Pinball Wizard's Journal: NASA Confirms: Vapor Trails Rocks

I managed to get one of the spotlight reviews for Vapor Trails on amazon.com(reposted below). What a great album. I also ran into this page on nasa's web site - look closely, there's at least three references to Rush here.

God I love Rush. They have consistently put out great records for 28 years. Although the past several records have been great, there is something about their former glory that they just seem to fall short of. Although I have immensely enjoyed all of their records, I began to accept that there might never be another 'Tom Sawyer', 'Closer to the Heart' or a number of older tunes written in Rush's glory years.

This new album is really different. Some of the tunes are so emotional and so visceral I can't help comparing them favorably to the great songs of Rush past. Earthshine in particular is a monster of an anthem. Sweet Miracle is as catchy as anything they have ever written. One Little Victory and several others are as heavy as anything they have ever done. Not only that, this album really hangs together as a cohesive whole, and is strong from start to finish.

There several factors that made this album unique. Neil Peart had faced severe tragedy in his life and recovered. They had as long as they needed to finish the album. They completely cut out the keyboards in this album, filling the sonic territories with layers of guitar and vocals.

The result is their best album by a longshot since Moving Pictures. Good job guys.