Halo Effect

Rush's twentieth studio album, Clockwork Angels, is built around a narrative of a young man's journey to follow his dreams in an alternative world where, instead of fossil fuels, modern machinery runs on the power of steam. "What did I do before there were words?" Geddy Lee asks on this power ballad. Producer Nick Raskulinecz commented to MusicRadar.com: "A really cool ballad, kind of a reflective moment of the character in the story."

The song features strings arranged by Beck's father, David Campbell, who has also worked with Evanescence, Metallica and My Chemical Romance, amongst others. Raskulinecz told MusicRadar: "We always knew we were going to put strings on the song. Alex (Lifeson, guitar) wrote and played demo strings on a keyboard. At first, we thought about using that, but then we decided to go for it and have a real string section."

Regarding Lifeson's guitar work on this tune, Raskulinecz said: "Alex played his Gibson Dove acoustic. We two tracks, miking him with a U47 tube mic. I put the mic about three feel away so you can get the nice body of the guitar. It's a pretty gorgeous sound."