| Test For Echo, released on September 10, 1996, is (as of this writing) the most
recent studio release from Rush. Test for Echo seems to capture a certain
playfulness that was less present in the previous two releases, Roll the Bones
and Counterparts. There are serious songs, like the title track apparently about
media coverage of crime in the United States, and Half The World; there are also
silly-seeming tracks, like Dog Years and Limbo (a picture in the book shows a German Shepherd
wearing a tag that says Rush Limbo; I recall Geddy Lee saying in an interview
that he thought Primus was the closest to Rush in terms of being some sort of heir.
For some reason, while I like listening to this album, I will rarely pull it out. I feel it lacks
a certain cohesiveness; most jarring to me is the transition from Virtuality to Resist, as the
former is a driven song and the latter is slower. In fact, just about all of the other tracks on this
disc are fairly driven; Resist, while a lovely song about the Scottish nature, is out of place.
Tracklist:
- Test For Echo (5:56)
- Driven (4:27)
- Half The World (3:43)
- The Color Of Right (4:49)
- Time And Motion (5:01)
- Totem (4:58)
- Dog Years (4:55)
- Virtuality (5:44)
- Resist (4:24)
- Limbo (instrumental) (5:29)
- Carve Away The Stone (4:05)
| 
