures". Always dignified despite some stumbles here and there, it's always difficult to attack them with critically negative judgments. In some way, they always "land" on their feet.
Their discography is their honorary degree, which has promoted them with flying colors to the pantheon of secular rock. So in 2004, a bit like a bolt from the blue, comes this "Vapor Trails". The Rush emerge from various issues, primarily Neil Peart of a strictly personal nature. He will later take on a new role as a successful author, narrating a solo mega motorcycle tour that will take him across the States and beyond. He unplugged for a few years. Go Neil!!
Excitement for the hardened fans, holding the still-cellophane-sealed CD they try to imagine the content. This fiery ball on the cover gives the impression of accumulated energy now suddenly released, "now we'll break you"!! Indeed, as soon as you hit play, Peart's violent double bass starts with his typical drum line that fills the sound space. Unmistakable imprint. "One little victory" is quite an energetic piece with early hard ways. Analog sound from a smoky basement, angry guitar from Lifeson with tube amplifiers, Geddy Lee still has the voice of 30 years ago and gives the usual semi-Zeppelian connotation. Another note, there's no trace of keyboards in any track. Everything is arranged a bit like early U2, if I'm allowed this comparison. Vintage sounds of hard-rock radicalism.
Lee's multi-instrumentalism is gone, the prog-fantasy vein once given by synthesizers vanishes, and this hasn't benefited the work. In fact, it's lacking a precious piece in their mosaic, now much less colorful. It's almost all angry, what is noticeable is the sound, dulled by this "we're playing in a garage" effect.
"Ceiling Unlimited" passes like the first, "Ghost Rider" is a good gritty ballad that doesn't make ears perk up. "Peaceable Kingdom", "The stars look down", same old story. "How it is" has an appreciably melodic start and travels on catchy tracks. Pleasant. "Vapor Trails" is not particularly noteworthy. "Secret Touch" finally presents some breaks that restore some interest in listening, reminiscent of "Time and Motion" but less refined. "Earthshine" is another hard piece that slowly leads to fatigue, if you've made it this far without stopping. Nothing new. "Sweet Miracle" seems a bit like Rainbow rearranged by them with decent results. "Nocturne" doesn't add anything new to what has already been said. Here's "Freeze" trying to provide some ideas and actually partly succeeding. I think it's the best track. Don't expect a "The Camera Eye" but here the gentlemen are present at 100%. Even the closing "Out of the Cradle" restores some tone to the setlist with good old Rush rock with well-proven alchemy. In short, that healthy complexity between Yes and Led Zeppelin.
In the end, you are left slightly disappointed, there's a lot of music played but it all seems a bit tired. This pseudo-backward search impoverishes their palette of arrangements, in which they were innovators precisely with Lee skillfully inserting magical moments with the keyboards. Monotonous analog sound, not refined, a lot of noise and paradoxically little charm. Those who complained about 'Test for Echo' may think again. It seems like a failed attempt at a reprise of the first "Rush" from thirty years ago. Honors to the Toronto trio nonetheless, always a work at good levels but decidedly not very successful. "Vapor Trails" can be loved and hated in equal measure. A bit of a watershed in their style. But more was expected. It's the thirtieth-anniversary album. Do you show up with nothing?
Long live the Rush!!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 One Little Victory (05:08)
A certain measure of innocence
Willing to appear naive
A certain degree of imagination
A measure of make belive
A certain degree of surrender
To the forces of light and heat
A shot of satisfaction
In a willingness to risk defeat
Celebrate the moment
As it turns into one more
Another chance at victory
Another chance to score
The measure of the movment
Is a difference of degree
Just One Little Victory
A spirit breaking free
The greatest act can be
One Little Victory
A certain measure of righteousness
A certain amount of force
A certain degree of determination
Daring on different course
A certain amount of resistance
To the forces of life and love
A certain measure of tolerance
A willing to rise above
One Little Victory
One Little Victory
One Little Victory
One Little Victory
02 Ceiling Unlimited (05:28)
It's not the heat
It's the inhumanity
Plugged into the sweat of a summer street
Machine gun images pass
Like malice through a looking glass
The slackjaw gaze
Of true profanity
Feels more like surrender than defeat
If culture is the curse of the thinking class
If culture is the curse of the thinking class
Ceiling unlimited
World so wide
Turn and turn again
Feeling unlimited
Still unsatisfied
Changes never end
The vacant smile
Of true insanity
Dressed up in the mask of Tragedy
Programmed for the guts and glands
Of idle minds and idle hands
I rest my case -
Or at least my vanity
Dressed up in the mask of Comedy
If laughter is a straw for a drowning man
If laughter is a straw for a drowning man
Ceiling unlimited
Windows open wide
Look and look again
Feeling unlimited
Eyes on the prize
Changes never end
