Counterparts is the fifteenth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released October 18, 1993, in the UK and October 19 worldwide, through 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. 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." Lifeson said that this was the first time since Moving Pictures (1981) that there was a conscious decision to have the guitar take a predominant role, resulting in a more satisfying album for him. The writing sessions were met with increased tension between Lee and Lifeson, matters of which began on the Roll the Bones Tour over musical differences. Lifeson had constantly asked for Lee not to use any keyboards for the album but Lee brought them into the studio which created "an immediate atmosphere." Lee maintained that keyboards were used on Roll the Bones merely to embellish the songs and wished to use them in the same manner for Counterparts. "But Alex was making assumptions that I wanted keyboards all over the place. It was a very volatile situation." Lifeson said that the two had "greater emotional ups and downs" during the writing stage than any other previous Rush album and partly blamed various personal "external pressures" that did not relate to either's personal lives. For mixing, the band employed Australian engineer Michael Letho. The 8-track demos were transferred onto the studio's 24-track recorder and became guide tracks for the band to follow and re-record their parts. Lifeson recorded his parts onto analogue tape; the rest were put down digitally.
It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart for the week ending Nov. 6, 1993, kept out the top spot by another debuting album, Pearl Jam's Vs. Counterparts earned a gold certification in the United States in December 1993. The album earned a gold certification in Canada in 1994.
The band supported Counterparts with a four-month tour limited to the United States and Canada. Relations between the members were reportedly tense, and they followed the tour with a long break, during which lead singer/bass player Geddy Lee planned to spend time with his growing family, while each member explored other creative interests, such as a Lifeson solo album.
Reception
This album was well-received by fans and reviewers, hitting the shelves at #2 on the charts (Rush's first album to do this), and going gold in only one month, despite being prog rock during the peak of grunge. The album did return the band to a more aggressive rock sound. Retroactively, it is seen as a typical Rush album, with strong composition and performance, but with somewhat formulaic, conservative song writing. On Spotify, Animate and Nobody's Hero each stand out as having two to three times as many plays as the next-most-played tracks. Progarchives calls it their best album of the 1990s.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits taken from the album's 1993 liner notes.
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!scope="row"|Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)
|align="center"|13
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!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| align="center"|35
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+1993 year-end chart performance for Counterparts
! scope="col"| Chart (1993)
! scope="col"| Position
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!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (RPM)
| align=center|49
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Certifications
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Certifications and sales for Counterparts
!Region
!Certification
!Certified units/sales
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!scope="row"|Canada (Music Canada)
|Platinum
|100,000<sup>^</sup>
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