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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Rush could be the most consistant rock album makers ever. There`s nothing in their seventeen studio album career that is bad, even if some of their really early stuff has dated. "Test for echo", originally released in 1996, is another solid offering. The CD captures the band still in it`s transitional stage that went on throughout the Nineties, where the band were constantly cutting back on the keyboards which had dominated their Eighties albums, to get back to a sound closer to their guitar-bass-drums arrangements of the early seventies.
The songs are all enjoyable even if there isn`t really anything which stands out as a classic. "Virtuality" and "Driven" both have a bone crunchingly heavy riff which goes into an acoustic led chorus, with "Driven" also having one of those outrageous instrumental breaks that only Rush can do, Geddy Lee`s multi-tracked bass line still beggars belief. "Half the world" is a pleasant sounding song with some great observations from lyricist and percussionist extrodinaire Neil Peart, the melancholy "Resist" also contains some excellent wordplay. "Time and motion" and the instrumental "Limbo" are the albums darkest moments with some unsettling musical passages. Meanwhile the keyboards haven`t completely disappeared, although they do not appear in every song like before, their place being taken by Alex Lifeson`s textural acoustic and electric guitar work. All in all it`s a well crafted rock album, albeit with no real knockout punch like a "Tom Sawyer" or "Closer to the heart" to really lift it into the best works of Rush.
The really great thing about this, and all Rush albums, is that it shows the band moving forward from the album before. Now that really is the true meaning of progressive rock, and Rush remain one of the genres finest exponents.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I must say I didn't expect that much from TFE, partly because of the reviews, and partly because I've had Rush on 'ignore' since 1988, due to a steady decline in quality beginning with Grace Under Pressure (just my opinion). But having heard (and loved) Snakes and Arrows, I thought I really should check out some of their other 'late' output to hear what I've been missing.
I've not given this a whole lot of listens, (as I've also been trying out Roll The Bones and Presto, and some Billy Cobham for when I get all Rush-ed out), but the first five tracks have been on five or six times, and they are excellent, compelling, complex, hard-edged, melodic, intelligent modern heavy/rock/prog/metal. In short, they are unmistakably 'GOOD' Rush. Nobody else does it like this. So why the moaning? Vertigo is scary, especially the spiralling, up-and-up chord progression, Driven is good to it's name, hard and relentless, and Time and Motion is the precursor to 'Spindrift', off Snakes and Arrows: nicely dark and dischordant.
If you liked 'Snakes', get this: it's closer to their most recent work than Vapor Trails.
I've not given this a whole lot of listens, (as I've also been trying out Roll The Bones and Presto, and some Billy Cobham for when I get all Rush-ed out), but the first five tracks have been on five or six times, and they are excellent, compelling, complex, hard-edged, melodic, intelligent modern heavy/rock/prog/metal. In short, they are unmistakably 'GOOD' Rush. Nobody else does it like this. So why the moaning? Vertigo is scary, especially the spiralling, up-and-up chord progression, Driven is good to it's name, hard and relentless, and Time and Motion is the precursor to 'Spindrift', off Snakes and Arrows: nicely dark and dischordant.
If you liked 'Snakes', get this: it's closer to their most recent work than Vapor Trails.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
T4E suffers from being the next studio album after Counterparts. Although this album is fairly consistent, there are not enough classic Rush moments. That said, Lifeson's Guitar is further cranked up and those pesky keyboards are almost laid to rest (thank god!). I think that the live versions of the songs included on "Different Stages" sound much better and have more energy which makes me wonder whether using Peter Collins as Producer for the 2nd album running was a mistake (this seems to have happened with "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire").
Still, we get the wonderful Test for Echo (album opener) which sees the Trinity rocking the house down, Geddy Lee's basstastic Driven (3 bass parts!), Totem and a very enjoyable instrumental romp in Limbo.
Lots of interesting use of electric and acoustic guitar - just a shame that the songs are not quite top notch by Rush's own (extremely) high standards!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Testing...testing...
Once again Rush have confounded critique, evolved AND maintained the status quo and created yet another frustratingly brilliant yet flawed addition to their body of work. Read more
Published 25 days ago by ratmonkey
interesting
this album has a less spacious soundscape to it is the first noticeable thing, it is quite like counterparts only with less space and lot more distortion on the guiars and heavier... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Cubby Kovu
Rush are gods!
Sweet, Sublime Perfection, this review supposedly requires at least 20 words but lets be honest music afficionados, when it comes to Rush, more than the first three of this review... Read more
Published 1 month ago by MONTY
Time & Motion
Test For Echo is one of those overlooked recordings, much like Presto and Caress of Steel, an underated Rush album with a strange reputation as being a little under par and patchy... Read more
Published 5 months ago by G. Young
A good, solid album
This is not Rush's best album - but that's not surprising given how high the band has set the bar. But it's still a good album, although I would first direct fans of the later Rush... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Adam A
Close ..but it wins a cigar ...just
Its Rush ... its gets 5 stars. That said, Test For Echo comes really close to falling into the same trap as Counterparts in that at times it can sound a bit samey. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Lucioperca
Average disc,poor production
After 2 classic discs,namely 'Roll The Bones/Counterparts' this was something of a disappointment,several average tunes,hindered with a poor production(compared to the 2 previous... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr Blackwell
Much underrated....
In my opinion, this easily Rush's best Lp of the 90s. More ballsy than the overrated Roll the Bones and containing better songs than the often cringe-inducing Counterparts, this... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Big Twink
FORGIVE ME RUSH I KNOW NOT WHAT I'M SAYING
Great title and thats about it. Before I stared writing this review I read all the other reviews, and I couldn't believe what people were saying. Read more
Published on 8 April 2010 by Stephen
Most underrated Rush album.
I sometimes think with Rush I am living in a parallel universe.
Sure, I like all the classics like Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves as does every Rush fan. Read more
Sure, I like all the classics like Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves as does every Rush fan. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2010 by Mr. J. Livitt
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