Album: Test for Echo
Year Released: 1996
Lineup:
- Geddy Lee – bass guitar, vocals, synthesizers
- Alex Lifeson – electric and acoustic guitars, mandola
- Neil Peart – drums, cymbals, hammer dulcimer
Overall Thoughts:
After the tour for Counterparts, the band took a year long break. Geddy stayed home with his newborn daughter, Alex Lifeson released a solo album (Victor), and Neil Peart released a Buddy Rich tribute album. When they came back to the studio, they started working on their 16th album after working together as a group for 20 years.
The album isn't bad- but it seems aimless. Much like Counterparts, there doesn't seem to be an overarching theme in the album. There are some brilliant bits throughout the album, both musically (Lifeson plays a 10 string mandola on 'Half the World' that sounds outstanding, Lee's bass work on 'Driven' is otherworldly, and Peart's drumming remains peerless), but it never comes together in one great song.
Same with the lyrics. Peart writes some beautiful lines, such as this stance from 'Resist':
I can learn to resist
Anything but temptation
I can learn to co-exist
With anything but pain
But it's not cohesive. The sum isn't as great as the individual parts.
Ranking of Rush Albums (adding as more albums are reviewed):
- Presto
- Moving Pictures
- Roll the Bones
- 2112
- Permanent Waves
- Fly By Night
- Rush
- A Farewell to Kings
- Hemispheres
- Hold Your Fire
- Power Windows
- Counterparts
- Signals
- Test for Echo
- Caress of Steel
- Grace Under Pressure
Top 10 Rush Songs (adding as more albums are reviewed):
- "The Pass", Presto
- "Tom Sawyer", Moving Pictures
- "Working Man", Rush
- "Closer to the Heart", A Farewell to Kings
- "La Villa Strangiato", Hemispheres
- "Freewill", Permanent Waves
- "Bravado", Roll the Bones
- "2112", 2112
- "Fly By Night", Fly By Night
- "Show Don't Tell", Presto
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