Every Rush album up to and including Hold Your Fire is great.
I somehow managed to overlook early Genesis in my youth – I guess because of all their post-Gabriel work. Love Foxtrot (and the other Gabriel-era work).
Yeah. There are really only three Rush albums I rarely listen to: Vapor Trails, Counterparts, and Presto. The rest of 'em are on frequent rotation.
Yea, should have been great. I’m not sure why it didn’t grab me other than it sounded muddy all the time. Not crisp, which is something that almost all Rush albums have. Bad mixing maybe?
Their latest (Snakes and Arrows?) I liked mostly, but they’ve gotten very melodic without the kind of rise and fall they used to have. All the songs sound vaguely similar and consequently the album went out of rotation quickly. Lots of guitar strumming and not many solos. I’m having a hard time putting into words what seems to be missing that I loved in their earlier albums.
Some of you seem to be confusing whether you personally enjoy something or not, with its inherent quality of “goodness” or something.
Hold Your Fire isn’t my favorite album. In fact, I think it blows. And half the songs on Snakes & Arrows are annoying and boring.
These are opinions. Hold Your Fire and Snakes & Arrows being brilliant works of art, those are facts. I don’t have to like something for it to be awesome, and just because you farts out there didn’t like the kind of music they decided to make for the last dozen years or so, that doesn’t mean your opinion means anything.
So true. Another victim of the Loudness War.
I was glad that they fixed that on Snakes & Arrows, but then they made such a damned depressing album…
Hold Your Fire is probably my favorite Rush album, followed by Roll The Bones. The early (pre-2112) stuff is the kind of music I can recognize as good but not necessarily my preferred form of good. I still would kill to see an all-star tribute to 2112.
My favorite is Hemispheres, followed closely by Permanent Waves and Signals. But I do love Hold Your Fire, particularly for its intricate bass lines, especially in songs like “Turn the Page.”
“Prime Mover” is my favorite Rush song, and I actually don’t think there’s a bad track off of Hold Your Fire.
I’m all about Moving Pictures. And why doesn’t Power Windows get any love? Great album.
Except for the vocals, but heck hardly anyone could sing like Geddy in their 20’s let alone Geddy in his 50’s.
They got too “new-wavey” for me after Moving pictures, I prefer the older heavier stuff.
YES! I led a sheltered childhood, and in 9th grade moved to Germany for 2 years. This great guy gave me a tape that had Power Windows on one side, and Police Synchronicity on the other. That was my introduction to Rush, and I thought they were awesome. Especially side 2 of Power Windows. I realize now that compared to a the majority of Rush the album is kind of 80’s synth heavy, but I can’t hear those songs without being whisked away to my walkman in '86 again.
After I wore that tape out, I went to the AAFES record store and bought Fly By Night and 2112. I probably listened to those 2 albums at least 4-5 times a day for the next 2 years. Love those albums. 2112, Anthem, and By-Tor, man. I could listen to those songs anytime.
My brother gave me a tape with Moving Pictures on side 1, and Signals on side 2. That one got a workout, too.
Hold Your Fire was the first Rush concert I saw. I liked the album at the time, but don’t really listen to it when I get a hankerin’ for Rush. For some reason I associate it with playing Wizard’s Crown, Bard’s Tale, and Pool of Radiance on my C-64. I remember I named my monk in Bard’s Tale Tai Shan, cuz that’s like oriental and stuff, right? :)
Presto I played a ton of when it came out and loved it, went to the concert, but then I haven’t bought a Rush album since. Went to the Snakes and Arrows concert, am looking forward to this year’s as well. I’ve never listened to Roll the Bones, Test for Echo, or Counterparts at all as albums, just the odd song or two played live. I liked a lot of Vapor Trails, some good stuff on there, but some others left me kind of blah - kind of the same with Snakes and Arrows.
Grace Under Pressure is certainly not their best record, but possibly the most underrated.
And Prime Mover is the best!
The HOF is dead to me because of their exclusion of Rush. From the wiki:
According to the RIAA, Rush’s sales statistics also place them fourth behind The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith for the most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band.
And they don’t get into the HOF? Seriously??
However bogus one thinks the HoF is, it is objectively a marker of importance in the field. Rush deserves to be in there.
It’s meaningless. As meaningless as the Grammys.
I don’t agree. It’s bogus. That’s like saying, “it doesn’t matter whether a man likes a woman or not, he still wants in the va-jay-jay.”
I literally cannot imagine that any member of Rush gives a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut that Rush isn’t the “Hall of Fame.” More like “Hall of Lame,” amirite?
How 'bout this. If the HoF were about identifying the greatest and most influential rock acts, Rush should be in there. They would be in there. But it’s not, so they aren’t.
Hell yeah. That’s a great one, too. I especially love “Marathon” and “Territories,” but both of them are even better live on A Show of Hands.
The Sex Pistols doing what they do best:
