Before I get started, let me say something about music that I said about sports in a post long ago. (I didn't look back for it, because it was so long ago that I had little confidence my search would pay off.) It's the concept that just because you don't do something personally, doesn't mean you should ever let yourself be pushed off of your opinion, or that it's any less valid.
Much like the former athlete's go-to "gotcha" is, "What do you know, you never played at this level," there is a temptation for any current or former musician, or even music journalist, to protest your opinion on what music you like, if it's not what they like.
With the two albums I'm about to review, I feel the greatness is self-evident. But if the above disclaimer feels like I'm doth protesting a bit too much, well then, guilty as charged, because the disdain the mainstream music media has for Rush is certainly no secret.
Away we go...
Rush - Clockwork Angels (2012)
If you've been listening to Sports Limelight over the past few months this will come as no surprise, but Clockwork Angels is already one of my favorite albums of all time. Every song has so much effort, precision, and emotion in it. I would say something like this comes along only once in a generation, but Rush has done this before...and have been around for more than a generation. My current favorite song is The Garden, but I will rarely start this album, or listen to any individual song from it, unless I have 62 straight minutes carved out so I can listen to it in its entirety.
For converting someone who isn't already a fan, try Caravan.
For a review more articulate than mine - try here or here. (I run out of different ways to say, "I like the way this sounds to me.")
Grade: A+. There isn't much of a frame of reference for this because I haven't reviewed albums here before, but I can tell you that the only other A+ I have for the past 5 years, is Foo Fighters' Wasting Light.
The Offspring - Days Go By (2012)
Adam Carolla said this a few weeks ago, and it's so
simple and obvious that I wish he hadn't said it because then I could
say it and seem like I wasn't copying anyone...but truly, it's impossible to mess up an Offspring song. This band has been around for
over 25 years after all, and it's not surprising given their ability to
turn out a bunch of catchy, enjoyable, no-nonsense songs every few
years. Like Rush, the pacing of their album releases has slowed with
age, but whenever it's time for another, I'll be right back at the window, the well, or whatever other
consumption metaphor fits here.
Grade: B+. The song Days Go By is an instant, mass-appeal classic along the lines of Can't Repeat. O.C. Guns had to grow on me, and I sort of have to be in the mood in order to listen to Cruisin' California (Bumpin' In My Trunk), but the rest could play on a loop 24/7 and I wouldn't protest - until it's time to listen to Clockwork Angels again, of course.
