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• Rush Never Sleeps: New Feature
• Rush vs. Rolling Stone: A Qualitative Analysis
RUSH (1974)
Key Tracks: "Working Man," "Finding My Way"
Quick Take: Rush pumps out a more approachable
brand of sci-fi fusionoid pomposity than, say, sophisticated
prog-rock practitioners such as Pink Floyd or King Crimson. The
vaguely populist bent suits this musicianly Canadian power trio,
while hinting at its preconceptual roots as dull, perennially
second-billed metal plotzers. Drummer Neil Peart, guitarist Alex
Lifeson, and bassist Geddy Lee have developed fearsome chops over
the years, though they're clearly still finding their way on their
self-titled debut — likely because Peart doesn't play on this
album (original drummer John Rutsey suffered from diabetes and left
the band after this LP's release because he didn't want to go on
long tours). Rush wears the group's Led Zeppelin influence
on their sleeve, making this a workmanlike debut that laid the
groundwork for what Rush would become.
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FLY BY NIGHT
(1975)
Key Tracks: "Anthem," "Fly By Night"
Quick Take: The distance between Rush's debut and
Fly By Night is massive thanks to the arrival of Neil
Peart, who brought his intricate, muscular drumming style and
literary-minded lyrics to the group's three-pronged power attack.
The album contains the group's first super-proggy moment in the
multi-part narrative "By-Tor & The Snow Dog," and though that's
what really turned on the hardcores, the band proves they are
actually at their best when ripping through three minute blasts
like "Best I Can" and the title track.
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CARESS OF STEEL
(1975)
Key Tracks: "Bastille Day," "Lakeside Park"
Quick Take: Loaded down with two heavy-handed,
multi-part albatrosses in "The Necromancer" and "The Fountain of
Lamneth," Caress of Steel collapses under its own weight.
Lacking a decent power trio single, Steel has plenty of
sci-fi wankery but little for even hardcores to latch onto.
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2112 (1976)
Key Tracks: "2112," "A Passage to Bangkok"
Quick Take: 2112 represents the band's
first great peak and is still considered among fans as not only the
definitive Rush album but one of the greatest recordings in the
genre. The seven part, twenty minute "2112" suite is a prog-lover's
dream, full of razor-sharp time signature changes and fantastically
complicated solos, turning the best King Crimson experiments into
something that flirts gallantly with balls-out arena rock.
2112 also boasts the excellent "A Passage to Bangkok," an
oft-overlooked blast on the LP's second side.
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ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
(1976)
Key Tracks: "2112," "Anthem"
Quick Take: Rush zealots swear by the group's
impressive live performances, and the band has put out a number of
live albums over their career. This is one of the weaker ones, as
the band allows themselves to get bogged down in their own epic
mythology. If you think Rush songs are too long, All the
World's a Stage only makes them longer.
All the World's a Stage (Mercury)
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A FAREWELL TO KINGS
(1977)
Key Tracks: "Closer to the Heart," "Cyngus
X-1"
Quick Take: Despite some middling prog moments
(most notably in "Xanadu"), A Farewell to Kings was the
first Rush album to go Gold in the United States and scored the
band's first big radio hit with "Closer to the Heart." This album
started a workable trend for Rush, as subsequent albums would
feature radio-baiting blasts of big riffage in between jam-heavy
math-rock explorations.
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HEMISPHERES
(1978)
Key Tracks: "Circumstances," "The Trees"
Quick Take: The pick to click here is
"Circumstances," whose chorus reworks the tidal stresses of
"Something for Nothing" in sprung rhythm and whose lyrics are the
most personable, least didactic on the record. "Cygnus X-1 Book II:
Hemispheres," the obligatory space opera, was meant to expand on
"Cygnus X-1" from A Farewell to Kings, but the musical and
thematic references are only tangential. "The Trees" is an
attractively droll political fable with a gorgeously rendered
classical-guitar intro (one of Lifeson's arcane strengths). But the
real new ground is Rush's first stab at an instrumental: "La Villa
Strangiato" boasts taut riffing, acute tempos, flawless phrasing,
the discipline to sound effortless and enough energy to flow in
torrents.
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PERMANENT WAVES
(1980)
Key Tracks: "Spirit of the Radio," "Jacob's
Ladder"
Quick Take: On Permanent Waves' short
(for them) six songs, Rush appropriate the crippling riffs and
sonic blast of heavy metal, model their tortuous instrumental
changes on Yes-style British art rock and fuse the two together
with lyrics that — despite their occasional overreach —
are still several refreshing steps above the moronic machismo and
half-baked mysticism of many hard-rock airs. Fortunately, Rush lead
off with their trump card, a frantic, time-changing romp called
"The Spirit of Radio." Not only is the sentiment right on, but the
tune is packed with insistent hooks, including a playful reggae
break that suddenly explodes into a Led Zeppelin-like bash.
