Do any other true-blue Rush fans find Vapor Trails to be uninspiring and unpleasant to listen to?

Question

It seems that the songs almost run together in not having any unique qualities unlike most other Rush releases.

Answer 1

YES!  But it's not like their young chickens anymore!

Answer 2

Vapor Trails contains some of RUSH's most elaborate and pleasant musical compositions with amazing mixtures of sound, imagery, lyrics and daring arrangements.

The sound levels were pushed up a bit, only for the sake of RUSH fans who complained so much in the past that they were too low.

Now these SAME fans complain they are too high.

Go figure!

I love Vapor Trails as a real piece of RUSH history. It contains some of my favorite songs of all time.

Answer 3

Vapor Trails is a mess and should have never been sold to the very loyal fans who have sustained Rush's career for over 4 decades. Much of the recordings were from one-off jam sessions and many of the original takes from those sessions were used to construct the songs. Rush made extensive use of computers and music editing software to piece the jam session recordings into songs, probably why they sound so much alike.

From the Vapor Trail tourbook, Neil Peart stated:

"Eventually Geddy began to sift through the vast number of jams they had created, finding a verse here, a chorus there, and piecing them together. Often a pattern had only ever been played once in passing, but through the use of computer tools it could be repeated or reworked into a part. Since all the writing, arranging, and recording was done on computer, a lot of time was spent staring at monitors, but most of the time technology was our friend, and helped us to combine spontaneity and craftwork. Talk was the necessary interface, of course, and once Geddy and Alex had agreed on basic structures, Geddy would go through the lyrics to see what might suit the music and "sing well," then come to me to discuss any improvements, additions, or deletions I could make from my end."

It is the worst sounding album I have ever heard, particularly from a professional band and label who expected people to pay for it. Rush should have released Vapor Trails for free from their site.

Answer 4

Yes, I basically agree.  Also, the production quality of that release did not meet the Rush standard IMO.  However, I think Snakes and Arrows was also quite an improvement over Vapor Trails.