Rush
Clockwork Angels (2012)
1.
Caravan - The murky sounds of a darkened shore, not of sea, but of space, set your mind in anticipation before Rush come STORMING out of the gates that held them back. “Caravan” fucking rocks. That riff is a scorcher and sets the scene for Geddy to lay out the dreams of a young boy who “can’t stop thinking big”. The chorus utilizes Alex’s clean guitar to starry-eyed effect. I don’t think Geddy’s bass has ever sounded so good. Not quite a perfect song (maybe a tighter instrumental section would’ve pushed it over the top), but this is the best album opener the band has had since “The Big Money”.
9/10
2.
BU2B - I was not sold on this song at first. The lyrics restate themselves a lot and it has some editing issues (repeating the bridge, repeating the last chorus). With that said, the more I listen to this song, the more I think it actually cooks. The intro is slow and spacey and works as a bit of a bridge between this song and “Caravan” before that deep, heavy, rumbling riff comes in sounding like a dark castle growing legs and taking to battle. And there is a battle here, as the narrator goes against what he was “Brought Up 2 Believe”. The subtle melodies throughout really have a way of worming into your brain, and I can’t help but give this song a
9/10 as well.
3.
Clockwork Angels - The title track, the longest song Rush have done since fucking
Moving Pictures, is a hulking behemoth assembled from a few different parts. The intro is so cool, with Neil’s hi hat leading Alex’s guitar ascension. It’s a frame the band then uses to back one of the most beautiful verses they’ve ever had. Things kinda shift into a different gear with the heavier pre-chorus and the melodic, powerful proper chorus. I don’t really care for the way it moves through these parts though, it’s a bit awkwardly arranged with too much momentum lost. I wish they’d really built on the promises of the verse before reaching the chorus. All told though, I think the individual parts, while they don’t fully come together, are still cool. It’s a good song that sold itself a little short.
7/10
4.
The Anarchist - A mirror figure to our big-thinking protagonist enters the scene to paint the world as black as his thoughts. I didn’t really catch much of this song on my first couple listens, but since then I’ve really come to dig it. It’s fun and has some cool energy and a surprisingly sturdy chorus. “
A missing part of me that grows around me like a cage” is one of my favorite vocal lines from the album. Also a cool, eastern-tinged instrumental section.
8/10
5.
Carnies - The shortest song so far still packs a lot into its runtime. The opening sounds of a carnival is displaced by a riff that sounds like the one in “BU2B”, only slower and with more squeals. Strong chorus, lighter bridge for good measure. I don’t think this is one of the album’s highlights but it’s a good, sturdy track.
7/10
6.
Halo Effect - And now the shortest full song on the album. “Halo Effect” is a vulnerable, fragile little track that talks of the protagonist falling for a woman who didn’t reciprocate his feelings. It starts with pretty acoustics before getting heavier in the chorus to great effect. Also a cool mandolin instrumental!
8/10
7.
Seven Cities of Gold - This song sounds fucking epic. Big build up that lets Neil pull out his bag of tricks for some percussive goodness before a groovy riff brings us to the titular “Seven Cities of Gold”. The verse is complex, infusing a dark energy into the proceedings, while the pre-chorus is shimmering and radiant. The chorus is one of those meat and potatoes choruses that gets in and gets the job done without being fancy. It’s probably the song’s weakest link, but even it has grown on me. Musically this track rocks.
8/10, almost a 9.
8.
The Wreckers - A lot of Rush songs sound like the chorus is just an afterthought extension of the rest of the song. Here it gets the fucking spotlight. It really feels like Rush knew they had a big, powerful chorus on their hands and constructed the rest of the song to give it the weight it deserves. It hits hard and has a mournful melody while also using the string ensemble to killer effect. A song about loss and destruction deserves it. The intro riff, in contrast, is kind of a bright, bouncy thing, while the verses are calm in recounting a crash upon unseen rocks. The bridge is a monster though, sounding like an icy storm come to life. Some slight awkwardness in sections, and maybe missing a killer guitar solo to bring the whole thing together, but otherwise this is yet another great song.
8/10
9.
Headlong Flight - A weighty celebration of life, from the successes to the failures. You can tell that Alex and Geddy went in with the idea of making it an instrumental track before they realized it would be better to pair it with Neil’s lyrics. It’s got all the little flairs that Rush’s instrumentals have had since “Where’s My Thing?” got them on the path again in the ‘90s. That being said, it far eclipses all of those tracks because of it has an actual lyrical direction. Geddy puts together some great vocal melodies that really bring the heart of the track to life. This song is just awesome. It’s bouncy and bubbling with an unparalleled energy; it’s shooting for the stars and reaching them; and the chorus is a rose-tinted, wistful thing, guided with an alt-rock kind of melody that I fucking love. And when Geddy, throughout the song, gets to hold that fucking note on “
I wish that I could live it all again!”, it just floors me. Fantastic song and in spite of all of its shifting sections, it holds together like a mesh of excitement. These three fuckers sound like they’re having a blast and it elevates the whole piece to the first
10/10 we’ve had since “Alien Shore”. Fucking baller.
10.
BU2B2 - An interlude recalling “BU2B”. I think it works in the context of the album, but I find Geddy’s vocals here to be a little underwhelming. I do like the orchestral backing though.
6/10
11.
