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Amazon has posted a May 29th release date for “Clockwork Angels,” the forthcoming new album by Rush.

The band’s 20th studio effort is also set for a May 23rd release in Japan, according to online music retail sites in that country.

Rush drummer Neil Peart recently shared some insight into the sessions for the new project.

“In recent years I have been working deliberately to become more improvisational on the drums, and these sessions were an opportunity to attempt that approach in the studio,” wrote Peart. “I played through each song just a few times on my own, checking out patterns and fills that might work, then called in Booujzhe [aka producer Nick Raskulinecz]. He stood in the room with me, facing my drums, with a music stand and a single drumstick—he was my conductor, and I was his orchestra. (I later replaced that stick with a real baton.)”

“Rush songs tend to have complicated arrangements, with odd numbers of beats, bars, and measures all over the place, and our latest songs are no different (maybe worse—or better, depending),” continued Neil. “In the past, much of my preparation time would be spent just learning all that. I don’t like to count those parts, but rather play them enough that I begin to feel the changes in a musical way. Playing it through again and again, those elements became ‘the song.’”

“This time I handed that job over to Booujzhe. (And he loved it!) I would attack the drums, responding to his enthusiasm, and his suggestions between takes, and together we would hammer out the basic architecture of the part. His baton would conduct me into choruses, half-time bridges, and double-time outros and so on—so I didn’t have to worry about their durations. No counting, and no endless repetition. What a revelation! What a relief!”

Rush