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When legendary Canadian progressive rock trio Rush had been staring down what to do as they approached the tip of the 2000s, a novel concept got here up: why not make an idea album? The band had been no stranger to ideas, with a few of their most legendary albums from the Nineteen Seventies containing comparable epics. However the group had by no means carried out a full-album idea file earlier than – to not point out that the group had been wanting to embrace, slightly than cover from, their affiliation as the largest prog band on this planet.
Neil Peart turned to his love of literature, however not in direction of the technological world of science fiction. As a substitute, a steampunk world “lit solely by hearth” turned the setting for Rush’s new album. As Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson started conjuring up new musical preparations, Peart started tracing the story of a younger man’s journey by this harmful world as a looming villain named the Watchmaker hangs over his each transfer.
It’s no understatement to say that Clockwork Angels is certainly one of Rush’s heaviest data. With a complete horde of detuned guitars and distortion results from Lifeson, the band get as shut as they ever did to their progressive-metal heydey as they ever did after the Nineteen Seventies, with the one distinction coming in Geddy Lee’s barely slower vocal tone. The combo of stylistic shifts and liberal incorporation of strings offers the album a dynamic really feel, however the band carries a selected sound that reminds you that each one of those songs are supposed to be linked.
For all its weighty ideas and head-scratching modifications that stay signature Rush hallmarks, Clockwork Angels nonetheless has hooks. Take the refrain to ‘The Wreckers’, which stays one of the crucial spectacular melodies from the again half of their profession. Songs like ‘Seven Cities of Gold’ and the album’s title monitor stability the heavier crunch of the band’s steel leanings with lighter and extra melodic fare, however the concentrate on particular person songs and ear-catching moments is rarely far.
This being Rush, there are some playful moments as effectively. After we devolve into the demonic circus of ‘Carnies’, Lifeson and Lee delight within the angular strains they get to bust out whereas Peart kilos out his heaviest beat since Vapor Trails‘ ‘One Little Victory’. Lifeson’s soloing feels contemporary and off-the-cuff, particularly on the monitor ‘Headlong Flight’, the place Lifeson brings a looser and extra impromptu really feel to the band’s compact and concise punch.
Narratively, Clockwork Angels is each essentially the most bold and most wholly satisfying idea that the band ever took on. Whereas ‘2112’ and ‘Cygnus X-1 Books I & II’ are extra beloved inside the band’s canon, these tracks by no means had the sheer scale and stage of problem that Clockwork Angels goes after. Appropriately, Neil Peart by no means half-asses the most important plot forward of him, conserving the album’s central journey shifting into fascinating new settings with every new music. Peart even manages to wrap up the story with a worthwhile and philosophic ending, one which continues to attach with the band’s largest followers a decade later.
That ending, ‘The Backyard’, holds a outstanding legacy inside the Rush fandom. As the ultimate music on Rush’s closing album, it’s practically unimaginable not to have a look at ‘The Backyard’ as the last word summation of the band, particularly after Peart’s demise in 2020. So what’s Peart’s message on the best way out? {That a} life is made worthwhile by the connections made and trueness that one stays to themselves.
Clockwork Angels may not appear to be an important pay attention outdoors of the Rush trustworthy, however for anybody curious as to how the trio’s recognition solely managed to develop larger and larger the longer they stayed collectively, Clockwork Angels is the last word illustration of Rush’s consistency and dedication to evolution over 4 many years. As a whole summation of their powers, Rush managed to offer themselves a robust, poignant, and infrequently transcendent send-off, staying true to themselves till the very finish.
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