Rush: Clockwork angels gets worse with each listen.

Let me explain. I was really excited when this CD was released a year and a half ago. I listened to it endlessly during the summer of 2012---loved it (sound quality issues aside). I would listen to it again every few months, still enjoying it, but something was not quite right with each successive listen.

I listened to it with fresh ears this afternoon (first time in a bout 8 months) and was disappointed. It is just not a very good album. I would now place it near the bottom of the Rush catalog. I think only Counterparts,Test for Echo, and Vapor Trails are worse. It's interesting because I've never had this happen with music from a band I'm really into. Maybe it was the excitement of a new Rush CD in 2012 that made me originally rate this higher than I do now. By contrast I also listened to Black sabbath's 13 and it still sounds as great as when it was released (and I've listened to it as much as Clockwork angels).

Very strange---I still love Rush and The Garden and Headlong Flight are still great tracks, but the rest....meh. Could Clockwork angels be one of those rare albums that gets worse with age?

 

For me, when an album stops being engaging it's usually for one of the following reasons:

1) It was too 'catchy' and loses its luster (this typically happens with 'hit' songs where the other tracks have more legs)
2) My music tastes evolve past what the album has to offer
3) The recording/master quality gets annoying after a while or I upgrade my listening system

I'm going to guess that what happened for you is you're finally hearing that this is a weak album. Personally I couldn't understand all the accolades it received. My only guess was that it was in the style of older Rush - where there was an audience for that, but to me it was like Rush was forcing themselves to sound like their former selves and it came across as mechanical and not a labor of love.

 

I haven't listened to "Clockwork Angels" in quite a while now. Not because I didn't like it but because I have way too much to listen to. I need to revisit the album soon though; at the time I thought it was the finest Rush album in many years.

 

"WHERE'S THE MELODIES?"



Hopefully you weren't like me and and didn't drop nearly $30 on the vinyl (which isn't even that great a pressing, with noisy bursts of hiss between some tracks and at the ends of sides).

 

Not for me. I like it more and more with each listen. It stands with the "better" albums of theirs, IMO.

 

Seriously, what happen to the melodies????? Just a bunch of clutter now....

 

The well has been pretty dry in the "melodies" department for awhile. As for the clutter, if that means too many overdubs by Alex and Geddy? ...then yes, I agree.

 

I like it more than I did a year ago but that's a swallow victory for me.

 

I still like it on repeated listens, but prefer the previous album Snakes & Arrows, which I think has better songs and a lot more variety to it, plus I dig the more "acoustic guitar" vibe that Snakes has. A lot of people seem to hate S&A though, so what do I know...

 

Count me in as someone who LOVES "Snakes And Arrows". I think it's just excellent. I was out of "Rush" for years, but the I saw the excellent documentary on the band and heard the song "Far Cry". Took the album out of our library and was blown away!
Now I'm a big fan again.
I saw the Clockwork Angels show here in Toronto and thought it was terrific (as was the new material)

 

I haven't gotten this one yet. I intend to, but but I fear disappointment. Rush is one of the most perplexing bands ever. They were phenomenal from 1975-1982, and imo have been utter crap ever since, with a few nice songs here and there. How did they fall so far....while at the same time they thought they were getting better? Neil thinks everything before "Moving Pictures" was bad. Is he that dumb?

 

I don't really agree with you, but will point out that 1975 - 1982 was the Terry Brown produced era. He had a profound influence on the band and I wish they would work with him again.

P.S. I still love the new album.

 

Disrespectful on so many levels...

 

Beyond The Lighted Stage is essential viewing in order to have an informed opinion of the band.
If you didn't like the way they changed things up after 1980, fine, but wasn't that always the fun of follwing them in those days?
They kept you interested.
They never stayed in any "box".
They moved around musically and changed with the times.
For the most part they did it gracefully (under pressure), like them or not.

 

I think Clockwork Angels is the best overall album they've done since Counterparts. But the OP didn't like that one either.

 

I agree. It seemed to me like he was the 4th member. I don't know how much (if any) input he had into the songwriting but his input into the "Rush sound" that I love was huge IMO. He brought that same sound to Fates Warnings' A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997) and Disconnected (2000) - if you dig the Rush T.B. years you might like those albums.

 

I feel like Rush is one band that has really been hurt by the CD era of having 70 minutes to fill. I've tried to listen to Snakes and Arrows on several occasions and it seems to be 5 hour album. I never get through it. So I've never really given Clockwork Angels a chance.

On the other hand the last couple of Iron Maiden albums (A Matter of Life and Death and The Final Frontier) are really long but seem to fly by when I listen to them.

So to sum up, there you go!!

 

I was just thinking the same thing about Maiden. So long yet they seem to fly by.

 

Interesting point about how some albums seem to last too long - when that happens you're definitely not connecting/not digging it. I hate that feeling, wishing something would just end, I feel like I'm wasting precious time, could be listening to something else.

A Matter of Life and Death has become my favorite Maiden album btw! That is heresy to some Maiden fans but I am blown away by that album. And I HATED the previous one (Dance of Death).

 

Simple solution to a complex problem - stop listening to the album.

 

My appreciation for it has only grown and I think part of that is from hearing most of them on Clockwork Angels Live. Snakes And Arrows is an album that I would originally get kind of bored with part way through but then one day it suddenly clicked with me and all of the songs were much more worthwhile.

For as long as I've been listening to Rush there have been times when certain albums would become a real drag to listen to and other times when albums would become really engaging again.

I just expect that I get tired of them on occasion, like anything else.

 

Production is the reason its so hard to listen to. I don't want to hear "a Perfect Circle" 90's - 2000's type cliche's in Rush.
The songs are great though.

 

I agree with everything except Counterparts, which I think is great, production wise and musically

 

Snakes And Arrows was my favorite Rush album since Power Windows, and a big surprise coming off of the Test For Echo/Vapor Trails extreme disappointments. Because of that, I was very much looking forward to Clockwork Angels and was very underwhelmed. It has an occasional good song, but reminds me a lot of Vapor Trails, which is not a good thing.

Take away the Speed Of Love, Alien Shore, and Between Sun And Moon section of Counterparts and it would be a very good album, but as it stands , that trio of songs really brings it down.

 

I like it, but the sound is just exhausting to listen all the way through.