Test For Echo
	Produced by Peter Collins and Rush
	Released on September 9, 1996
	US CHART POSITION #5 . . . GOLD RECORD (10/23/96)
	Find it at GEMM
ANSD 1073 cover [high resolution scan]

T hat which doesn’t kill us only makes us grow sadder, or so I’ve mused for the past few days as a blue mood threatens to turn indigo. Even Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail couldn’t shake this malaise du coeur, so pity Test For Echo’s poor timing. As opposed to Counterparts, which I genuinely liked, Test For Echo is one of those fussed-over placeholders (to whose company belongs Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows). No great moment emerges and much of the material falls flat, harmlessly bouncing off the buckler of a blue mood I suppose. In time, tracks like “Driven” and “Resist” will get under your skin, perhaps “Time And Motion” or “Totem” as well. But I can’t help thinking that Galactic Cowboys and King’s X have released better works than this, and I don’t hold them to the same high standards of Rush as a rule. Some folks have suggested that Test For Echo is a return to the band’s glory days, which is a load of bullplop. An Alex Lifeson renaissance began in earnest with Presto, and I don’t buy the idea that guitar-driven Rush is tantamount to classic Rush. Instead, on Test For Echo you get a band that sounds like Rush but doesn’t have the same smart things to say. If this were a Rush tribute band, I’d say they had the execution down pat but lacked the warmth and humanity that makes Rush such a special band. So Rush appears to have entered the final stages of a great career, releasing new works every few years drawn from perspiration, inspiration or some combination of the two. In the four-disc span covered by Different Stages, Test For Echo is the least interesting avenue. Blue hearts require a better sacrifice, like Counterparts or Presto.

ANSD 1073 lyric gatefold	ANSD 1073 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. TEST FOR ECHO    (Geddy Lee/Alex Lifeson/Neil Peart/Dubois)
2. DRIVEN
3. HALF THE WORLD
4. THE COLOR OF RIGHT
5. TIME AND MOTION
6. TOTEM
7. DOG YEARS
8. VIRTUALITY
9. RESIST
10. LIMBO
11. CARVE AWAY THE STONE
    
    All songs written by Geddy Lee/Alex Lifeson/Neil Peart unless noted. Arrangements by Rush and Peter Collins.

CREDITS

GEDDY LEE -- bass guitar, vocals, synthesizers
ALEX LIFESON -- electric & acoustic guitars, mandola
NEIL PEART -- drums, cymbals, hammer dulcimer
Cliff Norrell -- engineer
Andy Wallace -- mixing
Hugh Syme -- art direction, design and digital illustration
Dimo Safari, Anthony Frederick, Andrew MacNaughtan, Richard C. Negus, Eugene Fisher -- photography

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