After the Test For Echo tour finished in July 1997, drummer and lyricist Neil Peart suffered the loss of his daughter and then his wife in separate tragedies.

[7] For the first and only time since Caress of Steel (1975), the group did not use any keyboards or synthesizers in their music, incorporating many layers of guitar, bass and drums instead.

[8] The Vapor Trails Tour lasted from June through November 2002, which saw the band play to the largest crowds of its career in Brazil.

[9] After Rush finished their Test for Echo Tour in July 1997, the group entered a five-year hiatus following the personal tragedies in drummer Neil Peart's life, losing his daughter Selena in August 1997 and wife Jackie in June 1998.

In his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, Peart writes of how he had told his bandmates at Selena's funeral, "consider me retired.

Peart wrote about their attitude towards the sessions: "We laid out no parameters, no goals, no limitations, only that we would take a relaxed, civilized approach.

"[11] Peart looked through his scrapbook of notes and phrases he'd collected and explored ways of connecting them together to form a complete lyrical idea.

Peart recalled they were not yet "serious" and still wanted to play and explore ideas as sifting through what they had put to tape was a tedious process and disrupted their creative flow.

[13] The songs that emerged from these early jams were "Peaceable Kingdom," "Ceiling Unlimited" and "Nocturne," all of which still contain some parts put down from the original takes, in their final form.

Lifeson therefore spent a greater amount of time devising guitar parts that were "richer on tonality and harmonic quality", adequate for the background tracks.

[16] Initially they decided to write 13 tracks for the album and pick the best 10 or 11 for the final selection, but when the time arrived they agreed to include all of them.

[17] They were joined by English producer Paul Northfield, who had worked on several previous Rush albums and assisted in the arrangement to some tracks when the group felt stuck.

It has overly compressed (clipped) audio levels during mastering, which generates additional digital distortion during the CD production.

[29] All lyrics are written by Neil Peart; all music is composed by Alex Lifeson and Geddy LeeCredits taken from the 2002 liner notes.