Counterparts

Counterparts is the fifteenth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released October 19, 1993, on Anthem Records. After the band finished touring its previous album Roll the Bones (1991) in mid-1992, the members took a break before starting work on a follow-up. Counterparts reached No. 2 in the United States, one of the band's two highest-charting albums in the country, and No. 6 in Canada. The first single, "Stick It Out", was No. 1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for four weeks. In 1994, the instrumental "Leave That Thing Alone" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Counterparts was remastered in 2004 and reissued in 2013 as part of The Studio Albums 1989–2007 box set. In 2015 it was reissued after being remastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios following a direct approach by Rush to remaster their entire back catalogue. Background and writing In June 1992, the band finished their Roll the Bones Tour in support of Roll the Bones (1991). Before the group started to work on the album they casually set out some goals that they wanted to achieve with it from conversations during the Roll the Bones Tour. They agreed to achieve "a sense of balance between spontaneity and refinement [...] and perhaps work on a more organic approach to the songs". The group agreed that rock band Primus, who opened for them on the Roll the Bones Tour, and Pearl Jam influenced them to tweak their sound further. As with their previous two studio albums, Rush retreated to Chalet Studios in Claremont, Ontario, to write and rehearse new material during the week, returning home on weekends to see their families. They adopted their usual practice of Lee and Lifeson working on the music while Peart worked alone on the lyrics. They stayed at Chalet for about two months, and rehearsed well enough so they could concentrate on obtaining a satisfactory sound and a spontaneous performance for their respective parts. Lee and Lifeson put their ideas down using an eight-track Alesis Digital Audio Tape recorder with Cubase Audio software. The group faced many technical problems which delayed the writing process to the point where Peart had a short amount of time to arrange his parts, but as Lee recalled: "He went through a massive rehearsal period; he works tremendously hard and it's incredible to witness."