Clockwork Angels

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title: "Clockwork Angels" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["rush-(band)-albums", "2012-albums", "anthem-records-albums", "roadrunner-records-albums", "albums-produced-by-nick-raskulinecz", "science-fiction-concept-albums", "steampunk-music-albums", "juno-award-for-rock-album-of-the-year-albums"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_Angels" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox album"]

FieldValue
nameClockwork Angels
typestudio
artistRush
coverRush Clockwork Angels artwork.png
released
recordedApril 2010, October–December 2011
genre
length
labelRoadrunner
producer
prev_titleTime Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland
prev_year2011
next_titleClockwork Angels Tour
next_year2013
misc{{Singles
nameClockwork Angels
typestudio
single1Caravan"/"BU2B
single1dateJune 1, 2010
single2Headlong Flight
single2dateApril 19, 2012
single3The Wreckers
single3dateJuly 25, 2012
single4The Anarchist
single4dateFebruary 20, 2013
single5The Garden
single5dateApril 20, 2013
::

| name = Clockwork Angels | type = studio | artist = Rush | cover = Rush Clockwork Angels artwork.png | alt = | released = | recorded = April 2010, October–December 2011 | studio =

  • Blackbird (Nashville, Tennessee)
  • Revolution (Toronto, Ontario) | genre = | length = | label = Roadrunner | producer = | prev_title = Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland | prev_year = 2011 | next_title = Clockwork Angels Tour | next_year = 2013 | misc = {{Singles | name = Clockwork Angels | type = studio | single1 = Caravan"/"BU2B | single1date = June 1, 2010 | single2 = Headlong Flight | single2date = April 19, 2012 | single3 = The Wreckers | single3date = July 25, 2012 | single4 = The Anarchist | single4date = February 20, 2013 | single5 = The Garden | single5date = April 20, 2013

Clockwork Angels is the nineteenth and final studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on June 8, 2012, on Roadrunner Records. During the band's short break following its Snakes & Arrows Tour, the group decided to write a new studio album. Most of the album was recorded between October and December 2011 at Revolution Recording in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the final album with drummer and lyricist Neil Peart before his death in 2020 and the final album before the band's initial dissolution from 2015 to 2025.

Two songs that would eventually appear on the album, "Caravan" and "BU2B", were recorded in April 2010, and had been released to radio stations and made available as a digital download on June 1, 2010. Following the release of the two songs, the band embarked on the Time Machine Tour, with "Caravan" and "BU2B" included in the set list. Clockwork Angels was completed following this tour. The album's second single, "Headlong Flight", was released April 19, 2012. The album's third single, "The Wreckers", was released July 25, 2012. On February 20, 2013, "The Anarchist" was released as the fourth and final single. A 10" picture disc single of the song "The Garden" was released as part of the 2013 Record Store Day Black Friday sale, limited to 3,000 copies.

The album debuted at No. 1 in Canada and at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album won the award for Rock Album of the Year at the 2013 Juno Awards.

Background and writing

At the end of the band's Snakes & Arrows Tour in July 2008, the group took a year-and-a-half long break; during this break, Rush released the live albums Snakes & Arrows Live (2008) and the compilation Working Men (2009). The band reconvened in Los Angeles in December 2009 to discuss what projects they wanted to undertake in the coming year. Among their options were to start a new studio album and to undergo a major tour; as Neil Peart later wrote: "Fools that we are, we ended up doing both." The idea of an album with a back story as opposed to a collection of different songs became an attractive one to the group, for which Peart detailed one set in a fictional world with a suite of songs telling a story.

Rush adopted the band's usual songwriting methods which involved Geddy Lee and Lifeson working on music at their home studios in Toronto while Peart worked alone from his California home on the lyrics. The group had encouraged one another to become more spontaneous with their solos in live performance which became a primary element while writing new music for Clockwork Angels.