Winding like an ancient river
The time is now again
Hope is like an ancient river
The time is now again
04 Peaceable Kingdom (05:23)
A wave toward clearing sky
All this time we're talking and sharing our Rational View
A billion other voices are spreading other news
All this time we're living and trying to understand
Why a billion other choices are making their demands
Talk of a Peaceable Kingdom
Talk of a time without fear
The ones we wish would listen
Are never going to hear
Justice against The Hanged Man
Knight of Wands against the hour
Swords against the kingdom,
Time against The Tower
All this time we're shuffling and laying out all our cards
While a billion other dealers are slipping past our guards
All this time we're hoping and praying we all might learn
While a billion other teachers are teaching them how to burn
Dream of a Peaceable Kingdom
Dream of a time without war
The ones we wish would hear us
Have heard it all before
A wave toward the clearing sky
A wave toward the clearing sky
The Hermit against The Lovers
Or the Devil against The Fool
Swords against the kingdom
The Wheel against the rules
All this time we're burning like bonfires in the dark
A billion other blazes are shooting off their sparks
Every spark a drifting ember of desire
To fall upon the earth and start another fire
A homeward angel on the fly
A wave toward the clearing sky
07 Vapor Trail (04:57)
Stratospheric traces of our transitory flight
Trails of condensation held in narrow bands of white
The sun is turning black
The world is turning gray
All the stars fade from the night
The oceans drain away
Horizon to horizon, memory written on the wind
Fading away, like an hourglass, grain by grain
Swept away like voices in a hurricane
In a vapor trail
Atmospheric phases make the transitory last
Vaporize the memories that freeze the fading past
Silence all the songbirds
Stilled by the killing frost
Forests burn to ashes
Everything is lost
Washed away like footprints in the rain
In a vapor trail
08 Secret Touch (06:34)
The way out is the way in
The way out is the way in...
Out of touch
With the weather and the wind direction
With the sunrise
And the phases of the moon
Out of touch
With life in the land of the loving
With the living night
And the darkness at high noon
You can never break the chain
There is never love without pain
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart
Out of sync
With the rhythm of my own reactions
With the things that last
And the things that come apart
Out of sync
With love in the land of the living
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart
There is never love without pain
Life is the power that remains
09 Earthshine (05:38)
On certain nights
When the angles are right
And the moon is a slender crescent
Its circle shows
In a ghostly glow
Of earthly luminescence
Earthshine
A beacon in the night
I can raise my eyes to
Earthshine
Earthshine
A jewel out of reach
For a dream to rise to
Earthshine
Floating high
In the evening sky
I see my faint reflection
Pale facsimile
Like what others see
When they look in my direction
Earthshine
Streching out your hand
Full of starlit diamonds
Earthshine
Reflected light
To another's sight
And the moon tells a lover's story
My borrowed face
And my third-hand grace
Only reflect your glory
You're still out of reach
For a dream to rise to
Earthshine.
10 Sweet Miracle (03:40)
I wasn't walking on water
I was standing on a reef
When the tide came in
Swept beneath the surface
Lost without a trace
No hope at all
No hope at all
Oh -- sweet miracle
oh -- sweet miracle
Of life
I wasn't talking with angels
I was talking to myself
Rising up to the surface
Raging against the night
Starless night
Oh -- sweet miracle
Love's sweet miracle
Of life
Oh salvation
Oh salvation
I wasn't praying for magic
I was hiding in plain sight
Rising up from the surface
To fly into the light
11 Nocturne (04:49)
Did I have a dream?
Or did the dream have me?
Set off on a night-sea journey
Without memory or desire
Drifting through lost latitudes
With no compass and no chart
Flying through hallucination
Distant voices, signal fires
Lighting up my unconscious
And the secret places of the heart
Dream - Temporary madness
Dream - A voice in the wilderness
Dream - Unconscious revelations
The morning says, the answer is yes
Floating through a darkened mirror
Deep reflections in disguise
Soaring through lost altitudes
Without wonder, without fear
Symbols on a field of visions
Behind the curtain of sleeping eyes
On the instant of waking
Another world of dreams appears
Dream - A walk in the wilderness
Dream - Unconscious recreation
The morning says, the answer is yes
13 Out of the Cradle (05:03)
It's not a place
It's a yearning
It's not a race
It's a journey
It's not an act
It's attraction
It's not a style
It's an action
It's a dream for the waking
It's a flower touched by flame
It's not a gift for the giving
It's a power with a hundred names
Surge of energy, spark of inspiration
The breath of love is electricity
Maybe Time is a bird in flight
Endlessly mocking
Here we come out of the cradle
Endlessly rocking
Endlessly rocking
It's the hand
That rocks the cradle
It's the motion
That swings the sky
It's method on the edge of madness
It's a balance on the edge of a knife
It's a smile on the edge of sadness
It's a dance on the edge of life
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