June 29, 2004 - Feedback

It's a triple release day! Two years since their last album "Vapor Trails" Rush released an EP titled "Feedback" on June 29, 2004. This is Rush's first EP and it's entirely covers of songs that inspired Rush from the 1960s. Let's listen to some Rush covers!

The EP kicks off with "Summertime Blues", a Blue Cheer cover, and after a short intro they settle into a nice rock-and-roll main riff with Alex Lifeson leading the way with the catchy guitar and Neil Peart playing some pretty solid drums in the background. Geddy Lee still sounds solid singing the catchy verse overtop and he also gets a little chance to show off in the second round with some sweet bass! Lifeson delivers a decent little guitar solo and they end things as they began with the slower riff that they break down nicely into a classic rock and roll flourish ending. Pretty good way to kick things off I'd say! Up next is the first of two Yardbirds covers called "Heart Full Of Soul" and we hear both electric and acoustic guitars with a simple and repetitive electric riff keeping the pace with some decent acoustic stuff in the background. The electric falls away for the light verse, then returns for the chorus. This song is not bad by any means, but it's a little bland and not my favourite for sure. Track 3 is the first of two Buffalo Springfield covers, this one of the pretty famous song "For What It's Worth". They do a great job with the light yet epic opening and Geddy's voice sounds smooth and solid. When the loud stop-and-start guitar comes in for the chorus things sound even more epic and they are doing a pretty great job of trying to stay true to the original. Lifeson's guitar solo midway through sounds particularly sweet and this is a pretty sweet song overall! The next track is another pretty famous one, a cover of "The Seeker" by The Who, and this seems right up Rush's alley with an upbeat and solid main riff led by some catchy guitar. Geddy leads a catchy and very smooth verse and he hits that "high" note pretty nicely in the chorus! The solo is notning too flashy but it fits the mood very nicely and that pretty much sums up this whole song as well: nothing eye-popping, but smooth and solid the whole way through. Track 5 is "Mr. Soul", the other Buffalo Springfield cover, and it starts off with a cool psychedelic vibe before they settle into a groovy main riff that sounds easily like it could have been a Rush song! It's got a nice swinging main riff that is pretty catchy and Geddy sings a smooth verse to match. Eventually Lifeson spices things up with some pretty epic guitar, Geddy is playing some cool bass behind him, and Neil's drums are of course pretty sweet as well, it's got all the makings of a good Rush song! Nice cover! Up next is "Seven And Seven Is", a cover of a band called Love, and it's got a fast pace and almost an old Western vibe to it with some fast guitars by Lifeson leading the way and some fast marching drums by Peart. It's an interesting style for sure and after a couple rounds Lifeson really turns up the heat with a pretty epic and awesome solo! The drums are fantastic the whole way as well and this is definitely atypical for Rush but they do a great job! Track 7 is the other Yardbirds cover "Shapes Of Things" and it's got a catchy stop-and-start main riff and Geddy sings a nice and pretty catchy verse as well. It's easy to tap your toe along to this one and once again no matter the style of the cover Rush make things sound pretty cool! Lifeson's solo is pretty awesome once again and there's all kinds of cool stuff right up to the end. The final song on the EP is "Crossroads", a cover of Cream, and it's got a pretty cool main riff that has Alex and Geddy both playing some pretty sweet stuff while Neil keeps pace with a nice drumbeat (of course). Geddy's singing is pretty good as well, but the guitar and bass are the highlights with all kinds of great stuff throughout the song. Even while Lifeson is shredding it with his best solo of the EP, you can't ignore the awesome bass being played behind him as well! Easily my favourite song on the EP, what a way to finish things off!

That is the end of "Feedback" and I thought it was a pretty solid little EP of covers by Rush! I won't rank this against the studio albums as it's a mere 27 minutes or so and it's all covers, but it's cool to hear Rush play some of their favourite songs and of course these 3 amazing musicians do a pretty fantastic job. I look forward to more studio Rush!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 28, 2001 - Puddle Of Mudd and Come Clean

On the same day as my last release a new band briefly joins my library when Puddle of Mudd released their debut album "Come Clean" on August 28, 2001. But who is Puddle of Mudd? They are a four-piece post-grunge band from Kansas City, Missouri consisting of lead singer/guitarist Wes Scantlin, guitarist Paul Phillips, bassist Doug Ardito and drummer Greg Upchurch. I'm not a huge Puddle of Mudd fan, I only have two songs by them in my library, but they are both off this album and were both succesful singles. The first one is called "Blurry" and it's got a smooth and catchy light guitar riff that drives the song and Scantlin sings in a solid grunge-y voice overtop. They ramp nicely from the verse to the chorus and it's a nice heavy chorus with some louder guitars and a solid chorus sung by Scantlin. It's a little repetitive, but things still sound pretty smooth and solid and I think it's a good but not great song. The only other song I have is ...
Read more

October 4, 1994 - Awake

A week after my last release and two years since "Images And Words", Dream Theater released their third album "Awake" on October 4, 1994. Their last album did very well commercially and Dream Theater were under a lot of pressure to produce another hit album. There were tensions during the recording sessions and after all the recording but before the release of the album keyboardist Kevin Moore quit the band. This is a sad development, as Moore is an excellent keyboardist but he wanted to focus on his own music and felt he needed to leave. Let's check out the last album with this line-up then! The album begins with "6:00" and Mike Portnoy opens tbings with a nice drum fill and beat and then Moore comes in with a cool keyboard riff. John Petrucci joins next with some guitar and then when John Myung finally enters on bass they shift to a new heavier riff that sounds pretty good. We then hear a voice repeat "six o' clock on a Christmas morning...
Read more

June 15, 1999 - Supernatural

It's a quadruple release day! On this very popular day and over five and a half years since their last brief appearance in my library, Santana released their eighteenth album "Supernatural" on June 15, 1999 and it's my first full album of theirs since the 70s! Of course Carlos Santana is still the main attraction on guitar but there are a lot of different musicians who help out on this album, with no two songs having the same line-up! The most common ones are bassist Benny Rietveld, percussionists Raul Rekow (who was actually around in the late 70s) and Karl Perazzo and keyboardist Chester Thompson, but even they aren't on every song. There is no official singer on this album either, Carlos does some vocals himself but there's usually a guest doing the vocals on this album. Santana wanted to work with a bunch of the biggest artists at the time so this album has a ton of guest appearances and it was also massively popular, hitting #1 in several different countr...
Read more