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. [
Test for Echo was re-released as a two-LP set in 2015.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine