| Counterparts | 
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| Artist: Rush
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $6.25
You Save: $3.73 (37%)
New (44) Used (15) from $4.61
Avg. Customer Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 5273
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 83738
UPC: 075678373824
EAN: 0075678373824
ASIN: B0002NRQTI
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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| Tracks:
| • | Animate | | • | Stick It Out | | • | Cut to the Chase | | • | Nobody's Hero | | • | Between Sun & Moon - Rush, Dubois, Pye | | • | Alien Shore | | • | The Speed of Love | | • | Double Agent | | • | Leave That Thing Alone | | • | Cold Fire | | • | Everday Glory |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The production on Counterparts is a bit too smooth, which means that the passion that normally infuses Rush's music (and prevents it from being too coldly intellectual) is weakened. The songs themselves are good, including the singles "Animate", "Nobody's Hero", and "Stick It Out". Other standouts are "Cut to the Chase" and "Cold Fire". Though Rush's brand of slick, sophisticated progressive rock isn't exactly trendy, it is what they do best, and they've wisely stuck to it. Therefore, although Counterparts isn't on a par with Moving Pictures or Permanent Waves, it's still a strong effort. --Genevieve Williams
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| Customer Reviews: Read 141 more reviews...
 Rush's '90s masterpiece. March 23, 2005
33 out of 35 found this review helpful
I am often in the minority in my view of this, but I feel "Counterparts" is the Rush masterpiece of the '90s, and may well be their best album. I've often heard of it referred to as Rush's stab at alternative, which I really don't agree with either-- certainly, the band was influenced by a return of guitar-based rock music to the forefront of popular consciousness, and no doubt that assisted in this album fully embracing the guitar as main driver behind the music, but this is the direction the band had been heading for the past several albums-- after the synth wash of "Grace Under Pressure" and "Power Windows", "Hold Your Fire", "Presto", and "Roll the Bones" all walked the path of guitar based performance. What may have been more alternative influenced on this record was the focus on rock rhythms rather than the budding focus on funk and even hip hop rhythms that was so present on "Roll the Bones".
As a result of this sonic shift, this album features some of the most inspired playing by guitarist Alex Lifeson in a long time-- Geddy Lee's bass, so often the most interesting component in Rush material on the past few albums, moved into a more traditional rock roll, freeing Lifeson to fill space better (mind you, Geddy Lee still has one of the most distinctive voices on the bass guitar in rock music, and is instantly recognizable). I also find that Lee's singing is superlative, perhaps the best he's done-- his confidence as a vocalist allows him full control over his range and he fills each song with an investment of emotion I don't feel we'd heard from him in the past. Lyrically, the album also continues the evolution of previous records-- Neil Peart's early albums were fantasy/science fiction influenced, often allegorical or parable. As time wore on, he brought his lyrics into a more modern society, into the current view. The past few Rush albums began to show a trend of lyrics with a much more personal bent, this album continues that trend-- themes largely of love and relationship dominate the album, and even the more globally minded songs ("Nobody's Hero") have a personal slant to the lyrics.
To talk a bit about the songs themselves, there really is a wealth of stunning material here. The rolling, jangly opener, "Animate", with its synth soaked bridge, stands out as one of the best cuts on the album, ditto for instrumental "Leave That Thing Alone", which musically manages to portray a haunting, tense feel.
Beyond these two, the album seeks several directions, easily viewed in its thematic content-- the two I mentioned previously fit in with a sort of struggle in relationships theme that's all ofver the album, including the great, driven "Cut to the Chase" (with another stunning Lifeson guitar solo), "Alien Shore", lyrically an explosion of metaphor, musically its funky in a way much of the material on the last album was, and one of the album's singles, "Cold Fire", a bitter love song with clever word play (how can you not love a love song with the line "she said, 'this is not a love song'") and a sufficiently affected vocal delivery by Lee.
There's also definitely an undercurrent of sort Whitmanesque uplifting of the everyday people, the single "Nobody's Hero", reflecting on how the death of a loved one means everything to some but nothing to most, and the fairly obvious message of "Everyday Glory", the latter a powerful, swelling song, again with a great vocal by Lee.
Finally, there's a handful of experimental songs-- Rush seeking new directions continuously stabs out in a number of ways-- "Stick It Out", with its overt guitar (and great bass playing in its bridge) doesn't quite succeed as well as you'd hope, nor does the straightahead "Speed of Love". The funkier songs on the record though, the unique "Between Sun & Moon" (with great lyrical word play and a monster riffing) churns and chugs and spins and explodes in its chorus, one of the great, overlooked Rush songs, and one of Peart's cleverist moments as a lyricists, and the bizarre, funky, bass-driven "Double Agent", with its strange spoken word vocal, as the peak of '90s Rush experimentalism, it does far better than expected.
Overall, this is a great album, with a lot of varied, intriguing, and successful material. Experimentation abounds, and Rush does well with it. Highly recommended.
Rush's best since Power Windows June 20, 2005
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Counterparts is one of Rush's best albums, almost up there with the stuff from their classic period. It's just an extremely well-written, well-recorded and awesomely-performed record from start to finish. The opening duo of Animate and Stick It Out are fantastic and two of Rush's finest moments. Just amazing songs, Animate being a relentless and wrenching song with great lyrics and Stick It Out just kicking you in the gut it's so heavy. Other great cuts on here are the touching Nobody's Hero, the gritty Between Sun and Moon, and one of Rush's coolest instrumentals, Leave That Thing Alone. I also really like Double Agent and Cold Fire. All in all, a great album and the best Rush album of the 1990's era.
