Rush-Test For Echo (1996)


 

Artist: Rush

Title: Test For Echo

Label: Atlantic/Anthem

Format: CD

Cat: 82925 2

Year of Release: 1996

Country and Year of Edition: US 1996

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 8/23/22

Sell Price: $2.99

Discogs Last Sold: 8/23/22 VG+/VG+ $6.50

Low: $1.00

Median: $4.25

Average: $5.00

High: $12.99

Current low price:$2.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 46

Have/Want: 1563/73

Where Sold:  Mill Creek, WV

Time it took to sell: 8 years

Where and When Bought: web mid aughts

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

"Test For Echo definite B+, Never liked Roll The Boner...Counterparts was an A-,. You SAVAGED it (frowny emoticon)"-Pinch Point Editor 8/25/22 texting upon leaving a gig at his local bar.  He was the one who implored me to get a 75 cent web copy of this album in the early to mid aughts (not "Roll The Boner" which I bought around the same time for roughly the same price).

I was going to upgrade this to a B+ as well, but the "Monster Mash" samples in an otherwise good instrumental "Limbo" gave me pause.  While for me this is probably their best album since, gawd, Signals?, it still doesn't seem like top flight Rush to me.

That said, there are a bunch of solid songs throughout the record even with the opening title track protesting against reality crime TV and it's characters.  Do we need Geddy to rail against conforming to the uniforms of some corporate entity?  He doth protest too much, being part of his own.  

But once I got over that, I started to like the song and almost everything else on this. Geddy was going to try to have his say a bit more explicitly here. Since social commentary comes soon with "Half The World" on track three, that part of the record made more sense coming back to it.  Test For Echo sounded more like a 90's record in the Rush tradition than Counterpoints which sounded a tad too influenced by it's era.  The difference is subtle, but I hear it even if no one else does, or likes that one better than this.

The songs I like best are in the middle of the record:  "The Color Of Right," and "Dog Years" for vocal melody, "Time and Motion" for trad-Rush guitar,   Also enjoyable is the nod to Aerosmith "Carve Away The Stone" even if it is unintended.

Aw heck, I'll give it a B+.

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