Rush - Clockwork Angels Vinyl LP

"Certainly at this point, after being together for almost thirty-eight years (and being around a decade or two before that), Alex, Geddy, and I have reached our œmature years. However, we have arrived there hot and sweaty, sliding into third, as a working, touring band. Like our well-tempered friendship, our dedication and inspiration remain strong, combined with hard-won experience and knowledge”acquired over twenty studio albums, and perhaps most of all by playing thousands of live shows. In December, 2009, the three of us met to talk about the coming year. While eating and drinking and laughing a lot, as we do so well, we discussed all the possible projects we could launch in 2010. We could start working on a new album, or we could launch a major tour. Fools that we are, we ended up doing both.

Perhaps the wine can be blamed for that”and for our increasingly ambitious talk of creating some new music that was œa little more extended. In turn, the wine seemed to embolden me (In Vino Veritas) to tell the guys about my idea for a fictional world, a possible setting for a suite of songs that told a story. (The first song, œCaravan, contains a key line: œIn a world where I feel so small, I can™t stop thinking big.) My friend Kevin J. Anderson was among the pioneers of a genre of science fiction that came to be called œsteampunk”a more romantic, idealistic reaction against the œcyberpunk futurists, with their scenarios of dehumanized, alienated, dystopian societies. Our own previous excursions into the future, 2112 and œRed Barchetta, had been set in that darker kind of imagining, for dramatic and allegorical effect. This time I was thinking of steampunk' definition as œThe future as it ought to have been, or œThe future as seen from the past”as imagined by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells in the late nineteenth century.

The guys seemed receptive to the idea, and I started working on a story and some lyrics set in œa world lit only by fire (title of a history of medieval times by William Manchester). Influences were inevitable, but still unexpected to me”a lifetime of reading photo by Andrew MacNaughtan distilled into a dozen scenes, and a few hundred words. The plot
draws from Voltaire' Candide, with nods to John Barth' The Sot-Weed Factor, Michael Ondaatje and Joseph Conrad for œThe Anarchist, Robertson Davies and Herbert Gold for œCarnies, Daphne du Maurier for œThe Wreckers, Cormac McCarthy and early Spanish explorers in the American Southwest for œSeven Cities of Gold. - Neil Peart, on his thoughts about Clockwork Angels.

With more than 40 million records sold worldwide and countless sold-out tours, Rush - Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart - is not only one of the most inventive and compelling groups in rock history, but remains one of the most popular. The RIAA has certified Rush for the third most consecutive gold/platinum studio albums by a rock band, topped only by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Rush's vast catalog includes such classics as 1974's self-titled debut, 1976's 2112, 1981's Moving Pictures, 1996's Test For Echo, and 2002's Vapor Trails. Rush released their 20th studio album, Clockwork Angels, in 2012 via Anthem/Roadrunner Records. The highly anticipated collection marks their first studio recording since 2007's Snakes & Arrows, and debuted at #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard 200, matching the highest chart debut of the band's career. In addition to their commercial success, Rush has also been recognized with a number of Juno Awards and multiple Grammy nominations, including one for 2010's acclaimed documentary Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage. Enjoying a recent pop culture renaissance, Rush made a rare television appearance - their first in over 30 years - on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report and a memorable cameo in the film I Love You, Man. Most recently, Rush has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This year, Canada's national newspaper The Globe & Mail called Rush "one of the few bands anywhere that just keeps getting better." A career-chronicling Rolling Stone feature summed up the renowned rock trio's continuing artistic vitality by observing, "It's true that Rush doesn't mean today what it did in '76 or even '96. It may mean more.