What is the best Rush album?

[coloradodem2005]

I mean the band not the blowhard. I am listening to "Hold Your Fire" now. I know that it is maligned, but It is still quite good. Very etherial without being way too technoesque.

[Rocinante]

1. Well

I'm partial to 2112 myself but I happen to like all of them, even from their early days. If you haven't checked out Rush In Rio do yourself a favor and do it. The DVD is really good.

[coloradodem2005]

2. I have the CD set.

I actually saw then on that tour. They played a lot of the same songs.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. I'm kinda partial to Hemisphere's myself

and I also love All the World's A Stage.

And Exit Stage Left is AWESOME.

Also 2112. And Farewell to Kings.

And I always forget the name, but the album they did in '96 - that album was totally worth slogging through everything from Grace Under Pressure to that album. WOW! Did that one rock. And I saw them again on that tour - best tour of them I'd seen, and I'd seen them a few times before (but always post Grace Under Pressure).

What a band! What an I N C R E D I B L E band.

[Bundbuster]

6. Rabrrrrrr - I thought you were into Classical music?

When I DJ'ed on Public Radio I was given the moniker of "Mr. Eclectic", doing Blues, Classical, Jazz, and Acid Rock shows all in within 2 days. I will still listen to Rush and follow it with Tchaikovsky - how about you?

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Jesus Christ, man,

what's the difference between Berlioz and Rush? It's all solid, incredible music.

:-)

I am, of course, totally into classical music, and that's the music in which I have been "trained", but dude, I'm into any music that's **musicologically* valid, and that includes Rush, Floyd, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Adrain Belew, Yes, Genesis (pre-Invisible Touch), Zappa (musical god), Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Steve Reich, Glass, Mahler, Schoenberg, Xannakis, Milhaud, Schickele, Bowie, Boulanger, Ives, ELP, Deep Purple, Sun Ra, Te3rry Riley, Kronos, etc.

I totally think Rush and Tchaikovsky can go together.

I also totally think that Briitney/Beyonce/Timberlak/N'Stink/New Kids/Lief Garret/Whitney/Celine/etc. and Tchaikovsky CAN NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES go together.

Long live Sun Ra and Mahler and Zappa and Eno!!!

[Bundbuster]

17. Rabrrrrrr - I hereby dub thee "Mr. Eclectic"

and I'm with you on Britney/Beyonce, etc.

A little Symphonie Fantastique, anyone?

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Symphonie Fantastique would make Beyonce's ears bleed

So I'm totally for it!!

<horrible swear word> these no-talent bullshit faux-artists.

:-)

[coloradodem2005]

29. Test for Echo.

[Elidor]

41. Was it Test for Echo?

I forget the year, but it certainly rocked.

Too many good ones to pick just one.

[Rabrrrrrr]

44. That's the one!! Great album!

When I first heard it, I thought to myself, "Okay, all that experimental, half-baked slogging on albums from Grace Under Pressure to the one before Test for Echo, were totally worth it".

I truly felt that Rush had finally figured out the new sound they were looking for with the inclusion of the synthesized sound, and Test For Echo has that awesome older-style rock drive that i loved about Rush, but with a lot more challenging and textural soundscapes.

It took them 5 or 6 albums, but they found it.

And that tour they played all of 2112 before intermission, and WOW did that rock!! Lifeson had the volume turned WAY up and the distortion turned up to about infinity. Incredible!

[ScrewyRabbit]

4. Horrible pretentious stuff

inspired by Ayn Rand, of all things.

I mean really, how stupid is this line: "And I chose free will"

Well if you chose it you already had it! God I'd rather listen to Kiss, at least it doesn't pretend to be deep.

(Okay, I deserve to be flamed now...)

[Rocinante]

7. I ain't going to flame you

but the line is I Will Choose Free Will.

[ScrewyRabbit]

8. I stand corrected

Now compare that with:

"You pull the trigger of my
Love gun
Love gun
Looooooove guuuuuuuuun"
(Kiss, from the album of the same name)

Need I say more? I think not.

[CanuckAmok]

9. You *need* not, but please do...

n/t

[Rocinante]

10. Cool

Thanks for setting me straight. I had never appreciated KISS before now.:-)

[CanuckAmok]

18. I always thought it was...

"I will choose a Bathasphere, I will choose free will". You know, something about the ocean's depths being representive of the human psyche?


Gosh it's late.

[Rocinante]

21. Ok

It's I Will Choose a Path That's Clear. LOL This is fun. I love DU.
Edit- hell I got it wrong too.

[jmowreader]

47. You can choose a ready guide

in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose free will.

Hmm...theme song for John Kerry? The third line basically sums up the 2004 election: choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill, which are the things the BFEE offers, or choose free will like the Democrats promise.

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. "OOh, Ooh, I have to shut out the music because the lyrics are

marginally tied to someone I don't like! My own liberal fundamentalism DEMANDS that I refuse to acknowledge the validuty of anything that doesn't fit my worldview, no matter how tangentially and stupidly my argument is based."\\, and thus I base my interest in the *music* of someone based on the political leanings of the person who plays the drums."


And we wonder why the right looks at dems/liberals as a bunch of whiny shitheads.

What a bunch of goddamn nonsense.

[ScrewyRabbit]

19. Please, this was all a bit of tongue in cheek, okay?

And having consumed a lot, and I mean a lot of rock music in my years, I can tell you arguing about rock just isn't important on the grand scale of things.

