Counterparts (studio album) by Rush

I used to listen to this tape (yes tape) repeatedly in the car, back in the early nineties. I still have the tape which still plays well although not in a car anymore, in fact sadly my car doesn't even have a CD player now. If I could pick this up on vinyl I'd be very happy. The heaviest album I recall from Rush, I remember at the time it took a while to get into. I should give it a listen soon. I preferred Roll the Bones back then and am pleased to have that on vinyl.

Had me from the intro. The drum sound is soooo good. Some of the lyrical themes are a bit cheesy but the music is outstanding. There is a harder edge to some of the tracks, which is really good.

From jeremy9 03/22/2020 15:08

One of their best

From Fischman 10/30/2016 01:56

This is the one and only Rush album I can't listen to all the way through in one sitting. Only four of the 11 cuts really command my attention, and the other seven sound monotonously similar. Still my favorite group, but this album isn't one of the reasons why.

From AAL2014 06/07/2016 04:39

Some amazing moments for Rush here. Animate is one of my favorite Rush songs of the last 25 years. Leave That Thing Alone is an amazing instrumental as well, one that should be revered in the same light as YYZ and La Villa Strangiato.

This is a bit of a comeback album after the uneven Presto and equally inconsistent Roll the Bones. This album is slightly more consistent than those two in terms of songwriting and focus, but I think what sets this above those two albums is the heaviness: Rush were at their heaviest in more than 15 years. This album has an alt rock bite to it! The production is absolutely brilliant; Peter Collins did a lot of good work for Rush between this album, Power Windows, and Hold Your Fire. Rupert Hine's production on the previous two albums didn't really work for the band; he took the "power" out of "power trio" in my opinion. Hine's approach worked for ballads and emotional tunes like "The Pass" and "Ghost of a Chance", but most of the other tracks lacked punch. Thankfully, Collins gives everything more depth here. The drums have that Grungy power to them, and the guitar is a little more distorted yet just as crystalline as it was in the 80s. Geddy's basslines suffer a little bit in the mix, but they come to the forefront on tracks like "Double Agent" and the classic "Leave That Thing Alone".

"Cold Fire" is an unsung gem. "Speed of Love" gets more flak than it deserves.