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MOVING PICTURES
(1981)
Key Tracks: "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight"
Quick Take: On Moving Pictures the group
sculpts a more tuneful, AOR-friendly approach without forsaking its
trademarks. "Tom Sawyer," their signature song, is everything great
about Rush: powerful riffs, huge drums and a bit of swagger that
was sorely missing from previous recordings.
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EXIT...STAGE LEFT
(1981)
Key Tracks: "Jacob's Ladder," "Freewill"
Quick Take: Except for a singalong in "Closer to
the Heart" and a jokey intro to "Jacob's Ladder," the versions here
are virtually identical to the studio renditions, so Rush fans may
find the set redundant. Others might get a kick out of the big,
surging E chords the band keeps pumping out and perhaps appreciate
Peart's fine-tuned percussion.
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SIGNALS
(1982)
Key Tracks: "New World Man," "Losing It"
Quick Take: Despite their complicated forays into
the outer reaches of prog, Signals represents the first
time Rush started to chase themselves down the rabbit hole, which
made the 80s rough on them. On their twelfth album, Rush makes a
strong argument for the view that advanced technology is not
necessarily the same thing as progress. Unfortunately, they do so
largely by screwing up. Although Signals is chockablock
with state-of-the-studio gadgetry, ranging from the requisite banks
of synthesizers to the latest in digital recording and mixing, none
of these electronic add-ons enhances the group's music. Only the
choppy "New World Man" shows any signs of the band finding the
balance between Van Halen and Yes.
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GRACE UNDER PRESSURE
(1984)
Key Tracks: "Distant Early Warnings," "Kid
Gloves"
Quick Take: Things go a little better for Rush on
Grace Under Pressure, where they managed to incorporate a
number of modern elements into its sound (note the almost danceable
rhythms in "Afterimage" and "Red Sector A," and the swelling
synthesizers and electropercussion throughout). Geddy Lee also got
his dog-calling falsetto shriek under control. But this album, more
so than previous outings, reminds the listener that Rush is a band
with a message. Thus, on "The Enemy Within," Lee sings, "I'm not
giving in/To security under pressure/I'm not missing out/On the
promise of adventure." And the hero of drummer-lyricist Neil
Peart's sci-fi allegory, "The Body Electric," is an "android on the
run, seeking freedom."
Grace Under Pressure (Mercury)
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POWER WINDOWS
(1985)
Key Tracks: "The Big Money," "Territories"
Quick Take: "The Big Money," the first hot FM
focus track from Power Windows, may be the best of Rush's
Cool Wave experiments to date. Neil Peart whips up a Molotov drum
cocktail that is half Stewart Copeland psycho-ska and half
"Blitzkrieg Bop"; from deep within his Edge-like echo pit,
guitarist Alex Lifeson opens fire with a metallic descending chord
sequence that rips through the song's chrome-finish production like
grapeshot. In "Territories," a simple disco-style pulse becomes a
Lifeson-spurred gallop, his Chinese guitar chatter alternating with
the telegraphic synth patterns and sheet-metal keyboards played by
singer-bassist Geddy Lee. Power Windows may well be the
missing link between Yes and the Sex Pistols.
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HOLD YOUR FIRE
(1987)
Key Tracks: "Second Nature," "Time Stand
Still"
Quick Take: After the synth-heavy explorations on
Power Windows, Hold Your Fire returns the focus
to Lifeson's guitar work, especially on "Open Secrets" and "Second
Nature." The gorgeous "Time Stand Still" represents one of Rush's
more magestrial singles, full of cascading Lifeson runs and backing
vocals care of Aimee Mann (!).
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A SHOW OF HANDS
(1989)
Key Tracks: "The Big Money," "Time Stand
Still"
Quick Take: Although their fans treat the three
members of Rush as if they were the Holy Trinity, the band chose
the theme of another threesome — the Three Stooges — as
the opening fanfare for its third live set. It's a bit of
self-effacement to be found nowhere else on this album. Most of the
material on A Show of Hands is from Power Windows and
Hold Your Fire. Many of the performances stick closely to
the studio versions, even down to having Aimee Mann repeat her
backing-vocal stint for "Time Stand Still." The sensation of a
studio recording is heightened by the remarkable sound quality of
the recording (even the crowd recorded well). Rush's prodigious
chops are proven crowd pleasers, but this collection is a morass of
muscle-bound technique, quasi-profound lyrics and Geddy Lee's
shrill screech.
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PRESTO
(1989)
Key Tracks: "The Pass," "Red Tide"
Quick Take: With Presto, Rush makes a
stab at greatness that rivals its landmark LP Moving
Pictures. This has a lot to do with Rupert Hine's deft
production, which camouflages Geddy Lee's typically shrill vocals
to great advantage. But it's also because "Red Tide" doesn't
imitate the Police, it simply steals the melody from "Message in a
Bottle." Similarly, "Anagram (for Mongo)" doesn't recall Foreigner,
it wisely just pilfers the epic chords from "Long, Long Way From
Home." Of course, Presto features lots of classic Rush (the fancy
drum-bass interplay of "Show Don't Tell," the triumphant guitar
solo on "The Pass"), as well as all the foibles — like
overarrangement — that make the band's style so
unpalatable.
