The production of Vapor Trails has been criticized by the band themselves, critics and fans alike because of the album's "loud" sound quality. It has overly compressed (clipped) audio levels during mastering, which generates additional digital distortion during the CD production. The trend, known as the loudness war, was very common on modern CD production at the time. Alex Lifeson stated:

<blockquote>It was a contest, and it was mastered too high, and it crackles, and it spits, and it just crushes everything. All the dynamics get lost, especially anything that had an acoustic guitar in it.

Billboard gave a favorable review.

Vapor Trails Remixed

Vapor Trails Remixed is a remixed version of Vapor Trails mixed by David Bottrill. The album was released by Atlantic Records and Rhino Entertainment on September 30, 2013, and entered at No.&nbsp;35 on the Billboard 200 chart. Vapor Trails Remixed peaked in the US Billboard Charts at number 35.

Vapor Trails Remixed is also included in the box-set of Atlantic Studio Albums called The Studio Albums 1989–2007, in lieu of the original version.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits taken from the 2002 liner notes.

Rush

  • Geddy Lee – bass guitar, vocals
  • Alex Lifeson – electric and acoustic guitars, mandola
  • Neil Peart – drums, cymbals

Production

  • Rush – production, recording
  • Paul Northfield – production, recording
  • Chris Stringer – recording assistance
  • David Leonard – mixing
  • David Bottrill – mixing: 2013 version
  • Joel Kazmi – mixing assistance
  • Howie Weinberg – mastering
  • Roger Lian – additional mastering and sequencing
  • Andy VanDette – mastering: 2013 version
  • Lorne "Gump" Wheaton – equipment care
  • Hugh Syme – art direction, paintings, and portraits

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

|+Weekly chart performance for Vapor Trails

! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

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Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Year-end chart performance for Vapor Trails

! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

|172

|-

!scope="row"|Canadian Metal Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 27

|}

Certifications

References