RUSH Guitarist Comments On Return Of 'Concept Album'

May 15, 2007

Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press recently spoke to RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson about the return of the concept album.

Once the epitome of '70s self-indulgent prog rock, the concept album suffered a severe backlash with the stripped-down sound of the '80s and '90s but has emerged as a whole new animal in the last few years.

RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson, whose catalogue of concept discs include "2112", "Hemispheres" and "Caress of Steel", says the Canadian trio has always been partial to large-scale thematic works.

But physical limitations of the vinyl LP restricted the way that vision could be realized.

"The format has changed so much," Lifeson says of today's digital world. "Being able to play as long as you want to play now makes it a little easier to get into an idea, I suppose. On LPs you only had less than 20 minutes per side and you were sort of fixed with how far you could go with it."

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