After flirting (albeit mildly) with alternative rock on Counterparts, Rush returns to classic progressive rock on Test for Echo.
Cutting back many of the AOR production flourishes that hampered most of their late-'80s and early-'90s releases, the band concentrates on the sounds and styles that made albums like Moving Pictures huge successes in the late '70s and early '80s.
Test for Echo is all instrumental gymnastics and convoluted song structures, all of which demonstrate each member's skills.
And the key to the album is the individual performances, since each song isn't particularly memorable as a song, only as a way to showcase the solos.
With Rush, such a tactic isn't necessarily a bad thing, since they have always been better at playing than writing, and they have rarely played better in the past ten years than they have on Test for Echo.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Test for EchoPye Dubois, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 05:55 | 13 MB | 36 MB |
| 2 | DrivenGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 04:27 | 10 MB | 26 MB |
| 3 | Half the WorldGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 03:42 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 4 | The Color of RightGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 04:48 | 11 MB | 30 MB |
| 5 | Time and MotionGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 05:01 | 11 MB | 31 MB |
| 6 | TotemGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 04:58 | 11 MB | 33 MB |
| 7 | Dog YearsGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 04:55 | 11 MB | 31 MB |
| 8 | VirtualityGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 05:43 | 13 MB | 39 MB |
| 9 | ResistGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 26 MB |
| 10 | LimboGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 05:28 | 12 MB | 32 MB |
| 11 | Carve Away the StoneGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart | Rush | Play | 04:05 | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| 53 mins | 122 MB | |||||
| 53 mins | 338 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam Birt | Executive Producer |
| 2 | Pegi Cecconi | Executive Producer |
| 3 | Peter Collins | Arranger, Producer |
| 4 | Pye Dubois | Composer |
| 5 | Eugene Fisher | Photography |
| 6 | Anthony Frederick | Photography |
| 7 | Tom Heron | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
| 8 | Chris Laidlaw | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
| 9 | Geddy Lee | Arranger, Composer, Guitar (Bass), Producer, Synthesizer, Vocals |
| 10 | Alex Lifeson | Arranger, Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Mandola, Producer |
| 11 | Bob Ludwig | Mastering |
| 12 | Andrew MacNaughtan | Photography |
| 13 | Paul Marconi | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
| 14 | Richard C. Negus | Photography |
| 15 | Clif Norrell | Engineer |
| 16 | Neil Peart | Arranger, Composer, Cymbals, Drums, Dulcimer, Hammer Dulcimer, Producer |
| 17 | Simon Pressey | Assistant Engineer |
| 18 | Everett Ravestein | Pre-Production |
| 19 | Rush | Arranger, Primary Artist, Producer |
| 20 | Dimo Safari | Photography |
| 21 | Hugh Syme | Art Direction, Design, Digital Illustration |
| 22 | Hugh Syne | Art Direction, Design, Digital Illustration |
| 23 | Andy Wallace | Mixing |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |