Customer Reviews

Retrospective 3 (1989-2008)

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There are 4 reasons to buy Rush's latest compilation album:

1) You don't have one or several of these albums, don't want to buy the whole album, but want some songs from one or more of them.
2) One Little Victory - remixed
3) Earthshine - remixed
4) Ghost of a Chance - Live

If your reason is 1) above, you won't be disappointed with this album. This is a solid selection of tunes from Rush's Atlantic years. I might have a few quibbles about choices and absences - Test for Echo, over Driven any day of the week - but overall this is a good compilation.

More significant is the inclusion of two songs from what I consider to be Rush's best album from the Atlantic years (and their best since Signals), Vapor Trails. Vapor Trails generated a lot of buzz at its release, not only because it was the first all-guitar Rush album in many years, but also because of its very disappointing sound quality. After its release, internet commentators proceeded to conduct an audio autopsy on the album, lamenting its sonic distortion and frequent "clipping", and declaring it yet another victim of the "loudness wars" that pervaded and continue to pervade the mainstream rock recording industry (see Wikipedia for an excellent article on them). Almost everyone, however, praised the music itself. The two songs included here are some of the strongest on the record, though there are many to choose from, not the least of which are Peaceable Kingdom, Secret Touch, Sweet Miracle, Ghost Rider and Vapor Trail.

For this compilation, Rush enlisted the services of Richard Chycki (engineer on Snakes and Arrows) to remix the aforementioned tracks on Vapor Trails. It's possible that he may have remixed the whole album, though that has not yet been confirmed or denied by the band. Nevertheless, it's clear Chycki has done an awesome job with these two songs at least. The difference between the originals and the remixes is astonishing. Harsh compression and brick-wall limiting likely introduced during the original mix and/or mastering process is now gone. Vocals are clear. Neil's low toms and bass drums resonate in a clean and full manner. Guitars and bass are more defined and audibly clearer. The overall sonic picture has much more "air" around the sound - Earthshine sounds almost like a different song - and may have been retouched slightly in some places even beyond what would go into making simply a non-distorted remix.

If this is how all of Vapor Trails will sound when remixed, Rush and Atlantic should release the new version immediately - it will confirm VT as one of the top 3 albums Rush has ever made. This album will clearly rival their most recent release - Snakes and Arrows - both musically and sonically.

Finally, the live version of "Ghost of a Chance" from the Roll The Bones album is obviously from one of those "on" performances. The vocals, the ad-lib drum and guitar fills, and the energy from what was clearly a great live performance are readily apparent. Drawn from the Roll The Bones tour, the production and recording balance is really good and rivals the recent R30 and Snakes and Arrows live albums.

Don't hesitate - go buy it.

I just downloaded the remixes of One Little Victory and Earthshine and discovered there were actually SONGS there. Yep, I heard Alex's acoustic guitars, Neil's cymbals and bass drum, clean bass guitar parts, Ged's awesome vocals -- all there without being crushed! They're totally different songs!
I've been a Rush geek for about 20 years now and have never been disappointed with a record until Vapor Trails. Not the playing or the lyrics, but the way the album was mixed/mastered/whatever flat out sucked. I thought I bought a bad copy and actually went out and bought another one.
Alex, while you and the boys take a well deserved break, for the love of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, grab Rich Chycki and remix the rest of Vapor Trails. Do it for the fans and the band and do it because the record deserves better.

It's nice to finally see a Rush compilation of their years with Atlantic Records and one that does not include the usual standards. Now are the Atlantic songs as good as the material the band did in their earlier Mercury years? Honestly, no. But that's not to say there aren't some classics including, "Dreamline", "Far Cry", and "Animate." The live version of "Ghost of a Chance" is a good listen, especially the little jam at the end. The big treat here is the remixed versions of "One Little Victory" and "Earthshine". Many of you will agree that Vapor Trails is the worst sounding album Rush has every released and the new versions sound a lot better.

