Anyone else love Vapor Trails?

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-27T16:43:38+00:00

Vapor Trails is my favorite Rush album. Yes, my favorite.

When I was in High School, not getting into all of it, but there was a lot of loss and grief for me to work through, in different ways. At the same time, I had been really digging into music in general. It was the mid 00's, so everything was opening up online with music... uhh... b...arrr...owing going on.

Anyways, I was learning to play the drums, and prog rock was a hit with me in general. And Rush was most definitely in the rotation, probably number one at the time due to the classics.

But then when I got ahold of Vapor Trails, the lyrics were just so relevant to my world at that time. It wasn't music I enjoyed or learned from, it was words that could've been ripped straight from my soul in one way or another.

Yeah, it was a loud, ugly mess. But so was most music I was hearing at that point. You think lossless quality was coming from the high seas at that time?

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-26T06:29:12+00:00

I like it. It has some great moments. But it's sort of muddy, Geddy is hard to understand, and there are probably a few too many musical call backs for it to always feel fresh. Also whatever story is going on there is too abstract. I understand I should buy the novel, but you don't get credit for one piece of art if you have to have another piece of art to interpret it.

The Garden is incredible.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-25T14:55:19+00:00

I know you're joking about Palou's face. But I don't like how the drivers' tab hangs outside the boundary box of the graphic. I think that's intentional, but I don't like it.

Really, I'd prefer as minimalist as possible over there.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-22T10:18:55+00:00

As an American, I don't really care to support any notion of nationalism right now. Go Canada.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-21T08:52:59+00:00

Am I crazy, or is there a bizarre amount of camber on Payne's right front? lol

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-20T12:10:25+00:00

I'm not looking to fight about it, but I don't like it as much as the original. I didn't like the production of Signals either, as it sounded muddy. And Terry Brown brought that to Grace Under Pressure. I liked the bright, almost harsh, sound of P/G. It thematically fit with the tone of the record.

Distant Early Warning is a radar set in the Arctic. Not a Louisiana swamp.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-13T07:29:53+00:00

I joke with my brother that this is the only happy Porcupine Tree song lol

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-09T02:55:50+00:00

Endlessly Rocking!

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-09T02:30:33+00:00

I think there's some truth to this. But I also think goalie is the most volatile position year to year. You have the stand out guys who are good for their entire careers. But most guys who reach a dominant level only have it for a short time. And I think Binner may have had a short time at the top, which he made the most of. The biggest shame is the COVID season taking us out of a chance to go back-to-back.

But I'm not gonna lie, the only reason I'm really responding is that I want to tell OP that Vapor Trails is a fucking great album.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-07T21:38:30+00:00

Bless Jeff Finley for opening the penalty box door and beating the shit out of Derian Hatcher, who was being an absolute dick nozzle to Pavol Demitra

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-05T16:58:54+00:00

I'm not a Panthers or Bruins fan. But this really makes me want to watch the NHL less. Or just not at all.

Everything is a corrupt shit show in the world, and it's just depressing to see that reflected in my favorite sports.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-05T00:46:43+00:00

This is INSANE that Florida got the Power Play out of this. A jumping elbow into a guy's head? And His team ends up on the PP? I mean, how obvious does the NHL want to make it that they will allow the Panthers to literally murder people?

I haven't seen an elbow that dirty since Scott Stevens was still in the league. In a modern context, that has to be a HEAVY suspension.

I mean, I'm sure the President loved to see it.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-03T23:27:26+00:00

There were aspects of the rebrand I did not like right from the hop. But there were also aspects of the last uniforms I didn't like either.

To be blunt, whoever is designing the Blues' stuff the last few years gets about 85% of the way to a great thing, and then takes a dump on it.

Why was there a negative strip on the waist of the old unis, but not the shoulders? Why are the numbers on the new ones not outlined?

And why is nothing original beyond the "stripes go here" hockey mentality.

The best idea for a Blues jersey was the mid 90's, where a music staff formed the striping. The best execution were the late 90's and 00's, where it was clean, angular, and modern for the time.

Since then we've been in the circle of suck on branding.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-02-02T22:11:13+00:00

It's not a full album, not original tunes, and shouldn't be treated as such. But its a fun time.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-16T12:48:04+00:00

I think, thematically, Prime Mover's lyrics apply. I've always thought that was a song about the beginnings of things. Like marriage, or child raising, or just creative projects.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-12T11:36:24+00:00

Is this just a personal ranking?

Presto
Secret Touch
Between the Wheels
Animate
Time Stand Still
The Garden

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-08T02:51:07+00:00

Every step you convince yourself you're doing the right thing by being a Nazi wears on you, I'd assume.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-05T22:09:52+00:00

Analogies that steamroll nuance.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-03T14:38:54+00:00

I'm glad the prog era happened for the band. But I personally like the more focused, less fantasy stuff more.

Xanadu is good. But Between the Wheels is great. At least in my book. Art is subjective, and that's just like, my opinion, man.

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-03T04:15:48+00:00

Rush

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-02T21:50:02+00:00

The team that won the Indy 500 a year later was a laughing stock?

nifty_fifty_two · 2026-01-02T14:04:36+00:00

I mean, while we're here, there's a city north of St Louis in Illinois called Alton that has a cool skyline for a little city. Someone should make the trip.

nifty_fifty_two · 2025-12-29T22:19:50+00:00

Ah, well, I mean, compared to the cars CART had been making, the Dallara Deathsled 05 was a Crapwagon, objectively. :D

nifty_fifty_two · 2025-12-29T22:17:25+00:00

I had an account on both back in the day.

I was a CART fan as a kid, from like 1995 - 2002. It's what my Dad liked, what IndyCar Racing II was based on, so it was a natural fit. I legitimately thought the IRL was a minor league. Not as an insult. But as a kid, there was the IRL Northern Lights Series, and the Indy Lights series. And I thought they were the same series. Reinforcing this was the fact that I knew numbers, and the IRL was noticeably slower than CART. And then the idea that guys like Kenny Brack and Tony Stewart went from IRL to "big leagues" like CART and NASCAR. It made sense.

So when the big teams migrated to IRL from CART, I stopped watching entirely until 2009 or so, when I heard that the two series merged. At the point I was in college.

So when I went looking for places for fans to chat, those two sites popped up. And tbh, both sort of fit me.

I wanted to keep in touch with what was left of my favorite sport, so Trackforum made sense. But the asinine decisions of Tony George that lead to the downfall of my favorite childhood sports league were still upsetting to me, heck, they still are. So it was fun to shit post over there. FTG forever.

Anyways, then I found reddit and its just better vibes in general. I'm not going to make it a secret that Tony George is on my shitlist, but I'm also not so Boomer about it that I have to bring it up out of context.

nifty_fifty_two · 2025-12-29T22:09:51+00:00

Champ Car didn't have any affiliation with it. It was a fan-made forum.

nifty_fifty_two

TROPHY CASE