Clockwork Angels

It’s got a dystopian sci-fi plot and lyrics like “All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary.” But the first Rush album in five years isn’t just one of the band’s Rushiest; it’s also very good – frenetic and heavy, low on prog thought puzzles, high on power-trio interplay that could put guys half their age in the burn ward. Nickelback-like meathead modern-rock production actually adds power to these ancient masters’ gnomic turgidity: Even the seven-minute tripartite title track burns rubber, and Neil Peart’s dragon-tailed paradiddles and Alex Lifeson’s helix solos make the koanic hokum of Peart’s lyrics feel like a sermon from the peak of Mount Nerd.

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