Roadrunner & Artist News
RUSH'S ROADRUNNER RELEASE OF 'CLOCKWORK ANGELS' OUT TODAY!
Posted on July 10, 2012
RUSH released their new album 'Clockwork Angels' as part of a Classic Rock fanpack on the 11th of June and for those of you who weren't lucky enough to get your hands on one, you can now pick up a copy of the Roadrunner release of the album, which is out TODAY! You can pick up RUSH's 'Clockwork Angels' from the below links:Amazon
Play.com
iTunes
Check out some extracts from reviews below:
Yes, there is the complex musicality of prog at its most refined (Caravan, Headlong Flight) nestling beside emotive AOR anthems (The Wreckers), but – remarkably for what is the band's 19th studio album – Clockwork Angels never sounds dated. Indeed, the churning, chunky riff on BU2B wouldn't sound out of place on a Mastodon record. While it might not have the immediacy of their previous release, Snakes and Arrows, this is the three-piece's most solid and compelling set of songs in years. Those who worship at the temple of Rush will be in raptures; for those who remain agnostic, there may well be enough here to justify a leap of faith. – The Guardian
The Canadian trio has always stretched large ideas across an expansive soundscape, blending hard rock, prog and metal. And the five years since the band's last album, "Snakes & Arrows," have given Rush plenty of time to create a lot of new music. "Clockwork Angels" weighs in at a formidable 66 minutes, time enough for a kitchen-sink's worth of ideas and a weighty conceptual focus by drummer/lyricist Neil Peart about one man's journey to realize his dreams. The album's seven-minute opuses range from tight ("Headlong Flight") to the messy title track, while fans of Rush's classic, riff-driven approach and ensemble virtuosity will find aural nirvana in "The Anarchist," "Seven Cities of Gold," "The Wreckers" and "Wish Them Well." - Billboard.com.
In the end, hearts and smarts strike an elated détente. Clockwork’s simplest and catchiest track, “The Wreckers,” contains some of Lifeson’s most deceptively sculpted playing—and some of Peart’s most poignant lyrics: “All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary / Of a miracle too good to be true / All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary / To everything in life you thought you knew.” More than 40 years into their career, the members of Rush have stopped taking anything for granted: their success, their talents, themselves. “The future disappears into memory,” Lee sings in “The Garden,” as Peart pulses and Lifeson chimes, “With only a moment between.” Rush has grasped that moment—and if Clockwork Angels is any indication, it’s not letting go of it any time soon. - AV Club
Canada’s honored knights of all that is progressive, rocking, and conceptual have finally released their long-awaited 20th studio album,Clockwork Angels. With it, Rush sets a great example of how a band with a colossal body of hallowed and revered work can age with grace and simultaneously remain relevant to the musical landscape of today. And while the holy trinity now grows a bit long of tooth, Clockwork Angels displays an unexpectedly edgier sound than we have yet heard from the band. – 5/5 - Consequence of Sound
The songs have all the power and intricate interplay of Rush at their peak and if Geddy Lee can’t hit the ridiculously high notes of his youth he still shows a vocal range that walks all over the competition. Alex Lifeson’s guitar playing has never been pigeon-hole-able but he is showing metal riffs he has never even hinted at before as well as some searing solos. As ever, Neil Peart is the driving force behind the band and he continues to do more work with his kit than any 10 other drummers without ever sounding ‘flash’ or overblowing the music. Go and see Rush live and you will clearly as many fans ‘air-drumming’ as playing ‘air guitar.
The lyrics take a different slant from Voltaire but they still have plenty of emotion behind the intellectual interplay and three or four of the songs will find their way to being fan favourites in the immediate future – ‘BU2B’ and ‘Caravan’ were already performed on the ‘Time Machine’ tour and I can see ‘The Anarchist’ joining them soon.
Nick Raskulinecz co-produced (as he did on Snakes and Arrows) and the pairing with the band is clean and retains all the historical power of the band but keeps it as modern as tomorrow.
Definitely a contender for album of the year – 5/5 - Music News
Somebody has got to sit Rush down and read them the rules – you know, the ones that state that they have to act their freaking ages and stop jamming around so damn much; that six and seven-minute songs with lots of badass musicianship are out; that there can’t possibly be new sounds to discover; that concept albums are so, like, Hemispheres; that songs are supposed to be verse, chorus, verse – c’mon, call in the pro LA tunesmiths already! And don’t forget to tell them to get at least five or six backing musicians on stage – that’s what all the really big bands do; that they need to write some tunes about chicks, for chrissake; that the drummer must play to the song – knock it off with all that, you know, “extra stuff.” And most of all, won’t somebody please tell these guys that groups that have been together for 38 years are supposed to suck? They’re not meant to have breakthroughs and keep getting better and better. Can't anybody send them the memo?
But wait… hold on a second. If Rush decided to buckle down and behave, if they adhered to the standards and practices of Music 101, that would make them sound like practically every other band out there. They would become safe, predictable and oh so un-Rush-like.
Read MusicRadar's full track by track review here.
And whilst trawling the Internet, we stumbled across a review of the album by Judge Dredd and DC Batman comic book artist, Dave Taylor:
I'm sitting working on my new Judge Dredd 30 page strip for Tharg at 2000AD blissfully listening (VERY LOUD!) to the new Rush album. I've followed them faithfully since 1977 (oh what a year!) and can, with no doubt, say that this is the best work they have ever produced. The title track is one of the most sublime experiences one can have with two ears (VERY LOUD!!)! Oh....my...GOD! This is a stunning recording! The hairs on the back of my neck just went into overdrive as the solo began and then they drop from heavy to a beautiful blues chord set that made the hairs ON the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
Before the year is up I'm hoping to find a way to contact the guys responsible, Neil, Geddy and Alex, to implore them to let me turn the album, which is also a novel, into a graphic novel. No, seriously! When I first got into drawing comics I had big plans to turn the seminal 2112 album into a comic book...didn't happen....and then at art school I started making an animated short of the track Cinderella Man, all hand drawn and coloured, frame by meticulous frame I began crafting the film...then it got lost in the post on the way back from the developers...so that didn't happen ether. Maybe one of you out there knows a guy who knows a gal who knows a guy who knows someone close to the band who could put in a good word for me?! Hey, ya never know!
Anyway, just do yourself a great big favour and get a copy of Clockwork Angels and play it as loud as your speakers and neighbours can handle it! Trust me, I've been doing this since 1977 and know what I'm talking about!!
Keep watching the sky.
Click here to read David Taylor's blog.
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