As for the DVD, I never have viewed music videos as the band's strong point. Rush is a band to be enjoyed on the stage, not on MTV. But still, the videos are a nice far collectors.

I got this mainly for the remixes or One Little Victory and Earthshine. As others have pointed out, Rich Chycki is a mixing/engineering genius, and they need to have him remix the entire Vapor Trails album. I liked the songs on VT but the mix was the worst I have ever heard. Way to much compression. Now I can hear all of the instruments and instead of 10 Geddy Vocals mixed together it's more like 3 or 4. The bass lines and drums really jump out as well.

The videos are interesting, as I have never seen some of them. The Colbert interview / performance is great as well. Overall, a nice collection.

Mostly though, just enjoy the remixes, because truly, they sound like new songs!

Definitely a good retrospective of the latter part of Rush's career. There is no such thing as a 'perfect' compilation, but this one has some really nice highlights. First off we have the remixes, namely "One Little Victory" and "Earthshine", which breathe new life into two very good tracks from the "Vapor Trails" album. Also, we have "Ghost of a Chance" live, and a very nice rendition at that. The remainder of the tracks do a very good job of representing where Rush has gone since "Presto" was released.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is a must buy, not just for Rush fans, but anyone curious about Rush and wanting a good retrospective of the recent years of their long career.

Yes it has been stated by most of the reviews here but if anyone in the RUSH camp reads these reviews.. FOR THE LOVE OF THE LIVING LORD GOD IN HEAVEN, PLEASE remix Vapor Trails. What a terriffic release VP was but as everyone knows, it's a wall of muddy noise. One Little V and Earthshine truely do sound like totally different songs. I heard things that were lost in the original mix and master. Hell, I'll pay for it!!!

OK, this is a good compilation. The song selection is great, with a variety not only of songs, but of song styles. It's also nice to get the live version of "Ghost of a Chance".
The DVD is good. I'm not a big fan of the lip-sync MTV stuff, but the live stuff from R30 is fantastic.

But the BIG treat is this: the two Vapor Trails remixes are OUT OF THIS WORLD awesome! The 30-second samples over at the downloads page do not do justice to what you actually get. These things prove that Vapor Trails is one of Rush's very best works of all time. You can her every jangle of acoustic guitar, every growl of bass, and the guitar riffs are clear and driving. If you're a fan of VT, you will absolutely love these remixes.

There's nothing "new" on this collection that you can't get somewhere else. There are two interesting remixes but they, of course, are of previously released tracks. In the end, it's a compilation of the greatest highlights of the past 19 years with a few "Cracker Jack prizes" thrown in for fun.
It's straightforward, just as Neil would have it. The music has been cleaned and tweaked, just as Geddy would have it. And there's some humorous twists and turns, just as Alex would have it.
If it were more expensive then I would have passed, but I figured that I was buying the remixes and the DVD-quality Colbert clip for the price of a regular CD with the other tracks thrown in for free. I added it to my library just to have absolutely everything Rush has released, but if you're only looking for new music and aren't really a die-hard fan or a collector then you can safely skip it.

Good lord, how did this ever make it to release? The video for Half The World has a skip in it that locks up every DVD player I tried it in. Pitiful QC.

The collection itself is great, I can now delete my crappy downloads of the Presto videos. The Pass is one of Rush's finest video moments.

Bring on the Vapor Trails remix! Where is it???

HaHaving just picked up the Retrospective 3 for the remixes of One Little Victory & Earthshine, I concur with what others are saying here...it's almost like listening to different songs! I hear all the instrumentation much more clearly. The bass parts on Earthshine and Geddy's vocal are so much more crisp and clear. All the instrumentation is done justice, including Neil's percussion, and Alex's Guitars
According to Wikipedia, Retrospect 3, ..."Features remixes of the two tracks from Vapor Trails, done to correct mastering problems associated with the album."
These remixes are definitely required listening for true fans who own VT. At the very least download them from Amazon MP3 library!
Looking forward to the 2010 Tour.....Moving Pictures in its entirety....genius Geddy, pure genius.