Tracklist: 00:00 Don’t Care 04:05 Promise 09:49 Start Today 13:41 Mr. X 16:03 At the End 22:13 Sending Out a Warning 26:24 Shut Up Shuttin’ Up 30:30 Strip and Go Naked 34:28 The Big Dance 38:45 Victor 45:12 I Am the Spirit

Here from Alex interview that came out yesterday....

Still rocks into 2023! Always thought Alex was underrated as that key to Rush's sound, this proves how much he unlocked what the band was always doing. What a great re-find.

Was lucky enough to have Alex sign this CD booklet for me during the following Rush tour. Got a guitar pick with it too! Thanks Alex.

Does Alex ever play anything that’s not complex. I love it! One of the greatest guitarists and nicest people of all time. Class act.

Lisa Dalbello on "Start today" is pretty amazing. A very Nice sound thing n blend Alex! more please.

He' s an eternal wellspring killer riffs and structures. It never stops.

Shut up shutting up was always my favorite track on this album. It was the perfect blend of his chops and his sense of humor.

Its 2021 and I just now learned that Alex Lifeson and Les Claypool played together :o

How the hell did I miss this ... Awesome, Alex is in my Top 5 Guitarists who ever lived. This is a superb piece of music.

Love the vocals on this album. This Edwin guy is great. He especially rocks on "Sending Out a Warning". Alex and Geddy should do a new band with him as the vocalist. I had no idea Alex even had a solo record much less a really good one.

Won't lie to anyone here: I hated this album when it came out. Saw the interview with Alex recently (like everyone else, I guess) and decided to re-visit this. It's better than I realized. My then-younger brain and ears wanted a rippin' guitar record. I guess I matured (but never grew up)

Rush, the answer to life, the universe, and everything

Dug my car out of a foot of snow to get this album when it came out on January 9, 1996. Love it.

Alex is my favorite guitarist of all time I wish him and Geddy would get to gether and du a tour of both their solo records that would be great 😀👍😀

The riff in 'Don't Care' sounds an awful lot like the riff in 'Peaceable Kingdom' from Rush's 'Vapor Trails' album. Wonder if Alex has ever considered going after Rush for ripping him off? LOL

man i forgot how killer this record was. Promise, Start Today & Sending Out a Warning are such great tunes. Sound fresh in 2022 as they did 27 years ago.

Discovered this gem of an album a couple of years back on UKposts...but lost track of it whilst searching for/listening to other artists. I am so happy to have rediscovered it....thank you so much for sharing this! Alex Lifeson may well be the most underrated guitarist in history...heck I wasn't even able to find enough HD wallpapers of Mr. Lifeson (ie. JUST him) :(

Alex was and still he is guitargenius

💥Great to here something different from Alex Greatest Guitarist from the Greatest band on earth 💥

I can feel Alex lifeson was a very strong influence for rush in all ways.. and you will know if you only know about 🎸 technics! And specially Alex's technics.

This is a great album, and when you see what he can do alone, musically, it shows what a dominant force he actually was in the band. Just because there are a zillion other great guitarists, and he happened to be in a band with the greatest bassist and greatest drummer ever, it does not diminish him.

Haven't listened to this in many years so it was great to revisit it. Didn't realize but Alex's guitar tone is freaking massive on this album.

At the time this came out you needed a private detective to find the CD - a friend bought it and dismissed it as "not being Rush" - well what did you expect? A fascinating peek into the musical mind of a bit of a genius. What a powerhouse of rock this was - it holds up beautifully. Some of the music sounds like the answer to those going on about "Rush focused on keyboards too much!" - there's some powerhouse riffing here, interesting clean guitar parts, singing solos and lots of moody atmospheric feel. Bravo, Alex!

"Start Today" !!!! why did i hear it so late? In this song, everything I adore in Rush.

I seriously do not understand how I missed this solo project. I must have had some serious shit going down in my life at the time. But except for some of the vocals I could swear I am listening to a Rush album. and a GREAT one at that! I didn't hear about this till last night with an interview with Alex talking about he and Geddy working together again.

