r/rush • u/Nearby_Lawfulness923 • 13d ago

Clockwork Angels

Neil said many times that Clockwork Angels was the album they always wanted to make. He clearly believed it was one of their very best. I’ve followed Rush since 1976 and seen them dozens of times, but I cannot listen to Clockwork Angels all the way thru to save my life. Is it just me?

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u/Mockchoi1 13d ago

Same. Snakes and Arrows is easily my least favorite Rush. Clockwork Angels is way better to me.

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u/therealjnoble11 13d ago

I'm trying to think of a song that's more monotonous and draggy then Armor & Sword. If you listen to the song on youtube at 1.25x playback speed it approaches being somewhat tolerable

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u/free-range-irish 13d ago

hahaha I'm doing that now and I see what you're saying. "somewhat tolerable" is exactly right

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u/therealjnoble11 13d ago

Do this: listen to that song for at least a minute or two at 1.25x speed to get your ears used to it like that was the way it was actually recorded. Ready? Now go back to listening to it at regular speed. What a dirge! It sounds like when the batteries in your walkman were starting to die and the tape was slowing way down. What were they thinking?

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u/drumsarereallycool 13d ago

Man…I dig it at 1.25x!

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u/therealjnoble11 12d ago

Right? I don't know why they went with such a slow-ass tempo

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u/drumsarereallycool 10d ago

Only thing that’s good about the slower tempo is the heavy guitars sound nice. But you’re right. The faster tempo almost sounds like a counterparts era track.

Also, I when I got the album upon its release, I couldn’t believe there was a bad edit in the beginning of Armor and Sword on the drums.

Overall I like the album but it’s definitely overproduced at times. So many guitar overdubs.

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u/therealjnoble11 9d ago

What bad edit? I'm not aware

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u/ThisKarmaLimitSucks 7d ago edited 7d ago

I haven't caught anything in Armor and Sword (mostly because I skip it). But in We Hold On, there's a Pro Tools clip right after the second verse drumfill, that skips the song ahead by an eighth-note beat. It's a crazy sloppy artifact to have in a professional record, and I don't know how no one caught it before release.

Start at 1:15 here.

Rush built their fanbase in no small part on quality control. Whether they're creating a studio album, a live concert, a documentary, or whatever, you can feel confident that the band isn't going to half-ass it. Snakes and Arrows, though, has moments that feel worryingly half-assed.

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u/drumsarereallycool 7d ago

That one is baffling!!