The album Geddy Lee called the “imperfect” Rush record
Canadian power trio Rush is one of prog’s most confounding success stories. Borrowing Led Zeppelin’s rock bluster and Yes’ complex arrangements, the recruitment of drummer and principal songwriter Neil Peart for 1975’s Fly by Night established the classic line-up just as progressive rock’s musical command was about to nosedive in the upcoming punk wave.
Undeterred, Rush ploughed through the decade to emerge as one of the day’s biggest acts, infusing massive synthesizer attacks across their anthemic concepts and reinventing themselves for the MTV era.
Rush was never a band to go through the motions. An essential part of their appeal to their devoted fanbase was the perennial trust that each album dropped right up until 2012’s Clockwork Angels was a serious effort striving for the best the trio could muster over some perfunctory LP offering existing merely to support a monster world tour. 2002’s Vapor Trails was no different.
Arguably the most emotionally charged record in their entire discography, Rush entered Toronto’s Reaction studio after a five-year hiatus following the devastating loss of Peart’s daughter and wife, having nearly packed in the whole band gig altogether.
Spending a tentative three weeks gleaning a creative common ground before writing material, Vapor Trails was realised as a much more textured and dynamic guitar-focused LP that finally eschewed keyboards for the first time since 1975’s Caress of Steel. Due to the fragile state of the band at the time, it was decided to enlist frequent Rush studio collaborator Paul Northfield for production duties. Yet, the overfamiliarity and an intense 14-month recording session resulted in a lack of fresh and vigilant ears to ensure the album’s sound was its sharpest.
“Everybody went their own way,” bassist Geddy Lee recollected to Rolling Stone in 2013. “I took the record to New York to master it. By the time I had a couple of weeks off to hear it clearly, I realised we had kind of over-cooked the record. The mixes were really loud and brash. The mastering job was harsh and distorted, but by then, it was out of my hands. It was already out”.
He added: “It’s a terrible feeling that, due to lack of objectivity, you let an imperfect piece of work get out there. But the songs are very strong and people really responded to the record and people were welcoming us back. The sonic defects of it got lost in the excitement of the band’s return to functionality. It’s always been a bee in my bonnet. We had various people attempt to remix it and remaster it over the years, and it still didn’t satisfy”.
Nagged by Vapor Trails‘ lack of aural depth and its overly compressed mix, Rush invited frequent King Crimson and Tool producer David Bottrill to remix the entire album off the back of Richard Chycki’s Retrospective III polish of ‘One Little Victory’ and ‘Earthshine’. Released in 2013, Vapor Trails Remixed was met with enthusiasm from fans and sailed to an impressive number 35 on the Billboard 200.
“I’m very pleased with the end result,” Lee concluded. “I think he’s [Bottrill] finally brought some completion and some justice to some of those songs we’d put so much of our heart and soul into.”