Rediscovering this now. I bought this album when it came out. Listened to it once and never played it again. I was so turned off by the singing. Still am. But now I’m listening to the music, which as it turns out, was pretty good. But I was deaf to it at the time because of that darn singing. Now I’d like to have an instrumental version of this album. I don’t know who the main singer is, but I hope he had a short career. Ha

This is as awesome of an album as it was in ‘96. They were talking about remastering it with some additional music. But it hasn’t happened. Geddy’s solo project was remastered and re-released. I hope that Alex has that opportunity as well.

Alex said he wanted to remix and remaster this in the last interview I just watched. He said he doubted it will happen. That's too bad cause there's a lot of good stuff here, but some of the rawness and the unwanted high end sizzle in parts covers the subtleties of his playing and the textures he creates. Alex is one of the best at pulling tones out of his guitar rig that are perfect for the songs. Overall though, I really like this and would love to hear the other stuff Alex has amassed at his home studio. Rush forever!

My husband got it the day of it's release. His band jammed the crap out of it. Played a few times at the Vic. Ministry Forever. Skin's And Metal's. Chiraq

👏👏👏 amo a estos tipos. Larga vida a RUSH!

The singer in Start Today sounds like a mix of Geddy Lee and Robert Plant... AMAZING!

Gracias amigos por el conocimiento. VIVA RUSH , Y ALEX Y LEE Y NEAL MAESTRO ÚNICO. GRACIAS MR. ALEX 🤪💪🏻💪🏻

Please release another album Alex.........maybe.....with Geddy.

I've never heard this and always wanted to, thank you

Haven't heard this album in years! My CD collection got left behind during a move. I forgot how fantastic this album is! Alex is absolutely my favorite guitarist! Thank you Alex for this masterpiece and fir all you've done for Rush! And thank you for posting this!

underrated album great material.

Next you'll be hearing from people saying they missed Geddy's "My Favorite Headache" solo album.

Thanks for posting this!!!!Huge Rush Fan, love Alex lifeson and his contributions to the guitar world

Awesome!

While the bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with Rush, his first major outside work was his solo project, Victor, released in 1996. Victor was attributed as a self-titled work (i.e. Victor is attributed as the artist as well as the album title). This was done deliberately as an alternative to issuing the album explicitly under Lifeson's name. The title track is from the W. H. Auden poem, also entitled "Victor". Both son Adrian and wife Charlene also contributed to the album. Gooood album!

Nice to hear Lisa Dalbello on Track 3. Dang, she's a great fit for the song. I played her first solo album endlessly, loved the creepy feel it gave off.

A remembrance of "Four sticks" in "Start today"

When you’re in a band like Rush and do a solo album you have to have it come in from left field a totally different direction and AL did so. It’s a nice blend of grunge and spirit of of Rush, licks galore

Excellent album - CHEERS Alex!!! RUSH Sound powerful, I love it!

Woooow like always, beautiful album... love you Alex .... yes!!!!

I remember when this came out the local bowling alley had this in their jukebox and it always played on Saturday night bowling.

i am pleasantly pleased to hear good Alex is.

This album is great. If it was more known about I swear Promise would be a hit song

bought this the day it came out because it is Al!! loved it ever since, if you have a subwoofer, turn it up!!! Geds solo album also kicks ass, check it out!!!

I love this album cover. On our right, he looks like The Six Million Dollar Man. On our left, he looks like Boris Karloff as the mummy. So cool!

Cool album.

woah... where was this hidden? a lot of zappa in this one. thank UKposts recommendation!

Lifeson + Dalbello = Awesomeness!

Alex Lifeson should do an entire album with whoever that singer is on Start Today. That's a match made in heaven.

So Alex - we are soooo ready for another solo album. Love Envy of None too, but… please?!?!?

I heard this album close to when it came out but as a Rush fan I wasn’t ready for such a departure from then. Listening now shows elements that came out later in Rush especially Vapor Trails

Why...why...can't I play like Alex? Is just not fair...😣😫😪🤣🤣🤣🤣✌

Hard to believe this is already 25 years old.

this is very good... mostly. Guitar is sooo good....

I began to get upset with myself for never knowing about this, given Alex has been my inspiration on guitar since 1980. Then I realized that I had gotten a job working for Tom Hanks as a stand in on From the Earth to the Moon and another TV show called The Cape and I was working 20 hour days. I'm listening to this for the first time now, at 4:30 am as I write this and the first song just ended. I learned of this record just minutes ago while watching "the" interview and actually stopped watching it to listen to this album. I'm already hooked and about to see if it's still on Amazon on vinyl......