After some weeks into the writing Peart had developed his story further, leading to the band's agreement to adapt it into a concept album while having each track make its own statement. Rush had previously recorded conceptual songs throughout their career, but had yet to commit to a full album concept. Lee was apprehensive towards the idea at first as he wanted the group to move forward in direction and not adopt something typical of fellow progressive rock bands of the 1970s. Music Radar wrote that despite the story-based theme, the album fails to get weighed down by the plot. He had incorporated elements of ancient tradition with Tarot cards on Vapor Trails (2002) and the ancient Hindi game leela on Snakes & Arrows and wanted to bring in alchemy for Clockwork Angels. Peart wrote a lyrical "chapter" for each of the album's twelve tracks, representing the mood or atmosphere of each track with its own symbol as depicted in the artwork. The plot is based on various sources such as Candide by Voltaire "with nods to" the novel The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) by John Barth and writers Michael Ondaatje, Joseph Conrad, Robertson Davies, Herbert Gold, Daphne du Maurier, and Cormac McCarthy, and early Spanish explorers in the American Southwest for the Seven Cities of Gold myth.

Development paused in April 2010 when Rush announced the band's Time Machine Tour; this tour was initially set to run from June to October of that year. The tour saw Rush perform two new songs that they had written for Clockwork Angels entitled "Caravan" and "BU2B". They had also written "The Garden" and "The Anarchist" at that point. With the first half of the Time Machine Tour finished, Lee and Lifeson resumed to write the rest of the album in early 2011, but the sessions had not produced strong enough results barring some "furious jams" that became the basis of "Carnies" and "Headlong Flight". There was also difficulty in matching Peart's lyrics to the new music which resulted in many rewrites, some on the day of recording via e-mail. Lifeson later complimented Peart: "Neil came through – he never complained."

In August 2010, Lifeson remarked that the album was turning out to be very musically diverse. In particular, Lifeson referred to the nearly finished title track "Clockwork Angels" as an "epic song" and a "multi-parted piece", described as "very dynamic". Peart said of the still in-work album in May 2011, "I intend it to be my highest achievement lyrically and drumming-wise." When the final writing sessions began in late 2011, Lee and Lifeson decided to swap instruments at one particular meeting. The result was what became "The Wreckers".

Clockwork Angels contains string arrangements composed of six violins and two cellos. During the album tour, concert sound mixer Brad Madix faced gain-before-feedback challenges when amplifying the strings for a large audience: "I'd worked with strings in the past, but it was always either in a very quiet setting with minimal sound reinforcement or the violins were strictly electric. On Rush's Clockwork Angels Tour, the band definitely meant for the strings to be featured and acoustic."

Though the band's 1976 and 1978 albums 2112 and Hemispheres are often referred to as concept albums, Clockwork Angels is the band's only true concept album as the album features a continuous theme with the lyrics telling a story that runs from beginning to end. Caress of Steel, 2112 and Hemispheres all feature a sidelong suite that tells a story. However, the lyrics of the other songs on those three albums have very little if anything to do with those stories.

Production

Recording

Rush recorded Clockwork Angels in two phases. The first took place in April 2010 at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee with Nick Raskulinecz returning as co-producer following his work on Snakes & Arrows (2007). The tracks "Caravan" and "BU2B" were recorded during this time and mixing was completed by Richard Chycki at the Sound Kitchen in Franklin, Tennessee. However, they decided to extend the tour with dates from March to July 2011, thus pushing back the release of Clockwork Angels. That August, the band announced their deal with Roadrunner Records in partnership with their domestic label Anthem Records to handle their international distribution, marking the end of their time with Atlantic Records which began with Presto (1989).

The second phase of recording took place at Revolution Recording in Toronto between October and December 2011. The strings were recorded at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles in January 2012.

On his personal website, Peart revealed that he took a new approach in writing and recording his drum tracks for the album:

Novels

On February 9, 2012, science fiction novelist Kevin J. Anderson, a longtime friend of Neil Peart, announced that he would be writing a novelization of Clockwork Angels. He also revealed information about the album's concept:

Released on September 4, 2012, the novel was followed by a loose sequel titled Clockwork Lives, which was published on September 15, 2015, followed by a graphic novel in 2018. During the final years of his life, Peart began working with Anderson on a third and final novel in the series; after Peart's death, his widow gave Anderson permission to continue the project. This book, Clockwork Destiny, was published in June 2022.

