Having not worked together in the studio in five years, Geddy, Alex and Neil found it a rough going at first when they got together to work on their 17th studio album early in 2001. There was a lot of material that was thrown away, and it took them a bit of time to finally get enough material that they deemed worthy of being kept and put on a Rush album. Instead of a couple months, like had become the norm, it took them 14 months to finish
Vapor Trails. Released in May 2002, I remember popping it in my CD player the minute I left Best Buy with it on release day and not knowing what to think. I mean, it was not only Rush, but the first new Rush in six years! But something about it sounded...off. It sounded very loud and muddy, but I thought it was just me cranking it too loud at first or something, or trying too hard to get into it instantly, but the more I listened, the more I realized the band had released the worst-sounding album of their career. It was simply too loud, the songs have no room to breathe, and it just sounded noisy.
Now, that is not meant to say that I didn't like quite a bit of it, regardless. I most certainly did. I was very fond of "Earthshine," "Freeze," "Nocturne" and the s-less title track at first, and those four songs have endured as my favorites from this record. I also enjoyed "Ceiling Unlimited," "Ghost Rider," "The Stars Look Down" and "Secret Touch" at first, as well. The rest I didn't dislike any of, but most of it just kind of seemed there, lost in the noise-fest. Notable, too, is "One Little Victory," as I get why the band loved it, since it was like them pronouncing, "hey, just us working together again is like a little victory," but aside from that beastly intro, the song is not a very good one. Some of the vocal melodies are just ugly, made worse by that effect they used on Geddy's voice. What was also strange about this album: no real guitar solos. Okay, there are a few times where he sort of does a solo, but most of the "solo sections" on this record ended up just being big jam sections, where the band basically just jammed together for a short bit, punctuated by even more noisiness, almost like the jamming was each one trying to out-loud the other.
For years, fans clamored for a remix or some kind of remaster that cleaned it up, so we could hear the songs breathe, and we finally got our wish in 2013, in two forms. First, was a digital-only release of the original mix cleaned up; this, to me, while still have some flaws and problems with loudness, is the definitive version of this record. Later that year, there came
Vapor Trails Remixed, which is a completely new mix of the record. While it sounds the best of all the versions, this new mix not only robbed many of the songs of their raw power, they did too many tweaks to bits there and bits there. Plus, not only did they somehow make Neil's drum sound at times like they were recorded with the cheapest recording material possible, but many embellishments were done to Geddy's vocals that sound completely unnatural and just plain weird. In short, the remix is a major trainwreck on multiple levels. The digital only-release from earlier in 2013 is far better.
Overall though, no matter which version you prefer the best, while it was awesome that Rush was back, this album definitely goes down as one of their least best ever. It's not a bad album, but it's majorly flawed, and while there is plenty of raw aggression on it, it just wasn't channeled well enough to result in a great album. It has its moments, and it really was an album they
had to make, given that long hiatus they had just come back from, but it just doesn't hold up well as a whole.
Topic: The History of Rush v. Discography Thread: Epilogue (Read 85458 times)
