Track listing
Show track credits
- 1 Dreamline 4:38
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lyrics
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- 2 Bravado 4:35
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lyrics
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- 3 Roll the Bones 5:30
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lyrics
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- 4 Face Up 3:54
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lyrics
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- 5 Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy) 3:49
- 6 The Big Wheel 5:13
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lyrics
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- 7 Heresy 5:26
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lyrics
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- 8 Ghost of a Chance 5:19
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lyrics
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- 9 Neurotica 4:40
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lyrics
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- 10 You Bet Your Life 5:00
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lyrics
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- Total length: 48:04
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
To rate, slide your finger across the stars from left to right.
17 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Roll the Bones [p]
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Roll the Bones 33 rpm
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Roll the Bones 33 rpm
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Roll the Bones Remastered
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Roll the Bones The Rush Remasters Remastered
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Roll the Bones Remastered
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Roll the Bones Gold Disc, Numbered Edition, Remastered
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Roll the Bones CD Sized Album Replica, Limited Edition, Remastered, SHM
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Roll the Bones 200 gram, 33 rpm
81 Reviews
An album I've neglected to listen to properly since my Rush obsession started a couple of years ago. The only tracks I knew before properly listening to it were the title track and 'Ghost of a Chance' which I thought were great, but when I then summoned the patience to give the whole album a go I found myself discovering more and more gems after multiple listens. The driving rhythms of 'Dreamline' and 'Face Up' to get my blood pumping, the apparently simple but meaningful 'Bravado' and 'Heresy' and the obligatory instrumental wankery track 'Where's My Thing?' all come to together in a tidy package in my opinion. Only track I'm personally not a great fan of is 'The Big Wheel'. It's not exactly the Rush that die hard fans know and love them for; and perhaps this album has slipped in to obscurity to an extent, but if people are patient and expect an album that has decent memorable tracks rather than the virtuosic prog then perhaps you'll be pleasantly surprised. One of their better albums in that era of their career.
Published
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I have always tried to like Rush, despite a low success rate. From a theoretical standpoint, they have always appealed to me, but in practice they tend to just annoy me to death, the main antipathetic factor being Geddy Lee's voice coupled with plush pretentiousness and a gobsmacking healthy dose of crappy eighties production. These things undermine what is actually a solid conception of a band - an arty Canadian rock act of extremely talented people who write spacey epics that are nevertheless radio-acceptable and appealing to the non-prog-head audience.
The utter ubiquity of Rush has made it easy for me to explore their discography. While I have been greeted with low returns with almost every album of theirs I've heard, and it is quite a number of them, I have amassed a minor collection of their work, it being all available for dirt cheap. I picked up Roll the Bones because it included one of the rare Rush songs that I genuinely enjoyed, the single "Ghost of a Chance".
Roll the Bones has a leg up on the other Rush albums I've heard in a few ways. The first and foremost is the production, which reels back the cheesy synthetic sound of the majority of their eighties work and the noodly wankery of their seventies work. It is a nineties album, from the fabled year of grunge, and it is a cleaner, heavier production than any other Rush album in quite some time. The songs are comparatively compact, never venturing far over five minutes. Lyrical preoccupations are fairly simple and humanist, dealing on the whole with concepts of luck, chance, fate, or whatever you wish to refer to it as, with a cool cover image of a vast crumbling, dilapidated wall of dice.
"Dreamline" opens the album with a good bang, fast-paced, rhythmic, featuring blaring crescendos of guitar and synthesizer parts that sound like brass. Tough, lean guitar and bass drives the song and Geddy Lee's voice is notably less pixie-ish, gaining some depth and cadence with his years. The "Where's My Thing?" instrumental is pleasant and not excessively exhibitionist. "Ghost of a Chance" is my easy favourite Rush song, a tired, ragged piece, the album's final rejection of fate and destiny, a claiming of one's own responsibility in directing the flow of life.
It is of course not without its missteps, most glaringly the extremely ill-advised stab at rap on the title track. Truly a hideous mistake. Also, their massively pretentious commentary on the fall of Communism, "Heresy" is one of the most grating songs they have ever written, which is quite a statement, considering "Closer to the Heart". "The Big Wheel" is nancy bullshit.
One of these days, Rush, I might be able to appreciate you. This might be the Rosetta Stone.
The utter ubiquity of Rush has made it easy for me to explore their discography. While I have been greeted with low returns with almost every album of theirs I've heard, and it is quite a number of them, I have amassed a minor collection of their work, it being all available for dirt cheap. I picked up Roll the Bones because it included one of the rare Rush songs that I genuinely enjoyed, the single "Ghost of a Chance".
Roll the Bones has a leg up on the other Rush albums I've heard in a few ways. The first and foremost is the production, which reels back the cheesy synthetic sound of the majority of their eighties work and the noodly wankery of their seventies work. It is a nineties album, from the fabled year of grunge, and it is a cleaner, heavier production than any other Rush album in quite some time. The songs are comparatively compact, never venturing far over five minutes. Lyrical preoccupations are fairly simple and humanist, dealing on the whole with concepts of luck, chance, fate, or whatever you wish to refer to it as, with a cool cover image of a vast crumbling, dilapidated wall of dice.
"Dreamline" opens the album with a good bang, fast-paced, rhythmic, featuring blaring crescendos of guitar and synthesizer parts that sound like brass. Tough, lean guitar and bass drives the song and Geddy Lee's voice is notably less pixie-ish, gaining some depth and cadence with his years. The "Where's My Thing?" instrumental is pleasant and not excessively exhibitionist. "Ghost of a Chance" is my easy favourite Rush song, a tired, ragged piece, the album's final rejection of fate and destiny, a claiming of one's own responsibility in directing the flow of life.
