Animate (song)

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Animate (song)

Animate is a track by Canadian rock band Rush from their 1993 album Counterparts. It runs about 6 minutes and 4 seconds and was produced by Peter Collins along with Rush. The song reached number 35 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in 1994 and stayed on the chart for three weeks.

Geddy Lee has called Animate one of Rush’s great songs, noting its energy and “bestial” feel. The bass part was played through an old amplifier found in the studio trash and repaired by a studio assistant, a choice that added a powerful, explosive edge to the track. Lee also appreciated the count-in at the start for its human touch.

Lyrically, Neil Peart wrote about one person but framed it so it could be read as a relationship or almost a love song. He wanted to move away from cliché love lyrics of the 1980s and looked to thinkers like Jung and Camille Paglia to understand the modern man. Musically, Peart described a basic R&B rhythm with a hypnotic feel, influenced by early 1990s British bands like Curve and Lush. The song is in the key of D minor, with lead vocals ranging from B3 to A5.

AllMusic described Animate as straightforward, while Classic Rock Review found the overall sound decent and the middle section entertaining. In a 1994 Modern Drummer interview, Peart explained that the middle section reflects the influence of African music, though not a specific rhythm.

Allegaeon released a cover of Animate as a single on January 5, 2018. Critics were mixed: MetalSucks felt it stayed too close to the original but was a solid performance, Loudwire called it solid filler, and Metal Injection praised the cover as fantastic.