Counterparts | 
 enlarge | Artist: Rush
Label: Warner Spec. Mkt. UK
Category: Music
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $11.84
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Rating:  147 reviews
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 075378373827
EAN: 0075378373827
ASIN: B000WS4PNI
Release Date: January 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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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:
Return of the Crunch November 26, 2008
R. Miller (Arlington, VA)
After spending the last several years laboring as a better-than-average -- and highly professional -- pop group, Rush returned to its hard-rock roots on COUNTERPARTS. Also, despite the presence of a couple of clunkers, they managed to come up with a fairly strong set of songs. The result was the band's best effort to date since GRACE UNDER PRESSURE.
The album opens with a really astounding 1-2-3 punch. On "Animate" the group manages to deconstruct a riff that sounds like it is straight off of a Pearl Jam record and to turn it into a bit of frothy hard prog-rock. "Stick it Out" is probably Rush's heartiest slab of metal since 2112 and is a heck of a lot of fun. "Cut to the Chase" is another strong up-tempo rocker which manages to sustain the momentum generated by the first two tracks.
After that, the record settles down a little. The best of the remaining tracks are "Between Sun and Moon," "Cold Fire," and "Leave That Thing Alone." "Nobody's Hero," despite having one of the more ham-fisted verses ever written (the first), is still a good power ballad, complete with a fittingly over-the-top orchestration from Michael Kaman.
The only real dog here is "The Speed of Love" which should have been titled "The Speed of a Slug." "Double Agent" certainly has problems as well, but at least it has certain parts that I like a lot. I am torn over the spoken bits, because I love the guitar parts in those sections, but they still come across as a little dumb.
Over-all, COUNTERPARTS represented a fine return to form by Rush and hinted at what was to come on their next three superlative albums. I am not sure if it is an essential Rush record, but it is still pretty darned good.
 Organic Rock September 29, 2008
James Elder (Hot Springs, AR USA)
Fantastic work. Classic organic rock. Melody, hooks and tons of drive. A worthy effort gentlemen.
it "Polarized Me" July 29, 2008
Jeff Weselinski (New Jersey)
When I purchased this album the first day of its release, I could tell they were moving in a different direction; boy was I ever right!! Counter parts is deffinitly their best album of the 90's. From the opening track Counterparts, this album takes on a journey back when they had that guitar sound of the 70's. Alex lifeson with some great guitar work on Cut to the Chase, Stick it Out,and the best song Cold Fire to Neal's great writing with songs like Nobody's Hero, which is a tear jerker to Animate, and Cold fire are some of the best lyrics I have ever seen and heard in a song, along with his drum playing and of course and Geddy Lee's bass with hardly any keyboards, is a breath of fresh air. His singing is also0 great on this record. This is a must for Rush fans of all generations. It is a sleeper and under appreciated.
Very good, but not great May 31, 2008
K. Parsons (Idyllwild, CA USA)
Counterparts is one of those CDs that could have been made a few songs shorter and would be a lot tighter for it. I find some of my favorite Rush tunes here, such as Stick It Out, Alien Shore, Animate, Double Agent and Cold Fire, but also my all-time least favorite Rush song, the lethargic Speed of Love. If that is really the "speed of love" it's a wonder we aren't dying out as a species from lack of reproduction. It's actually ironic - the lyric "nothing changes faster than the speed of love" is buried in a sluggardly, decidedly not fast song that sounds more like your grandfather's snoring through the wall from the next room.
OK, now that I got that off my chest, I'm also non-plussed by Everyday Glory. As for the instrumental Leave That Thing Alone, well... that flat-out jams. Great groove, listen to the Rush in Rio cd to hear this song really blown open live. All in all Counterparts is a solid, strong offering, and it was especially refreshing in 1993. I like most of Rush's 80s stuff, and Roll the Bones is very good... but hearing Rush crank it up a bit more sounded great then, and still does now. However, as hard as Counterparts sounds in places (Stick it Out), it is far less in your face than Vapor Trails.
As for the lyrics (always a classic feature of any Rush album), I love them. Neil surprised me back then with this nearly full album's worth of relational and interpersonal lyrics. Such lyricism made rare appearances before Counterparts, such as in Emotion Detector, Ghost of a Chance and Entre Nous. Neil may not be a psychologist, but he is quite pointed with these lyrics, especially on Alien Shore and Cold Fire. The more familiar oblique, brainiac lyrics are here, as on Double Agent and what I think is the best track in the bunch, Stick It Out. Overall a very enjoyable CD, with that one clunker there in the middle... which should have been titled "The Sleep of Love" or something like that.
 Back to the basics April 27, 2008
G B (Connecticut)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Presto and Roll the Bones pared down the wall of synthesizers that Rush was known for in the 80s, but it wasn't until this album that the band finally reverted into the heavy power-trio style. Though the songwriting is in the same straightforward, accessible style of the previous two albums, Alex Lifeson supplies more loud, distortion-laden riffs than he had in years. The music itself is erratic -- it starts out great ("Animate", "Cut to the Chase", "Nobody's Hero"), descends to an unremarkable mush in the middle and then finishes strong on the last four songs. Fans of the band's early, metal days may really enjoy this back-to-the-basics Rush.
[This review is based on the 1993 original release, not the 2004 remaster. I have no issues with the original's sound quality.]
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