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| | Test for Echo | | | Music Artist : | | Rush | | Music Style : | | Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | | Record Label : | | Atlantic / Wea | | Release Date : | | 2004-08-31 | | Store Price : | | $9.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $9.98 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Test for Echo
2. Driven
3. Half the World
4. Color of Right
5. Time and Motion
6. Totem
7. Dog Years
8. Virtuality
9. Resist
10. Limbo
11. Carve Away the Stone
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Unspeakably bad, but what do you expect?
Submitted on: 2009-10-22 |
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| I'm not gonna waste a whole lot of my time pointing out all the reasons why this album is (IMHO) a festering pile of cow dung. What I will say is, shame on Rush for thinking this material was worthy album material. All the songs sound like B-sides to me, some being stronger than others of course, but B-sides all the same. It's funny that after being a Rush fan for 15 yrs give or take, I have just now realized that the group really hasn't put out a good album since Power Windows (and even that's pushing it). |
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 Test For Echo By Rush
Submitted on: 2009-10-14 |
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| I am a huge Rush fan, so I love all their cds, but this is a definite favorite. |
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 No echo here..!
Submitted on: 2009-03-26 |
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When I got into my "discovering Rush" period back in 2006, I had three good friends who all love the band and the one thing they all told me was how disappointed I was going to be with Test For Echo. And that probably wasn't the kind of thing I needed rumbling through my head before listening to the album for the first time, quite honestly. They didn't get into specifics about why I shouldn't like it; just that it was a major letdown. Now on some levels I could see how it might be, as they all also happened to be big fans of Counterparts which, as it turns out, I loved as well; so the possibility of the next record not living up wasn't unthinkable. I actually had some angst about giving the album a spin, if you can believe that...staring at it in its case and wondering what the hell I was in store for me that they unanimously declared it a dog. The CD had become akin to a can of Spam in my mind, some meat by-product that made you think twice before consuming it...even dubiously eyeing it from across the room. In the end they were both right and wrong. No, it wasn't as lean as Counterparts, but it also wasn't nearly as bad as they made it out to be either.
Never listen to your friends.
Hopping on the negative band wagon first, much to the pleasure of my buddies and because I don't want this to read as a gushing affair, Dog Years is truly awful. It's not too often that lyrics will kill a song for me. Quite honestly, mostly I'm about melody and structure more than the words anyhow...and really only when the words are extra special do I notice them. They certainly tend to enhance a song over kill it for me. After all, I grew up a Kiss fan and have read all the cheeky lyrics of Gene Simmons and survived, but none of that prepared me for the utter cornball that was Dog Years. Musically the song doesn't offer a whole lot with its frantic riffing, and Peart is simply at his lyrical worst (and admittedly most hung over) here. The song strives for humorous and clever and succeeds at daft and droll instead. Melodically it's pretty off putting too, Lee's descending "doooooog yeeeeers" choral drone being a strain on my ears. Truly one of the all-time worst Rush songs and at over 35 years, that's saying a bunch. The www-friendly Virtuality brings more lyrical problems, delivering a chorus that's cringe-inducing and silly. That said, the song has a strong guitar hook which brings the prowess of Living Colour's Vernon Reid immediately to mind, and the choral melody is a keeper too. Carve Away The Stone is a real vanilla snoozer and an awfully benign way to conclude the album, although it's more clinically boring than it is bad. Echo's instrumental offering, Limbo, isn't very compelling either, falling way short of its peppy 1993 counterpart in Leave That Thing Alone.
On the more positive side, the title track is simply wonderful on all levels. I didn't even mind the "nail-biting hood boys" line for the rest that the words convey. Musically the song is a whirlwind of grinding and building energy. Driven is another exceptional number with one of the coolest proggy guitar and bass riffs Alex and Geddy have ever started a song with, along with a chorus that's catchy as hell. By the third track, Half The World, I was convinced my friends were daffy, this tune's wonderful jangling guitars and lyrical rhythm sucking me in immediately. I was fully invested by Alex's tasteful mandola solo; truly a completely charming and overlooked Rush song. Totem, another Rush song often the source of ridicule by some fans, is an upbeat and wonderful tune, lyrically and rhythmically. Resist rounds out the Class-A keepers of the lot.
As for the proverbial second tier of songs, Time And Motion proved to be another nice little proggy and unexpectedly keyboard-driven effort; another sadly forgotten song from this album. The Color Of Right works well too, although not quite as dynamic as Time And Motion.
What Test For Echo lacks where Counterparts excelled was in overall consistency. There are simply more duds on this record than in '93, harkening back to the more filler moments of Presto and Roll The Bones, which is about where I rate it. That said, the best of Echo could easily rival and perhaps surpass much of Rush's work over the previous 11 years. The songs here are a bit more progressive in nature (more interesting time signatures, most notably), retaining the guitar-driven attitude from Counterparts, but with more complex riffing this time around and a bit more varied instrumentation as well. I think that fans often tend to judge Rush albums by their relative failures rather than their moments of brilliance and perhaps no other Rush record has a more diverse grouping of awesome and below average songs, along with Roll The Bones. But when it's great, it's great.
TEST FOR ECHO: 4 stars of 5 (-)
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 Tool's conservative father
Submitted on: 2008-12-14 |
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2 1/2
Not a huge Rush fan by any stretch, so I can't recall why this album was one of my choices to explore their more modern sound. The single title track was decent enough, but the album fails to create much traction with mediocre riffs and preachy lyrics making a persistent average quality even more self-consciously, over-the-hill-rock annoying. Good thing there are enough chops interspersed from preventing complete erosion of the senses. |
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A Keeper
Submitted on: 2008-12-04 |
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This record has gotten a pretty bad rap from some on this page, but I am not sure exactly why? The guitar sound was more monstrous than it had been since MOVING PICTURES, Peart's drumming was just fantastic (it swings!), and the bass playing was just great as always. Toss in an above average set of songs, assured vocals from Geddy Lee, and an instrumental that kicks some serious butt, and you have a really good Rush record. What more could a fan ask for?
Some of the negative reviews on this page refer to the silliness of some of the lyrics, but I have to admit that I don't really listen to Rush for the lyrics. Anyway, so what if "Dog Years" and "Virtuality" have goofy lyrics? The songs themselves are wonderful with huge bone-crunching riffs and catchy choruses. (NOTE: I admit that I prefer the lyrics to "Dog Years" over anything off of AFTK or HEMISPHERES.)
As far as the songs are concerned, they range from really great ("Driven," "Resist," and "Carve Away the Stone") to good ("Half the World," "Dog Years," "Totem"). Rush even dabble in progressive rock from time to time (the title track, "Time and Motion," and "Limbo").
Over-all this was probably the most satisfying record that Rush had released in a long time. I still like GRACE UNDER PRESSURE a little better, but if one wanted to claim that this was, at the time, the best Rush record since MOVING PICTURES, I would find it hard to argue too vehemently. Any Rush newbie should certainly give this one a chance.
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