Great album

This was/is the only piece of music I had to pay sixty dls. for when I bought it on the black market after it's discontinued circulation! This was in Miami when I ordered it on CD. Originally, I purchased it on cassette when I was living in San Francisco (Virgin Records on Market Street) but lent it out thinking I could just buy it again. Yeah, right! The song about the elderly man "eating his gun" after looking through his photo album and reminiscing about his lost wife still affects me. The other songs also have an arch effect on me and I take the album seriously as a very dark and heart wrenching piece of work all around as well as our rather 'not together' VICTOR. 'Sending Out a Warning' has actually helped me out in 'NOT' getting involved with a woman other men would have done anything for because making friends with Fear as best I could taught me how dangerous certain women with looks, money & power can be. I could go on. The music was fab as a rock'n roll album but cold and unfriendly. A classical piece of work that I always wanted to talk to Alex about. Thank's Alex

7 thumbs downs? WTF !! This is killer ... RIP Neil

I just learned about this....Alex can riff man!!!!

For all the years i knew this was out i never heard it till now....HOLY SHIT!

je ne comprends pas qu'un album aussi exceptionnel ait si peu de vues. M'enfin, ceux qui savent, savent ^^

Shut up Shuttin' up is my favorite track...

Another Dance !! Buddy.

Yo compré el disco en cuanto supe de su existencia.... hace mas de 20 años....

Alex is such a great person in this is a great album!I'd love to hear a remastered version of it on vinyl!

This needs to be released on MP3 ASAP!

very cool.

very good........

My god! Dalbello!! :-) Wow!

Start Today sounds like Geddy lol GREAT SONG

I'm CATCHN up here🤣😎

Nice to see Colleen,s got the horn !!

Bought this in 8th grade and got picked on still love it.

I remember a review at the time of its release: "...Lifeson venting the nasty..."...very true!

The audio here is better than on Spotify. Riffs appear stronger here.

Promise Is one of the fucking best Tracks ever

King's X sound 🤘

I've been wanting to buy this album ever since I discovered it. It's not in print anymore and I can't even illegally download it. Sure, I found it used on Scamazon for over 60 bucks.

Wow Alex! How could we/ me Rush fans miss this one for 24!. Almost embarrasing.Start Today is just great,!

Great record. Lots of King Crimson in it, which is always welcome.

I think i ..." YOU KNOW URSELF.. THIS IS A DANCE BUDDY " A.L. FAMOUS LAST WORDS.😉😊😃🤔☺😲😢😢😁😨😇🤘🏻✊🤙👅💎 AND then there was MAIAH WYNNE. 😍RUSH WILL NEVER DIE AND THIS IS BEAUTIFUL..LIKE MAIDEN....... MOTLEY ETC..

I dug that. Especially since no more Rush albums. Best Band Ever!

Had zero clue Alex did this - found out the same way others did (via his interview). Interesting stuff on here. Strip and Go Naked had kind of a Steve Howe/Turbulence kind of vibe. Start Today sounded like it could have made it onto Counterparts. Would have fit right in.

9:49 Start today.. 22:13 Sending out a warning and 34:28 The Big Dance, ALWAYS been my Favs... I play em LOUD!!!! (real loud)

Damn this is heavy!

Start today sounds like what Rush could have weirdly ended up like just after Hemispheres.. Exceptional track

This whole album seems like Alex listened to grunge a lot, cause these phat riffs are so grungy.

Enigma beckons to the unknown cosmic dream of eternal reality brill

This was hands down my favorite album of 1996. Test For Echo also came out that year and I still preferred Victor over anything the band had done in recent years. I also preferred this over the I Mother Earth CD that came out later that year, too

Love Alex, but couldn’t get into this album. Still gave it a thumbs up though, because I’ve been wanting to hear this album for years but never could find it. Thanks for the post!

That had to have been Alex also singing lead vocals on At the End, not just on the spoken vocals

Start again, the closest to early rush that Alex got, later in his career. I’d like to see him pair up with another singer like that...

For 50:46 I am 42 yours old again . A great album !

Would pay good money for a follow up album