Wish Them Well - Here’s a song that I feel like would not have worked for me on previous records, yet here it feels like it really all comes together. There’s a clear message of cutting out toxic people from your life, and the music pumps hard enough that it’s really successful at getting that across. It’s a song that makes you feel empowered and I love the chorus (“
Thank your stars you’re not that way…”). Could have used a little tightening and it would be a 9 for me, but it’s a really strong
8/10 nonetheless.
12.
The Garden - Ever since Neil passed, everyone has been talking about how emotional “The Garden” is now as his final song and his final statement to the world. My hopes for it were high but tempered by how rocky Rush’s music has been for a while. Frankly, I was not prepared at all for this song and just how powerful it truly is. The first time I listened through the album I wasn’t just floored, I was actively tearing up. And every time since then I find myself tearing up and being floored all over again. I have fucking tears in my eyes right now as I type this.
Throughout Rush’s career, Neil’s lyrics have been an evolving portrait of the man behind the drumkit. It’s his thoughts, his hopes, his dreams, his vulnerabilities, his successes and his failures, his interests, his beliefs, his life channeled through Geddy’s vocals. Yeah, not every lyric was successful, but all of them were honest, honest to the man who wrote them at the time.
For being an album that supposedly tells a story,
Clockwork Angels does a pretty poor job of it. We basically get fragments of a storyline and a bit of a weird three piece conclusion that doesn’t tell us of what’s become of the narrator after his shipwreck encounters, only that he has no regrets and urges us to cull the toxic people around us.
My favorite interpretation of the album’s storyline is that it’s really just a fantastical retelling of Neil’s life. Him watching the “Caravan” of ships on the Great Lakes. Him outgrowing what he was “Brought Up 2 Believe”. Him joining a band of “Carnies” and reaching the “Seven Cities of Gold”. “Halo Effect” could be about all the early songs he now feels awkward about (“
What did I do, fool that I was, to profit from youthful mistakes?”). “The Wreckers” could refer to the loss of his wife and daughter in ‘98. But for all of the ups and downs of his “Headlong Flight”, he’d “
love to live it all again”.
I have no idea if this is actually what Neil had in mind while he wrote the lyrics, but I like to view it that way because it adds an extra layer of depth into the record.
Clockwork Angels is a success on just about every front - it’s an album where Rush finally sounds revitalized and the music actually cooks. What’s crazy is that they haven’t really adjusted the songwriting approach they’ve been using since the ‘80s, but here it’s been honed and injected with a vigour we haven’t heard in fuck knows how long. I’m sure the years it took to write and record the music was also a help, allowing them time to really sit with the material.
What’s incredible to me is that, for the first time in a long time, I was actively excited to play a Rush album again and dig deeper into it.
Which brings me back to “The Garden”. It’s not just a perfect cap on a great (thank god I can finally say that again) record, it straight-up transcends the band’s entire discography.
I just don’t even know where to begin here without getting emotional. I don’t know if Geddy or Alex felt like this was it, this was where their time with Neil in the studio would end, but they wrote music as though it was their last hurrah. The acoustic verse is so tender and fragile, utterly stirring, with wisps of strings heightening the feels, and the chorus builds on that, bringing home a message that our time on this planet is measured in “love and respect,
a garden to nurture and protect.” Neil doesn’t even join them until the second verse, and his drumming is measured, restrained, adding to the garden without disrupting the other flowers, waiting for his own moment to shine.
The song gets a stunning bridge backed by incredibly moving piano (courtesy of Jason Sniderman). Geddy’s vocals are positively bursting with emotion. “
Hope is what remains to be seen.” Then Neil comes back with a fucking drum roll and Alex gets to take off with a beautiful guitar solo that leaves the flashiness behind, focusing solely on building up all the vibes we are dwelling in. And then the crescendo.
“
In the fullness of time, a garden to nurture and protect.”
Geddy could repeat this line until the end and I would not care. It’s a perfect use of repetition to build an emphasis. There’s no need to employ any other lines here because what’s important is for us to stay in this moment, together.
“
In the fullness of time, a garden to nurture and protect.”
His voice is positively breaking. I've been saying from the beginning that his strongest asset as a vocalist is his ability to portray emotion, and never has that been truer than now. The music continues to build, the strings soaring ever higher - and Neil’s drumming becomes more and more intense, like he knows he’s giving the performance to sum up a lifetime. By the time it’s all come to an end I am left with so many thoughts, so many emotions, all I want to do is keep sitting in this moment.
“
In the fullness of time, a garden to nurture and protect.”
Clockwork Angels is by far the best album the band has made since
Power Windows, and for the band’s final album to date, and the final album Neil Peart would on, they could not have ended on a higher note. And “The Garden” is the summation of 40 years of work. It’s a song that could not have been written by a younger man. I’ve been thinking a lot about how this record’s storyline is like a matured remake of “The Fountain of Lamneth”. A young man with big dreams goes off on a big adventure and time molds him into something older, something wiser. Only this time the end result is one of peace and pride in his work.
Truly, the last thing I expected going into this album was that I would come out of it with what I can only describe as a top 5 Rush song, but here I am. In and of itself, it has made the highs and lows of my Rush journey worth it just to arrive here at long last. An unforgettable final testament to the world, and - I'm not saying this lightly - a true masterpiece.
“
In the fullness of time, a garden to nurture and protect.”
Thank you, Neil. Thank you for the garden you nurtured with your time, which is now ours to protect.
“
It’s the measure of a life.”
Easiest
10/10 of my life.
Total:
83%
(Total taken from the album’s scores with and without “BU2B2”.)
