I put on Clockwork Angels yesterday for the first time in a while. Listened to the whole album, loud. Wow! It's a given that the later the album, the less time I've had to absorb it, and some of the later ones never really got into regular rotation, not like back in the 70's or even the 80's. So this was not totally unlike checking it out again for the first time. Has it been nearly 10 years? Damn!
It is of course packed with solid musicianship, solid writing, and all the amazing stuff that makes Rush one of the best bands of all time. In fact, "packed" and "solid" have multiple meanings here. The music overall feels very dense. Alex's guitar sounds are very compressed, covering a lot of sonic range. Neil's percussion as usual fills its space, and Geddy's bass and keyboards provide a solid foundation.
Another word that comes to mind is "mature". Rush continued to evolve musically for their entire run, so logically this final album is their "final form". So much music, so well produced, so refined. I keep things on Shuffle in my car, and today the live version of "What You're Doing" came up, and I briefly considered how much their sound evolved over the years, yet still kept something at its core that could always be identified as Rush. What an amazing band! ♫♫