Artwork

The album's front cover, designed by Rush's longtime collaborator Hugh Syme, depicts a clock marked with alchemical symbols instead of numbers. It displays the time as 9:12, which in 24-hour time is 21:12, a reference to the band's fourth studio album, 2112 (1976). Coincidentally, Peart's birthday was September 12, which can be written as 9/12.

Release and reception

|MC = 74/100 |rev1 = AllMusic |rev1score = |rev2 = The Austin Chronicle |rev2score = |rev3 = The A.V. Club |rev3score = A− |rev4 = Blabbermouth.net |rev4score = 8/10 |rev5 = Consequence of Sound |rev5score = |rev6 = The Guardian |rev6score = |rev7 = Metal Hammer |rev7score = |rev8 = Now |rev8score = |rev9 = PopMatters |rev9score = |rev10 = Rolling Stone |rev10score =

Clockwork Angels was released on June 8, 2012, in Australia, followed by the United States and Canada on June 12 and in Europe on June 13. British magazine Classic Rock released a limited edition fan pack containing the album and 132-page magazine on June 11.

The single "Caravan" was released June 1, 2010, to radio stations and made available for digital download at this time along with "BU2B". The second single, "Headlong Flight", was released to radio stations and for online streaming on April 19, 2012.

The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 103,000 units the first week. In Canada, the album debuted at No. 1 with sales of 20,000 units. By June 20, over 40,000 copies of the Classic Rock fan pack had been sold. Had this release been eligible for the UK Albums Chart, the album would have debuted at No. 1. As more people bought the fan pack than the album alone, the latter debuted at No. 76 in the UK before it reached its peak at No. 21.

Clockwork Angels holds a score of 74 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally favourable reviews". Jamie Thompson of The Guardian wrote in his review that "those who worship at the temple of Rush will be in raptures; for those who remain agnostic, there may well be enough here to justify a leap of faith".

In 2019, Classic Rock named Clockwork Angels the number one album of the 2010s.

Track listing

| all_lyrics = Neil Peart | all_music = Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson | title1 = Caravan | length1 = 5:39 | title2 = BU2B | length2 = 5:10 | title3 = Clockwork Angels | length3 = 7:31 | title4 = The Anarchist | length4 = 6:52 | title5 = Carnies | length5 = 4:53 | title6 = Halo Effect | length6 = 3:14 | title7 = Seven Cities of Gold | length7 = 6:32 | title8 = The Wreckers | length8 = 5:01 | title9 = Headlong Flight | length9 = 7:19 | title10 = BU2B2 | length10 = 1:28 | title11 = Wish Them Well | length11 = 5:25 | title12 = The Garden | length12 = 6:59 | total_length = 66:03

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

Rush

Additional musicians

Production

  • Arranged and produced by Rush and Nick Raskulinecz
  • Recording engineers: Richard Chycki, Martin Cooke, Jason DuFour, Paul Fig and Stephen Koszler
  • Mixed by Nick Raskulinecz
  • Mastered by Brian Gardner

Charts

Weekly charts

::data[format=table title="2012–2013 weekly chart performance for ''Clockwork Angels''"] | Chart (2012–2013) | Peak position | |---|---| ::

Year-end charts

::data[format=table title="Year-end chart performance for ''Clockwork Angels''"]

Chart (2012)PositionUS Billboard 200US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)
114
31
::