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ROLL THE BONES
(1991)
Key Tracks: "Bravado," "Roll the Bones"
Quick Take: Though Rush mostly seemed to exist in
a vacuum, they were not immune to inspiration from the rest of the
music world such as their keyboard-heavy experiments throughout the
New Wave 80s. Roll the Bones doesn't dress the band in
flannel, but it does anticipate alt-rock's stranglehold on rock
radio. The title track's lean, muscular approach made it a big hit
and set the stage for Rush's big for relevence in an era when prog
was cast far from the mainstream.
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COUNTERPARTS
(1993)
Key Tracks: "Stick It Out," "Double Agent"
Quick Take: Counterparts finds the trio
in full '90s mode, mining the more organic, instrumentally complex
aesthetic of its youth, albeit with the benefits of digital
technology and a heavier sound. The power chords on "Stick It Out"
are pure postgrunge menace, and while other bands on the radio were
staring at their navels, Rush continued to preach their philosophy,
and while it sounded heavy-handed and trite in the '80s, it became
a refreshing respite in the all-irony era.
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TEST FOR ECHO
(1996)
Key Tracks: "Driven," "Half the World"
Quick Take: Rush's '90s surge also saw a number of
bands paying homage to the Canadian trio, with Primus'
Metallica-meets-2112 moves and the serious '70s-art-rock
undercurrent of Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite
Sadness. The buffed guitar and synthesizer contours of Test for
Echo proved the band still had staying power, as the title
track sat atop the mainstream rock chart and "Half The World" even
scored some MTV airplay in the wild west that was the post-grunge
era.
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DIFFERENT STAGES
(1998)
Key Tracks: "Limelight," "Working Man"
Quick Take: Taken from three different tours in
1997, 1994 and 1978, Different Stages acts as the
definitive Rush live collection, running through all the band's big
hits and prog explorations.
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VAPOR TRAILS
(2002)
Key Tracks: "One Little Victory," "Stars Look
Down"
Quick Take: The tragic death of Peart's wife and
daughter within a 10-month span brought Rush to a halt.
Fortunately, the lifelong friends stuck together and, after a
forgettable Geddy Lee solo outing, returned in 2002 with a new,
geeky-as-ever album and subsequent world tour. Vapor
Trails abandons the prog-rock jams of Test for Echo
for a harder approach. On tracks such as "Earthshine," "Stars Look
Down" and "One Little Victory," Alex Lifeson proves he can still
generate plenty of guitar crunch. Neil Peart's lyrics became less
abstract and much more personal (for obvious reasons). This is
refreshing, even on the earnest, M. Scott Peck-worthy "Sweet
Miracle." Otherwise, though, there are few surprises: Geddy Lee
sends his voice to the rafters through his nose, while his
remarkable bass playing mixes in a showy display of virtuosity with
Lifeson's and Peart's colossal guitar-and-drum show.
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RUSH IN RIO
(2003)
Key Tracks: "O Baterista," "The Spirit of the
Radio"
Quick Take: Rush in Rio is, by far, the
most satisfying of the band's many live collections. The hits all
sound big and polished, and even sweaty prog albatrosses like
"By-Tor & The Snow Dog" sound fresh and revitalized.
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FEEDBACK
(2004)
Key Tracks: "Heart Full of Soul," "The
Seeker"
Quick Take: Fans already knew it, but these eight
classic-rock covers (including "Mr. Soul") prove that, beneath all
the virtuosity and Dungeons and Dragons fantasia, Rush
have always been a decent bar band. With this disc, the trio finds
a surprisingly reserved way to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary.
Their take on the Yardbirds' "Heart Full of Soul" is suprisingly
understated and ruggedly presented as though they've been sweating
it out for decadeds on the blues circuit rather than selling out
stadiums.
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SNAKES AND ARROWS
(2007)
Key Tracks: "Far Cry," "Malignant
Narcissism"
Quick Take: By this point, Geddyheads know what
they're getting and Rush are well aware of what they're doing,
making Snakes and Arrows a nice extension of the classic
aesthetic on Vapor Trails with few new twists and turns
thrown in. Lifeson continues to reach for the stars, as "Malignant
Narcissism" overcomes its cumbersome title with glorious six-string
blasts.
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SNAKES AND ARROWS LIVE
(2008)
Key Tracks: "The Way the Wind Blows," "Malignant
Narcissism"
Quick Take: Though the title is a bit misleading,
Snakes and Arrows Live does focus on the still-fresh
material from 2007's Snakes and Arrows. Those songs work
well in this setting, but the stuff that goes over best is still
usual suspects like "YYZ" and "Tom Sawyer."