Best Rush Album [Poll Closes May 7]

does HOld Your Fire suck

No, I think its great. Synth-y in a good way.

As in, I think people have a problem with the production on this album but the sound of it seems inseperable from the writing.

I love hold your fire

I also love hold your fire

'open secrets', 'high water' both slay

I think of power windows and hold your fire as twin records, they have the same production pretty much, but power windows got all the worldly songs and HYF got the introspective ones so its even more deeply uncool than baseline rush

Love Hold Your Fire. Production suits the songs, but there's some incredible playing, particularly the drum fills and guitar solos (even more so than usual). I love the arrangements, too. Like Power WIndows better, though.

thanks dudes. I checked it out and I actually liked it a lot on first listen! reminded me of Peter Gabriel at times.

also checked out Roll the Bones. like quite a few of the songs but the main thing that bugs me is the production is sterile as hell, and the arrangements fairly dull. it sounds like session musicians playing, nothing to stand out as Rush. yet I don't *dislike* it, but weirdly it sounds more dated than the albums that came before it. the bass on the title track sounds like the generic "funk-pop" bass that was popular in those days.

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

Ha, it's possible I'm in the same boat! I mean, I love Rush, and have for ... 25 years? Wow. But I don't think I have ever heard the first album or listened to Test for Echo more than once.

Of all the Rush albums, Presto seems the most outlier to me. Almost singer-songwritery, with this really intriguing spare production totally unlike anything that came before or after.

test for echo is definitely one of the weakest rush records but 'time and motion' is a neat song

roll the bones is also pretty weak but i like 'dreamline' and 'ghost of a chance' is about as close as rush ever came to writing a love song which makes it kinda interesting

presto is definitely a cut above the other 90s-alt-rock-period rush records

cool and remote like dancing girls

For me it's a tie between Hemispheres, Moving Pictures and Caress Of Steel. Rush are one of my favourite bands but I've never felt any of their albums had an "all killer" track list.

I've got the 1989-2007 box set on my wishlist but not sure if I want to get it. Worried it's going to be just diminishing returns. I've heard everything from Fly By Night to Grace Under Pressure and I have a copy of Power Windows waiting.

oh yeah "force ten" is the best song ever

oh wait sorry i was thinking of "prime mover"

"Force Ten" IS the best song ever

the point of the journey is not to arrive

tough times!

Demand tough talk.

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