10 Song Guide To Neil Peart's Awesomeness
3. Animate
Rush kept on through the 80's with their more synth-heavy approach, but the time was right for change at the dawn of the 90's. In the era of grunge, the band decided to get back to basics and get more in touch with their power trio roots. One of the first songs birthed from this project was "Animate," which is one of the heaviest songs Rush ever built.
The song has a brilliant bottom end while Alex Lifeson shimmers with sweeping guitar arpeggios on top. There is also a slightly ethereal vibe coming from the vocals. As Geddy sings Neil's lyrics about becoming more synthetic, an effect is put on his voice that gives the track a more robotic touch.
After a break from heavy rock, this song showed the band roaring back to life with a vengeance with a song that could go toe-to-toe with some of their best rockers. While this song went in and out of the band's set, the reaction to this song on the live stage was deafening for most fans. Neil often cited this as one of the band's absolute greatest works. With a song this heavy, it's kind of hard to argue with that.