RUSH — Clockwork Angels (review)

RUSH — Clockwork Angels album cover Album · 2012 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
The clock on the front cover gives the time as 21:12, but this is no 1976-flavoured throwback project; rather, Clockwork Angels captures Rush in the act of playing contemporary-sounding progressive rock which sounds distinctively Rush-like without trying overly hard to recapture any specific previous phase of their career (though it often sounds like a much more rock-oriented take on their synth period - imagine Signals with less synthesisers and more guitar), or for that matter trying to fit in too much with what's currently going on in the genre.

Hitting a sweet spot in which they are able to take into account new musical developments and styles without being constrained by them, and with David Campbell's string arrangements lending some cinematic gravitas to proceedings here and there, this isn't a top-notch Rush classic that will redefine how people see prog, but it is a really solid album that will satisfy most old-time fans, and was perhaps the closest they came to a major shift in their musical approach since Counterparts.

For a while after the release, rumours swirl about whether or not they were going to put out more, but as it stood the death of Neil Peart would put an end to the Rush story; even though he wasn't a founder member of the band (he's not on the debut album, after all), it was his arrival on Fly By Night which saw the band really begin to take off (pun intended), and it's completely understandable that Alex and Geddy would have no stomach to keep the band going without him after some 40 years of working together.

As a result, Clockwork Angels is the band's studio swansong, at least in terms of new recordings. (It would be followed in 2013 with a remixed issue of Vapor Trails, revealing what was actually a pretty tight album once you stripped away the horrible early-2000s loudness war affectations of the original mix.) If this is how it has to be, I can't imagine Rush in the 2010s putting out a significantly better final statement than this one. It might not be a flat-out classic on the level of Moving Pictures, Farewell to Kings, or the first side of 2112, but you can fail to hit that level and still produce damn good music.
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