Feedback [EP] [Digipak] - Rush (CD 2004)

When I first heard that Rush were coming out with an EP of nothing but covers and saw what songs they were covering, my first reaction was "Well, this will either be their biggest hit or be their biggest flop ever!". Geddy Lee singing songs by Buffalo Springfield and The Yardbirds? This didn't exactly sound like my idea of a good time! Still, being a HUGE RUSH FAN( I have been since 1977), I was curious as to how it would sound and was willing to give it a chance. Well, after buying this on Tuesday morning( I was the first person to buy this at the CD store I shop at on the Ithaca Commons)and giving it a very good listen, I must admit that this sounds better than I imagined it would. I get the feeling that Rush really don't care how well this album sells. In the liner notes, Neil Peart says that they did it just for fun and as a way to celebrate their 30th Anniversary and pay tribute to some of their earliest musical influences.

The songs are:

1. Summertime Blues
2. Heart Full Of Soul
3. For What It's Worth
4. The Seeker
5. Mr. Soul
6. Seven and Seven Is
7. Shapes Of Things
8. Crossroads

So far, I haven't felt this good about a Rush album ( or EP) since Test For Echo. The production on this is very similar to the production for Vapor Trails...this should be no surprise, since David Leonard, who mixed Vapor Trails, mixed this EP as well, along with engineering it and producing it with Rush.There are certain parts of songs that sound like songs from Vapor Trails...the beginning of Mr. Soul sounds a bit like Secret Touch, the guitar riff for The Seeker sounds like the riff for Peacable Kingdom and some of the vocals for Heart Full Of Soul sound like How It Is. This is not a complaint, just an observation( I love to say that!).

There are certain songs, like Shapes Of Things and For What It's Worth, that just don't work, mainly due to Geddy's singing. There are much better versions of these two songs and Crossroads elsewhere. I first heard For What It's Worth on "The Muppet Show" and that version will always be my favorite! But Geddy gets in his best vocal performance on the EP for Heart Full Of Soul, especially on the refrain, where he hits some very high notes, but not in his usual way. I'm surprised at how good Rush do this song. Also quite good is The Seeker, which sounds like something from the first three Rush albums. I'm not overly familiar with the original version by The Who, but the version here really rocks and once again, Geddy does a good job singing . Of the eight songs on this EP, this is the one that I've listened to the most. I like the very AC/DC like ending!!

Seven And Seven Is, a tune that The Ramones covered on their Acid Eaters album, is interesting. I don't care for the vocals on this one, but the music is great. I love how Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart jam out on the really fast parts....musically, it's the most exciting thing on the album. Summertime Blues, which starts off with some guitar feedback( hence the title of the album, maybe?) is another good song...both Geddy and Neil get to show off a bit during the verses.

Like Vapor Trails, this is very much a guitar oriented album and once again there are no keyboards, although Alex Lifeson plays much more solos this time. Geddy Lee doesn't sing as much as he did on the last three Rush albums, which is definitely a good thing. I wish the album was a bit longer( it only clocks in at 27 minutes, and no song runs longer than four minutes) and that it had a few more songs on it. I had the opposite problem with V.T...I thought that album was far too long and had way too many songs. The packaging isn't that great...the CD isn't packed in a jewel case but in a slipcase, making it easy for the CD to fall out....its already fallen out three times in the two days I've had it! And....I guess I would have preferred an album of all new material.

BUT....

Rush haven't rocked out like this in years and you can definitely tell they had a fun time recording this. This could have been so bad in so many different ways...instead it's the best thing they've done in years. Who would have thought?