When I first started writing this review, I couldn't think of much to
write for the album, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it.
The story of how I acquired this cd is quite interesting. Well, it isn't so much
interesting as it is long. I had ordered a bunch o'Rush albums from the CD club for my
membership startup deal.
They accidently sent me two copies of PeW and left out CoS.
Naturally ("So then I thrown the ball to Naturally") I was upset. So I
wrote them
a very strongly worded letter using Microsoft Word's groovy
business letter template
or somesuch.
So I finally got it and listened to it a few times. I
was really
impressed with the complexity of it all. The poetry
of the lyrics, the weird
narrating voice, the return of By-Tor, it's
enough to make you stand up and say "We
love you Neil!" [1,000 points
to anyone who gets that reference; it will probably just
be my brother
though] On to the review.
Bastille Day Maybe you heard this album was kind of weird. You put it in your CD player and this is the first track you hear. Not so weird. This was the first Rush song about an historical event. One that actually happened, I mean. It's a good song because the lyrics actually get a point across without being preachy or way over your head. And the music actually rocks. Should be more of a radio staple than it actually is. The middle section is very nicely layered. It's very easy to find yourself humming the 5-6-6 note pattern/whatever you'd call it. The ending is very maestoso I would say, and therefore cool. The last thing about this song is that it's "Let 'em eat cake," not "Lemonade cake." I'm not saying that's what I thought it was, I just put this information out there as a public service announcement.
I Think I'm Going Bald The music is very reminiscant of the first album, and the lyrics are just plain annoying. Because of these things, it doesn't fit on CoS. It has a feeling of trying too hard to make a statement. It's actually a song I would enjoy more if I didn't understand English, because the music is fun.
Lakeside Park This was
the other selection from CoS on
Chronicles. Stylistically, I feel it is very similar
to BD and for this
reason was surprised that the other two songs on the album are such
"epics."
This is one of those where you don't like it right away, but the more you
hear it, thoe more you get out of it.
Two last things: I saw an actual Lakeside
Park in either Minnesota or
Wisconsin, I don't remember which. And on my calendar it
didn't have
any holidays, Canadian or otherwise, for "the 24th of May," so I didn't
know what that was all about. Then when I was looking at an older calender,
I noticed that on the 24th of May was labeled as "Victoria Day" so I figure
it must be one of those holidays that gets "observed" on numerically different days
each year. Like Memorial Day in the US, eh?
Now we're moving into the big guns with The Necromancer and Fountain of Lamneth. I have to admit I'm pretty nervous about writing about these two songs, so wish me luck.
The Necromancer For the record, "necromancy" is a vastly different word
from "necrophlila." Observe: nec·ro·man·cy:
1. magic in general; enchantment; conjuration. 2. the pretended art of divination
through communication with the dead; the black art.
See? Communication
with the dead, not gettin' it on with 'em. I
just wanted to get that out of the way
so we could move on to
THE WEIRD TALKING PART. This is a neat feature of the song
but you have to really crank the beginning to hear it. A cool thing I read on the
Rush faq is that WillowDale (with possible variation in capitalization) is the suburb
of Toronto that Geddy and Alex are from. Now that's just funny.
"Only their thirst for freedom gives them hunger for vengeance." Ooh, I'm scared.
Anyway, then the song starts up. This first section is
pretty laid back, and it kind
of restates the intro.
Ok, now we're Under the Shadow. We see things from the
P.O.V. of the
title character. Quick musical shift...as usual an excellent bass line
at the core. The only thing that bugs me is they never explain why the N-mancer wants
to turn people into empty, mindless spectres. Is it like a hobby for this guy or what?
Once you
hear the angry sound (I don't know what else to call it) pass between the
R & L channels, you pretty much forget about that though and then you're off
into the rocking middle section that would tend to inspire headbanging.
Out of this emerges this nice little acoustic thing and a guy telling you
that "Prince" By-Tor has entered. And he's going to battle for freedom.
Now don't get me wrong here but wasn't he like a huge jerk just one album ago??
Seems odd to me that he could become good so fast. I'll just chalk it up to the fact
that Neil liked the name and let it go at that.
Now for some reason, the last
singing part amuses me. You've got this happy
little music and a guy cheerfully
singing "...slays his foe!" I guess it's
good that the song ends happily. A nice
guitar solo and we fade out...
The Fountain of Lamneth This song (or
partsofit anyway) was stuck
in my head a lot when I was at work yesterday. This
surprised me because I
didn't think I knew it well enough yet. Starts off like some
misguided
output of the singer-songwriter movement of the decade in which this
album was released. But don't get fooled, folkies, this tune's ot almost 19 more
minutes to go through, and it ain't all gonna be acoustic. By the way, you'll
notice I didn't mention the lyrics of this part. That is because I think they are
stupid. I don't care that they're symbolic of first words or used to create a mood or
whatever. I still think they are stupid.
Anyway the song is off to a good start
and here we go. Fast sections followed by quick tempo changes...then changing
back...some kind of drum solo, then the always popular didacts and narpets section.
In general it's
weird but the "Listen!!" is just freaky.
Alone at the Bridge Whoa, did he just say "the sky is bitchy"? Ok,
no. But he is saying something about the harsh reality of figuring out you're
out there on your own. I don't really get where the boat thing came from.
I thought he was just going to walk to the mountain. Maybe it's a metaphor.
A boat metaphor. That's gotta be it.
Panacea OK for some reason this part of the song always strikes me as
fairly pathetic. This is probably due to the fact that I'm a cynical
bastard. Either way it's still pretty pathetic.
Bacchus Plateau This title seems like it should be a name for some
feature of the brain. There are tons of names like that, like the Rift of
Whoever.
The Fountain Well it looks like he's gonna make it after all.
A return to the musical themes of "In the Valley." Good. "It's really not
the end"? We've already heard 18 minutes of the thing and you're going to
tell me it's really not the end?
Oh I guess we have to tie up the loose ends with more simple declarative
sentences like at the beginning. No problem. I'm just listening. And the
little thing that fades in at the end--very brilliant.
Previous album by this artist
Next album by this artist
CD Reviews
The Land of Rach