2112 and All the World’s a Stage mark the end of Rush’s muddy space-plowboy phase; with Permanent Waves (“Spirit of the Radio,” “Jacob’s Ladder”) and Moving Pictures (“Limelight,” “Tom Sawyer”), the group sculpts a more tuneful, AOR-friendly approach without forsaking its tr... 

 2112 and All the World’s a Stage mark the end of Rush’s muddy space-plowboy phase; with Permanent Waves (“Spirit of the Radio,” “Jacob’s Ladder”) and Moving Pictures (“Limelight,” “Tom Sawyer”), the group sculpts a more tuneful, AOR-friendly approach without forsaking its tr... 

 2112 and All the World’s a Stage mark the end of Rush’s muddy space-plowboy phase; with Permanent Waves (“Spirit of the Radio,” “Jacob’s Ladder”) and Moving Pictures (“Limelight,” “Tom Sawyer”), the group sculpts a more tuneful, AOR-friendly approach without forsaking its tr... 

 Of the band’s many, many live collections, the elephantine DVD/CD package Rush in Rio is the best, a complete show over three discs, complete with a raucous 40,000-member crowd and an eight-minute Neil Peart drum solo. However 1981’s Exit…Stage Left is still the best showcase for the band i... 

 2112 and All the World’s a Stage mark the end of Rush’s muddy space-plowboy phase; with Permanent Waves (“Spirit of the Radio,” “Jacob’s Ladder”) and Moving Pictures (“Limelight,” “Tom Sawyer”), the group sculpts a more tuneful, AOR-friendly approach without forsaking its tr... 

 After Signals and “New World Man,” popular tastes shifted from the Seventies-identified progressive-rock sound–of course, Rush has continued to follow its quest, regardless of trends, even if their mid-to-late Eighties albums sound a bit dated thanks to their embrace of era’s wooshing pop... 

 The Nineties found the trio returning to the more organic, instrumentally complex aesthetic of its youth, albeit with the benefits of digital technology and a heavier sound (those power chords on Counterparts’ “Stick It Out” are pure postgrunge menace.) But the tragic death of Peart’s wif... 

 Of the handful of compilations available, the two-volume Retrospective captures the band’s classic output at its muscular best–especially when packaged together as Gold (which thankfully adds “Working Man”).  

 Of the handful of compilations available, the two-volume Retrospective captures the band’s classic output at its muscular best–especially when packaged together as Gold (which thankfully adds “Working Man”).  

 Of the band’s many, many live collections, the elephantine DVD/CD package Rush in Rio is the best, a complete show over three discs, complete with a raucous 40,000-member crowd and an eight-minute Neil Peart drum solo. However 1981’s Exit…Stage Left is still the best showcase for the band i... 

 A career as spotty but as intermittently delightful as Townshend's is badly in need of a well-curated greatest-hits, and the two-disc Gold isn't it–it skips over the Scoop series, Lifehouse Chronicles and the various live recordings he's released over the years, and its scrambled...