Search - Tribute to Rush :: Chamber Made-Baroque Tribute to Rush

Absolute cash-in garbage

Marshall Stack | LA, CA, USA | 03/01/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I will make this as plain as possible: this CD has no redeeming value of any kind. It is simply an assembly-line "fake" tribute album with an acoustic guitarist, keyboard player, violinist and drummer (?) playing the intro to a Rush tune, then going off on uninspired counterpoint explorations for a bit before returning to the song at the end. On EVERY SINGLE SONG.



The shifts in style are frustrating and agonizing. I barely made it all the way through the disc before I put it in the "recycle at the used CD store" pile.



Now, if Apolalyptica wanted to do a Rush tribute on four cellos, I'd pay big money for that.



Special hatred goes out to engineer and drummer Eric Helmuth, who plays annoyingly in every tune on what sounds like an old high school marching band snare drum and a cereal box full of toilet paper for a bass drum. Dude, you're the freakin' engineer! Couldn't you at least make your own drumming sound halfway decent?



Bottom line: what could have been a potentially interesting concept to a select few fans is fumbled on first down on this irritating "tribute" that was cynically calculated to seperate gullible Rush fans from their cash. Don't fall for it."

Good to toss on when the old folks visit

Mark Daniels | Anywhere, USA | 12/26/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This "baroque" tribute to Rush is in some ways better and in some ways worse than the other classical-themed Rush tribute, "Exit Stage Right: A String Quartet Tribute to Rush." It's better in that it features more instrumentation than just strings, but it's arguably worse because the adaptations of Rush songs aren't quite as faithful as on "ESR."



I don't know how truly "baroque" these renditions are, but they sound nice while going by. Each song adaptation borrows the melody of the original, but often ventures off into other melodies and themes. And while I'm no classical music expert, I did notice that both "Limelight" and "Madrigal" steal liberally from J.S. Bach's "Two and Three-Part Inventions." The CD closes with "Flickering," an original compostion written for this project... although what the song has in common with either baroque music or Rush music can only be imagined.



As I've often said of "ESR" to my fellow Rush fans, this is a good CD to play when your parents or grandparents or in-laws are visiting. You get your Rush fix and the older folks don't get blown away by the hard-rocking originals. And let's face it - Rush's "Moving Pictures" isn't exactly the perfect soundtrack for a quiet dinner party with friends. Toss on this CD and/or the "ESR" CD for those times when you wanna hear Rush, but the situation calls for quieter music.

"

Don't bother

S. J. Gullotti | Richmond, VA | 03/09/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is just terrible. The drums sound like a kids starter set.

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