Light at the end of the tunnel May 24, 2007
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
It took me a long time to admit to myself that I liked Rush. Coming from a hardcore punk/speedmetal/psychotic underground musical background, Rush always struck me as a group of sensitive ponytail milquetoasts, playing lightweight rock for geeky music nerds. Over the course of several years, I finally realized that I did in fact like songs such as Fly By Night, Spirit of Radio, Freewill, Tom Sawyer, Limelight, etc. The coup de grace hit me when I heard one of my favorite bands (i.e. Thrones) perform a song called The Oracle and I complimented them that it was one of their best songs. "Oh, uh... that's actually a Rush song, it's from 2112." My jaw hit the floor and that was when I started buying Rush albums. I started with the debut and went chronologically. Everything was great until I reached their 1982 album Signals. This was when the keyboards and synthesizers took over and the guitars were shoved to the back burner. I lost interest instantly and stopped buying the albums.
That was several years ago. Very recently, something made me want to hear more Rush. I bought Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, and Roll the Bones. As soon as I started listening to Grace Under Pressure, I knew that I had been right to stop buying albums after Signals. Such ineffectual, weaksauce synth drivel. Then I moved on to Power Windows, and I was absolutely certain that the album was in fact a dimensional doorway that led straight to the Ninth Plane of Hell. I contemplated suicide at least 12 times before the album was over. It sounded like the soundtrack to the most generic mid-80s inspirational teen movie you can imagine. I could close my eyes and see some spotty faced kid training hard to learn martial arts, pushing himself too hard, failing, and then getting up and trying harder... sweet Lord, it was unbearable. Hold Your Fire was a mild improvement, or at least slightly less painful. Still quite horrid and much too 'lite rock' for my tastes. Roll the Bones was another slight improvement. It was nice to hear more guitars and almost no keys.
And then finally this morning I came to Counterparts. Not quite a return to form per se, but definitely the sound of a band who had finally remembered after many long years how good it feels to simply ROCK. This is the best thing they'd done since Moving Pictures, hands down. This makes all the pain and suffering I endured listening to mid-80s Rush all worth it, because it puts this album into context.
For the record, I just finished listening to Test For Echo, which is good but not as good as Counterparts. Right now I'm taking in my first listen of Vapor Trails... which I can already tell is their hardest and heaviest album ever. Tomorrow I believe I shall pick up a copy of Snakes & Arrows.
 Rush at its worst December 30, 2002
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am a long-time (since 1979) die-hard (every tour since 'Moving Pictures') Rush fan. Unfortunately, I believe that Counterparts is the worst Rush album ever released. Every once in a while I pull it off the rack and give it a spin...still no good. I give it 2 stars only because Rush at its worst is better than many bands at their best -- Rush could release an album of Britney Spears covers and still rate more than 1 star. Plus I'd feel guilty giving my heroes only 1 star. Bad Karma.Anyway, overall the songs here are non-discript drivel backed by quasi-alternative noise. For example, the lyrics to "Animate" are unintentionally comical ("animate me, complicate me, elevate me"...oy vey), and the guitars sound like they were lifted from Nirvana or Soundgarden or one of those early '90s gritty alternative bands. As for the oft-discussed "Nobody's Hero"...nice try, but it comes across as disingenuous -- Neil Peart trying to tell us all that he's enlightened and politically correct. I love the ideas behind the song, I embrace its politics, etc. etc., but I just don't (and never will) buy this sort of sentimentality coming from Mr. Ayn Rand. Just to be clear here: it's not that Rush can't or shouldn't write about tolerance or, in this case, acceptance of homosexuality. It's that Rush should do it the way they do it best -- from a somewhat detached and objective (i.e., objectivist) POV, not from a personal and experiential one. I never ever want to hear another Rush song where anyone is singing about a party they went to (especially with a contrived rhyme) -- "I knew he was different in his sexuality / I went to his parties as a straight minority" -- I cringe every time I hear this. As for the argument that Rush was just 'expanding their horizons' -- I think that's nonsense. Sure, Rush can change, but its 'voice' is its hallmark, and that should remain constant. On Counterparts, Rush sounds more like a follower who is trying hard to please everyone, rather than the musical leaders they are. To sum up: Counterparts is not even remotely memorable, and is barely listenable. Buy anything and everything else from Rush, and you will be pleased. The old stuff is perfect, and their last two (Test For Echo and Vapor Trails) are both excellent, worthy of membership in the Rush canon. As bad as Counterparts is, Rush's most recent releases prove that Counterparts was only a brief lull, and not the demise of this truly fantastic band.
A Newer Rush Masterpiece December 15, 2004
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
When I started listening to Rush two years ago (only 18, cut me some slack on that one), I started with their early stuff, 2112 (still my favorite), A Farewell to Kings, Fly By Night, etc. Then I progressed (pun intended) to their "middle" era, of Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. I finally picked up Counterparts when the remaster was released, and was surprised to hear such a solid album. I enjoy Signals, but Presto didn't impress me all that much, and neither had Test for Echo. Counterparts, however, is a gem. Nobody's Hero, Between Sun & Moon, Alien Shores, and Double Agent are the standouts for me, but it is truely a sold album. I highly recommend it.
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