[ Album Cover ]

My Favorite Headache
by Geddy Lee

Released 2000
Label: Atlantic
Catalogue: 7567-83384-2

[ Reviewed December 2002 ]

For those of you who don't know, Geddy Lee is the lead-vocalist/bass-player in Canadian power-Progressive trio Rush.  I was quite interested to hear this album having enjoyed just about everything that Geddy Lee had produced over the last twenty-plus years with Rush.  It's another of those albums that I had severe trouble getting into.  In fact I gave it a couple of listens and put it away as a lost cause for several months.  Recently I was having a re-cap of albums that I'd bought and not fully investigated and after a few more listens it started to fall into place.

The first reaction was one of huge disappointment.  I had nurtured very high hopes of this album, assuming that Lee would have loads of different ideas stored up from his impressive career.  To a very large extent it sounds like just another modern Rush album and if you don't like this style of music then there's no point carrying on.  It came out in the period when it was looking as if Rush was finished and I did wonder if Lee perhaps couldn't wait for the other two to get together so he went ahead and made an album on his own.  (Rush did then produce Vapor Trails which is very good and is reviewed elsewhere here.)

Lee is again working as part of a three-piece, having employed guitarist Ben Mink who also plays strings, and Matt Cameron on drums.  There is a minimum of keyboard work used, and with the guitar and drums being predominantly heavy you do end up with that rocking Rush sound.  The structures of the songs also match the modern Rush style, being 4-5 minutes long with Lee making most of the tune with his voice as the band accompanies him.  Some of the tracks such as Runaway Train could be directly lifted from a Rush album but there are important differences to the trained ear.  There is a wider range of sounds employed including subtle electronics, piano, non-Alex Lifeson guitars and even strings.  The string arrangements are good; take Working at Perfekt as an example, instead of the often used anonymous orchestra sound in the background, they have created a much more intimate sound with the individual instruments being audible at the front of the mix.

Lee is on top form on this album, playing and singing.  His voice goes on improving with age; it is developing a rich tone to it that is beautifully demonstrated on The Angels' Share.  Gone are the caustic wailing days of the 70s.  His bass playing is fine and I like the bass sound that he's chosen, although I don't find myself listening as directly to it as I would Chris Squire of Yes.  His use of piano to add colour is nicely done as well.  The other two are excellent musicians as well as Lee and you can see why they got the job.  Mink's guitar doesn't have any solos (again like recent Lifeson playing) but he intelligently uses varying sounds and a good amount of acoustic to make the sound always interesting.  Drummer Cameron is pretty similar to Neil Peart although he manages to ease off a bit more; Peart at times sounds like he's trying to compensate for there only being the three of them.

So to sum up, another surprisingly good album after a difficult listening start for me.  I was originally expecting too much from it and once I'd scaled this back found myself really enjoying it.  If you only listen to one track try The Present Tense or Grace To Grace as they have heavy parts and gorgeous choruses highlighting Lee's voice and bass-playing.  The album's probably not going to be a classic and mentally it's really another recent Rush album albeit less frantic and with more tonal variety.  But that's absolutely fine with me.

Tracks:
1.My Favorite Headache4:44
2.The Present Tense3:25
3.Window To The World3:01
4.Working at Perfekt4:59
5.Runaway Train4:31
6.The Angels' Share4:34
7.Moving To Bohemia4:25
8.Home On The Strange3:47
9.Slipping5:05
10.Still4:29
11.Grace To Grace4:57
total time 47:57

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Copyright Steve Bachini