Certifications

References

Notes

Citations

References

  1. "JB-Hifi Pre-Order".
  2. Greenwald, David. (April 11, 2012). "Rush's 'Clockwork Angels' Hits June 12".
  3. (May 25, 2010). "Rush Unveils New Music; Legendary Rock Band Return With New Single "Caravan" Plus Additional Track "BU2B" From Upcoming 20th Studio Album; Both Songs to Be Performed Live on "Time Machine Tour"; "Caravan" to Be Available at All DSPs on June 1st; ''Clockwork Angels'' Set for Release in 2011". [[Marketwire]].
  4. "2013 Juno Award Winners". junoawards.ca.
  5. Peart, Neil. (2012). "The Future as Seen From the Past (Or: "Yesterday's Tomorrowland")".
  6. Bosso, Joe. (February 16, 2009). "Alex Lifeson says Rush won't make 'concept' album". musicradar.com.
  7. Stevenson, Jane. (March 26, 2010). "Rush-ing into Songwriters Hall". [[Jam!]].
  8. "The CBC interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson". [[CBC News]].
  9. Ewing, Jerry. (June 2012). "Angelic Upstarts".
  10. Bosso, Joe. (May 25, 2012). "Interview: Alex Lifeson talks Rush's Clockwork Angels track-by-track". Music Radar.
  11. (April 8, 2010). "Rush Time Machine North American Tour 2010 Featuring for the First Time Ever Moving Pictures in its Entirety". [[PR Newswire]].
  12. (August 25, 2010). "Rush Guitarist Talks Upcoming Album, Current Tour". [[Blabbermouth.net]].
  13. (May 5, 2011). "Interview excerpts: Neil Peart (Rush) Classic Rock's Prog Magazine". Rushisaband.com.
  14. [http://mixonline.com/mixline_live/radial_rush_foh_engineer_brad_madix_2404/ FOH Engineer Brad Madix Uses Radial PZ-DI On Tour with Rush] {{Webarchive. link. (May 7, 2013 . [[Mix Online]]. April 24, 2013. Accessed from May 4, 2013.)
  15. Laing, Rob. (January 10, 2011). "Interview: Alex Lifeson (Rush) Guitarist Magazine". [[MusicRadar]].
  16. (August 31, 2011). "Rush Signs to Roadrunner Records!". Roadrunner Records.
  17. Wardlaw, Matt. (December 27, 2011). "Rush Complete Recording Of 'Clockwork Angels'". Ultimate Classic Rock.com.
  18. Peart, Neil. (January 2012). "At the Gate of the Year". NeilPeart.net.
  19. "Author Kevin J. Anderson to write novelization of Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album". Rushisaband.com.
  20. Elliot, Paul. (June 21, 2012). "Life Lessons – An Interview With Alex Lifeson of Rush". Classic Rock Revisited.
  21. "Clockwork Angels Album And Tourbook Covers Leaked". Power Windows.
  22. "Clockwork Angels Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More".
  23. {{AllMusic. Thom. Jurek
  24. Hernandez, Raoul. (August 10, 2012). "Rush: Clockwork Angels (Roadrunner)". [[The Austin Chronicle]].
  25. Heller, Jason. (June 19, 2012). "Rush: Clockwork Angels". [[The A.V. Club]].
  26. Van Horn Jr., Ray. "Rush: Clockwork Angels". [[Blabbermouth.net]].
  27. von Bader, David. (June 22, 2012). "Album Review: Rush – Clockwork Angels".
  28. Thomson, Jamie. (July 5, 2012). "Rush: Clockwork Angels – review". [[The Guardian]].
  29. "Rush – Clockwork Angels".
  30. Boles, Benjamin. (June 14–21, 2012). "Rush – Clockwork Angels". [[Now (newspaper).
  31. Ezell, Brice. (June 21, 2012). "Rush: Clockwork Angels".
  32. Dolan, Jon. (June 18, 2012). "Clockwork Angels".
  33. "Clockwork Angels fanpack". Classic Rock Magazine.
  34. Caulfield, Keith. "Rush, Josh Turner, Waka Flocka Flame Among Top 10 Debuts".
  35. "Clockwork Angels Debuts at #2 on Billboard Charts". 2112.net.
  36. Dowling, Marianne. (June 20, 2012). "Rush's 'Angels' flies up the charts". Toronto Sun.
  37. (June 20, 2012). "Rush Match Highest Charting of Their Career With ''Clockwork Angels''". Broadcast Newsroom.
  38. "Clockwork Angels – Rush". Official Charts.
  39. Everley, Dave. (July 2012). "Rush – Clockwork Angels". [[Classic Rock (magazine).
  40. Popoff, Martin. (May 24, 2012). "Rush – Martin Popoff Reviews Clockwork Angels".
  41. "Clockwork Angels Press Release – Album Coming June 12, Single April 19th". 2112.net.
  42. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2012".
  43. "Top Rock Albums – Year-End 2012".

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rush-(band)-albums2012-albumsanthem-records-albumsroadrunner-records-albumsalbums-produced-by-nick-raskulineczscience-fiction-concept-albumssteampunk-music-albumsjuno-award-for-rock-album-of-the-year-albums