RUSH's Test for Echo Album Review

Recently I got a chance to sit down and listen to Rush's CD "Test for Echo". I was surprised to hear that there was a very large difference in their sound from previous albums. With this album, the band seems to try to combine the older Rush sound to the newer modern sounds by using a lot of synthesized sounds.

"Test for Echo" contains 11 songs: "Test for Echo", "Driven", "Half the World", "The Color of Right", "Time and Motion", "Totem", "Dog Years", "Virtuality", "Resist", "Limbo", and "Carve Away the Stone".

Geddy Lee performs on the bass guitar, vocals and synthesizers, Alex Lifeson performs the electric and acoustic guitars and mandola, and last but not least, Neil Peart plays drums, cymbals, and hammer dulcimer.

It seems like with this particular album, it is hard to make a proper perspective statement of the band. Rush has gone from playing progressive rock towards a more synthesized music, as displayed on this album. However, there are a few songs where I had to stop and think of who I was listening to because there was a change in identity, so to speak. The music went from its synthesized guitar oriented sound to back to it's time of rock.

The vocals seem a lot more mature and developed than previous albums, and you can tell by their talent in creating this album that they still, after so many years, have well rounded group chemistry.

The positives of this album include Rush's ability to try and succeed in attempting different styles of music however, the negative is that they seem like with this album they can't decide on a constant style throughout the album. It also seems like, on a negative aspect, that many of the songs are long and seem to be repetitive in nature.

When listening to "Test for Echo" it had the feeling that I wanted to jump around and listen to various songs than listen to it from beginning to end. It definitely was not an album that was easy to listen to all the way through.

If you're a big fan of the original Rush, then you probably will not enjoy this modern Rush twist, however it you're a die hard Rush fan, give this album a chance. In order to succeed, trying new ideas may be the way to go. I believe Rush just has to pick a style and stick with it during one album and not go jumping all over the place with sounds.