It is of course not without its missteps, most glaringly the extremely ill-advised stab at rap on the title track. Truly a hideous mistake. Also, their massively pretentious commentary on the fall of Communism, "Heresy" is one of the most grating songs they have ever written, which is quite a statement, considering "Closer to the Heart". "The Big Wheel" is nancy bullshit.
One of these days, Rush, I might be able to appreciate you. This might be the Rosetta Stone.
Published
"Why does happen? Because it happens. Roll the bones.
Why are we here? Because we're here. Roll the bones.
Why do we stink? Because we stink. Roll the bones."
Why are we here? Because we're here. Roll the bones.
Why do we stink? Because we stink. Roll the bones."
Published
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1
Dreamline
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2
Bravado
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3
Roll the Bones
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4
Face Up
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5
Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy)
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6
The Big Wheel
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7
Heresy
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8
Ghost of a Chance
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9
Neurotica
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10
You Bet Your Life
4.0, great album
Original rating, 2/15/21: 4.5
Rerating, 5/22/24: 4.0
Rerating, 5/22/24: 4.0
Published
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1
Dreamline
-
2
Bravado
-
3
Roll the Bones
-
4
Face Up
-
5
Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy)
-
6
The Big Wheel
-
7
Heresy
-
8
Ghost of a Chance
-
9
Neurotica
-
10
You Bet Your Life
Published
Title track of this one is legit great--my favorite Rush song since (possibly) Moving Pictures, and arguably one of their best songs period. I am, of course, speaking of the song where they try to do funk and Geddy Lee raps.
I'm serious about this though! Rush's main problem has often been that they've been unwilling to get weird, and so whenever they do anything even mildly out there I love it. Plus the song is actually super good--the chorus is pretty and as loathe as I am to admit it Geddy kind of has bars.
Elsewhere this is Rush doing muscular Springsteen rock--maybe reconnecting with their working-class prairie roots? And you know what...
...it sucks! This is, in one sense, Rush getting out of their comfort zone, but they're getting into literally everyone else's comfort zone ever because these are some of the most boring, cliched, simplistic radio-rock songs ever. Real Bryan Adams territory, and yes that is a Canadian Moment. They do kind of branch out on that last track, but that one sounds like what a Weird Al parody of a Rush song would sound like--only Weird Al is a way better songwriter.
But the title track is cool! And I can't super fault them for this one--no one knew what they were doing in 1991.
I'm serious about this though! Rush's main problem has often been that they've been unwilling to get weird, and so whenever they do anything even mildly out there I love it. Plus the song is actually super good--the chorus is pretty and as loathe as I am to admit it Geddy kind of has bars.
Elsewhere this is Rush doing muscular Springsteen rock--maybe reconnecting with their working-class prairie roots? And you know what...
...it sucks! This is, in one sense, Rush getting out of their comfort zone, but they're getting into literally everyone else's comfort zone ever because these are some of the most boring, cliched, simplistic radio-rock songs ever. Real Bryan Adams territory, and yes that is a Canadian Moment. They do kind of branch out on that last track, but that one sounds like what a Weird Al parody of a Rush song would sound like--only Weird Al is a way better songwriter.
But the title track is cool! And I can't super fault them for this one--no one knew what they were doing in 1991.
Published
Jack, Relax.
Brace yourself, I'm gonna say the same thing for this one that I have for the last few albums.
Dreamline is fun, Bravado is good. Everything else is so completely fine. So totally forgettable. Neil Peart does a rap.
Published
I'm with Rush on this one. There's still a bit of an OAR-country-rock twinge on a few tracks that's still a little groany, but generally speaking this is Rush moving into the 90s in a really successful way. It's certainly not prog-oriented at all, but it's working much better than what we had on Presto. It's pretty simple in terms of melody, but the bombast of Rush is still found in the DNA of the songs here- all three members are pulsing and there's a lot of energy on here that hits like only Rush can hit. Even tracks like "Face up," that don't strike many has a few awesome moments with quality guitar licks and drops.
While I don't think Roll the Bones is among the groups best, it's certainly not among their worst either. It doesn't really have any of the structures of progressive rock, but it has the band's punch, sense of humour, and style.
While I don't think Roll the Bones is among the groups best, it's certainly not among their worst either. It doesn't really have any of the structures of progressive rock, but it has the band's punch, sense of humour, and style.
Published
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Catalog
26 May 2024
25 May 2024
24 May 2024
24 May 2024
23 May 2024
23 May 2024
22 May 2024
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1
Dreamline
-
2
Bravado
-
3
Roll the Bones
-
4
Face Up
-
5
Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy)
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6
The Big Wheel
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7
Heresy
-
8
Ghost of a Chance
-
9
Neurotica
-
10
You Bet Your Life
22 May 2024
22 May 2024
18 May 2024
18 May 2024
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1
Dreamline
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2
Bravado
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3
Roll the Bones
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4
Face Up
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5
Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy)
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6
The Big Wheel
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7
Heresy
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8
Ghost of a Chance
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9
Neurotica
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10
You Bet Your Life
17 May 2024
15 May 2024
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1
Dreamline
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2
Bravado
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3
Roll the Bones
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4
Face Up
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5
Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy)
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6
The Big Wheel
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7
Heresy
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8
Ghost of a Chance
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9
Neurotica
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10
You Bet Your Life
14 May 2024
13 May 2024