"Animate" is a song by Canadian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band Rush from their 1993 album '' Counterparts''. The song reached number 35 on the ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock chart in 1994, staying on the charts for three weeks. The band's singer and bassist,

Geddy Lee Geddy Lee Weinrib (; born Gary Lee Weinrib, July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Rock music, rock band Rush (band), Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request o ...

, said "I love 'Animate'. I think it’s one of the great songs we've done. There's something about the bestiality of that song, the insistence of it."

Composition and recording

"Animate" features Lee playing his bass with an old amplifier that was in the studio garbage and repaired by one of the studio's technical assistants. Shirley wanted Lee to play his parts to "Animate" with it. "It sounded great, I had a tremendous amount of energy, and all the explosion sounds of it kind of disappeared in the track, so you're not really aware of the fact that it's an amplifier on the verge of death." Lee liked Peart's count in at the start of the track as it displays a "human touch". Lyrically, Peart wrote the words about one person yet structured them to make it as if it may concern a relationship, "almost a love song." He thought that such love lyrics had become a cliché throughout the 1980s, however, and turned to works by Jung and

Camille Paglia Camille Anna Paglia ( ; born April 2, 1947) is an American academic, social critic and Feminism, feminist. Paglia was a professor at the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1984 until ...

to understand "what the modern man was supposed to be." Peart said he plays a "basic R&B rhythm that I played back in my early days, coupled with that hypnotic effect" that bands like

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

and Lush used. The song is in the key of

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed ...

. The lead vocal ranges in pitch from B3 to A5.

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described the song as being "straightforward". ''Classic Rock Review'' thought that the song had a "decent overall sound" and a "very entertaining middle part". In a 1994 interview with ''Modern Drummer Magazine'', the band's drummer,

Neil Peart Neil Ellwood Peart ( ; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian and American musician, known as the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush (band), Rush. He was known to fans by the nickname "the Profe ...

, said about the song: "I used a basic R&B rhythm that I played back in my early days, coupled with that hypnotic effect that a lot of the British bands of the turn of the '90s had – bands like

and Lush. The middle section of the tune is the result of the impact African music has had on me, although it wasn't a specific African rhythm."

Covers

The

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Allegaeon Allegaeon is an American death metal band from Fort Collins, Colorado, formed in 2008. They have released one EP and seven studio albums, and are currently signed to Metal Blade Records. History Allegaeon was formed in 2007. They initially p ...

released a cover of the song as a single on 5 January 2018. Mitchel Winney of

MetalSucks MetalSucks is an American heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a Music genre, genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock ...

said that the cover is a fine performance of the song, but that it was too close to the original. ''

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive i ...

'' thought that the cover was "solid filler" for fans that were waiting on Allegaeon's next album. Greg Kennelty of ''Metal Injection'' praised their cover, saying it was fantastic.

References

{{authority control 1993 songs 1994 singles Rush (band) songs Songs written by Neil Peart Songs written by Geddy Lee Songs written by Alex Lifeson