Alex Lifeson: Victor (2LP) [ANTHEM]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set brings Victor to vinyl for the first time, newly remixed, with a fourth side of bonus tracks. The album reached No. 99 on the Billboard 200 and earned a 1997 Juno nomination for Best New Group.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Newly remixed
• 4 bonus tracks
• Remastered

About the album

Every band needs a break now and then, and in the mid-90s Alex Lifeson used his to build an album in his own house. He recorded Victor at Lerxst Sound, his home studio, between October 1994 and July 1995, and put it out under the name of the project rather than his own.

Lifeson plays guitars, keyboards, bass and mandola and handles the programming, then hands the microphone around. Edwin of I Mother Earth sings lead on "Don't Care," "Promise" and "I Am the Spirit," Lisa Dalbello takes "Start Today," and Primus's Les Claypool brings his bass to "The Big Dance." Blake Manning drums on most of it, and the title track is based on a poem by W. H. Auden, with Lifeson himself on spoken vocals.

Lifeson's wife Charlene turns up in the dialogue on one track, and the fourth side here adds "Cherry Lopez Lullaby," "Serbs," "Kroove" and "Banjo Bob." He named the home studio Lerxst Sound after his own nickname, which is the kind of branding you can get away with when you've sold out arenas.

Also at Kops: more Alex Lifeson on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Anthem (cat# ANTH267), a reissue of the 1996 album.