Best Rush Album [Poll Closes May 7]

anything can happen *4 bar long bass riff*

"Time Stands Still" is great; "Turn the Page" and "Force Ten" are good. Otherwise, I never got into Hold Your Fire. A Show of Hands mostly contains all the 83-89 Rush that I need, and even there I usually skip "Mission".

despite there being a bunch of decent-to-good songs there, Hold Your Fire, Presto, and Roll the Bones is kind of a weak run of albums. I was very happy when Counterparts came out and they ditched that thin, trebly sound for more chunky rock.

That's interesting, because I was really (at the time) into HYF, Presto and RTB, and heard Cpunterparts as a concerted grunge bid. Of course, in retrospect it's pretty much a smart transition, and really sets the template for (slightly) heavier Rush from the '90s on.

Other than Clockwork Angels (which I have a giant conflict of interest about since I worked for their label when it came out), Counterparts is my favorite post-80s Rush album by far.

clockwork angels and vapor trails are both fantastic, the 90s records all sound like a mistake after hearing those

One Little Victory prob the best Rush opener since Show Don't Tell, for sure.

actually i like 'dreamline' a lot in that category but the rest of the album doesn't really follow up on it

I do like that by and large each Rush album has entered at least one song into the always happy to hear it canon.

Counterparts was definitely a nod to grunge, yet I think it holds up better than a lot of the grunge albums of the time.

"Dreamline" is indeed a great tune

Is "We're only at home when we're on the run" the last notable nerd-quotable Neil Peart line? Or maybe "it's not the heat it's the humanity?" I guess lots of people use that one.

Ha, listening to "Caress of Steel" and the coda of "The Necromancer" is totally Rush doing Springsteen.

Synth Rush all fuckin day today. Power Windows then Signals then Hold Your Fire.

Can anyone resist grinning at the minnow-wiggle bass statement at the beginning of "prime mover"?

Also, fyi, a spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission

Like Geddy's funky (but not slap-funk) turn in the '80s.

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/images/books/guitar-player-04.1986/guitar-player-04.1986-1-s.jpg
http://toygunslinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Davy-Crockett.jpg

i really love the way Geddy sings the old songs like he clearly didn't know he'd be expected to sing them again 40 years later! the notes in "Anthem" are insane, and he's not even really falsettoing.

I mean I do think it's my least favorite era of him vocally because he really had a much richer tone in his mid-range and even those notes were often pretty high!

even though his voice is getting more warbly as he gets older, it's still a thrill to hear him belting it out. "Xanadu" also had some pretty badass vocal moments on this tour.

During that stretch of late 80s and 90s albums, he pretty much stopped reaching for those high notes both on their albums and in concert. I remember being disappointed when they just skipped the high vocal moments in "Freewill" and "Xanadu" on the Counterparts tour. So glad that he decided it was ok to reach for the skies again.

i was really surprised at the notes he got out! and the stuff he had to alter ("2112" and "Anthem") was jsut outright in the stratosphere

finally listening to Test for Echo and I really liked the first two songs out of the gate but maaaaaaaaaaaan, if crap like "The Color of Right" is gonna take over eesh.

ok I coulda really left that one unplayed. not horrible but just bland. though there are a few tracks I did like from it.

"Limbo" is kinda cool

Ha, that's funny, I finally gave that album a chance today, too, and think I stopped early as well. What's up with "Test for Echo?" It'd be one thing if this was the album after Neil's bad period, but this is the album before all that stuff happened.

presto has for me always stood out slightly from those around it, but i too wish it weren't so very trebly

so they've repudiated their repudiation of their eighties catalog by now, right? That documentary released a few years ago made it clear the band didn't want to talk about that period or at best saw it as a necessary but not aesthetically rewarding period. Clearly the fans who prefer '70s are starting to get outnumbered, so it wouldn't surprise me (nor is it a reflection on the band) that the guys (re)turn to the '80s material live thanks to cold calculation.

i thought it was mainly lifeson who was unhappy at having his axe (relatively) sidelined

"No one told ya not to learn keyboards man"

yet to my ears Lifeson still got excellent moments to shine -- and the terseness helped.

agreed

I prefer Permanent Waves - moving Pictures...when they were still prog but embracing synthetic and creating an unbeatable sound.

Followed by 70s a la Hemispheres.

Then the 80s stuff. Grace Under Pressure the best of the Signals - power Windows threesome.

I mean the synthetic shit was extremely creative so other than the meatheads I don't get people that write it off.

*embracing synths

*synth shit

The guitar stuff in the '80s was great, but yeah, the story goes that the a lot of the stuff was done - drums, synths, arrangements - before Alex got in there, so he had to find a way to fit in. Which is, of course, maybe one reason he's one of the rare guitarists equally good at rhythm and solos; the Andy Summers approach fills a lot of space.

By the way, it's those arrangements that get me, and I think it's one of Rush's most unheralded attributes. For a band often pegged as prog, they really only have a couple of prog albums. The rest mostly comprise weirdly dense pop songs, of a sort. But always impeccably put together. One might call Rush indulgent, but I'm not sure what anyone could point to as truly indulgent - solos are short and to the point - and beyond that, they have such an obvious sense of humor that it's hard to call them pretentious, too. Beyond Neil's lyrics, I guess, which can fall on the Sting side of things between the Dos Passos references.

"No one told ya not to learn keyboards man"

Doesn't he actually play some minor keyboard parts live? I seem to remember that from the 2010 show I saw.

I don't have a problem with the synths on those 80s records, but I can't get past the horribly thin, tinny drum sound. That's the only thing keeping me from really digging into those albums.

I dunno, I like the drums on HYF and PW just fine. If anything, his playing itself was more trebbly - more cymbals, more triggering. Later, more recent albums got back to low end drum rumble a bit, and away from the electronics.

Love this guy, btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbWY7sum1Gs

jesus I really like HOld Your Fire. "Force Ten" is mesmerizing. shame they got so much blander after (though I kinda like Presto)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNEKkiUwGos

hahaha lol - sounds like a retarded pink floyd song

Actually, this is a pretty fascinating dissection of how much thought Peart puts into his parts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVHimRng9A

I'm suddenly finding Side A of Presto incredibly affecting and consoling today and yesterday. Especially "The Pass" which made me cry a little at my desk yesterday.

ways to know whether you're in your mid-forties...

I had a quote from "The Pass" under my picture in my high school yearbook, good times!

Ways to know you're in your mid-forties or late teens

early forties, thank you very much!

I guess now I've heard all of their albums except the debut and Test for Echo.

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, May 28, 2015 2:27 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Test For Echo would quite comfortably be one of my least favourite Rush albums. Some god-awful lyrics on that one!

put your message in a modem, and throw it in the cyber sea..

and all too soon a canine will be chasing cars in doggie heaven

that dog one is my actual least favorite rush song

ha ha, was just coming to post the exact same lyric

i heard test for echo once.

once...

I like some test for echo tracks despite lots of dopey lyrics. Driven, Totem, and Time and Motion are pretty solid.

i heard test for echo once.

once...

― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, June 3, 2015 6:56 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's enough to leave an impression!