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah

whatever. You say it isn't important, yada yada yada, and yet there you are, condemning some segment of it, and I stand by by statement about wondering why the right looks at us as a bunch of stupid, whiny, pathetic shitheads.

[ScrewyRabbit]

34. I stand by the statement that it's not important

But if you want me to be serious on this ridiculous topic, let me just say I was happy when the era of over-produced concept albums that took themselves WAY too seriously ended. The short and straightforward approach of punk was like sonic fresh air in the pretentious monster band days of Rush.

[Rabrrrrrr]

45. And I respect your right to say it!

and salute you for holding your ground on your opinion. :-)

(I really miss the concept albums myself - wish we'd get 'em again. I'm not much for just "songs").

[FDRrocks]

5. moving picture: bar none

I hate Neil Pearts libertarian ayn randish-view, but i must give him credit.

[rudeboy666]

11. maybe he's a Left libert?

....there is a growing academic literature on Left-Libertarianism.

Not all libertoids are from the Right.

p.s. Rand sucks(though I never read her books!:-))

[FDRrocks]

12. Ayn Rand "liberts"

are from the right. Trust me. Or don't.

[rudeboy666]

13. ok

but I did hear a while back(on FR of all places!) that Peart considered himself a 'progressive' libertarian.

[FlyByNight]

27. Yup. Moving Pictures...

is probably my fave. I own all of their studio stuff and some albums I like more than others. Besides MP, 2112, FBN, Permanent Waves, Power Windows and Signals are the ones which I probably listen to the most.

[NashVegas]

32. Rand v Tolkien

You have to give him credit for one thing: at least the Rand-influenced stuff he may have written isn't as goofy as the Tolkien-inspired stuff they did.

[rudeboy666]

14. a link on Left Liberts

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=478442

[Don_G]

20. Limbo

"Live At The Supreme Court."

[Tom Kitten]

24. I liked "Fly By Night" and...

Farewell to Kings...those are top notch albums...also "Working Man" from their first album...mainly for the power chords, back in those pre-punk rock days...back then I was a teeny bopper, I have to admit I never paid much attention to lyrics back then, it was the hook or groove or something similar that sold me...I just liked listening to stuff that got my adrenalin flowing...Somehow stuff like Yes' "Close to the Edge",or King Crimson "In the Court of the Crimson King"; as much as I liked it, didn't exactly cut it...Nice, but a little too mellow...Another album that blew my socks off at the time was Thin Lizzy's "Vagabonds of the Western World"...I still love that album, especially "I'm Gonna Creep Up On You" and "I'm a Rocker"...Then I discovered Hawkwind, and my peer group thought I went off my rocker (at 17!) "What is that monotonous crap you're listening to?" they'd say...And then they'd play some BTO, or Nugent...

[yowzayowzayowza]

25. 2112

thru MP is all good... Bringing back Natural Science for the last tour was most excellent. So glad their still touring; went with my 12 y/o nephew who was duely impressed.

[Lostmessage]

26. The broken one

:shrug:

[AndyHammond1970]

28. Hold Your Fire.

eom

[Don Claybrook]

30. I'm surprised no one has mentioned

A Farewell to Kings, '77.

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[Zomby Woof]

33. Moving Pictures

Sure, a few of the songs are overplayed on the radio, but when you listen to the album from beginning to end, it is one of the very best albums of the 80's - just about perfect. Far superior to anything by that other well-known trio of the time, The Police (now there's a pretentious band).

"Witch Hunt" is a great anti-censorship song, and "YYZ" is one of the all-time best instrumentals - Primus ripped it off in good form many years later.

I also love "Signals" (saw that tour), "2112", and "Permanent Waves" (anyone else love the song "Different Strings"?).

Though I didn't like the Ayn Rand influence, it was minor compared to the bulk of the material. To me, they lost it when Terry Brown quit as the producer. He was the 4th member.

No single album since "Signals" stands out, but I could probably cull enough from "Grace Under Pressure" (the second and last time I saw them live), "Presto", "Roll The Bones", "Counterparts", "Test For Echo" (I think that is the one Rabrrrrr was referring to), and "Vapor Trails" to make one okay album. The rest are forgettable and disposable, especially "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire".

[GOPisEvil]

35. Very well stated.

I liked Test for Echo quite a bit though. But, if I were going to make a compilation cd of my own, I would take a few songs of each of the last 5 cds and make one really good listening cd.

I saw them on the Power Windows, Roll The Bones and Counterparts tours. I've never been disappointed by them live. The last time I saw them live it was just an evening with Rush - that was fantastic. They played a lot of their old stuff (pre-signals). I thought it might be their good-bye, but they're touring again. :thumbsup:

Edit - "Superconductor" from Roll the Bones (I think) is a good song about style over substance political campaigns.

[coloradodem2005]

37. Cool.

I thought Superconductor was from Presto. I have Roll the Bones and its not on that.

[GOPisEvil]

48. You're right...it's Presto.

:-)

[Dr Fate]

36. I have to admit that Rush rocks out...

I love the songs "Tom Sawyer" and "Red Baracheta (Sp?)"- I also like "Fly By Night"...

[PVnRT]

39. Fly By Night

was the first song I was almost completely able to figure out on the guitar on my own.

[Dr Fate]

40. I'm not "supposed" to like Rush...

considering my aversion to most 70's FM "classic rock"- but Rush fucking rocks- no getting around it...

[PVnRT]

38. 2112 and Moving Pictures

Fucking awesome albums, I could listen to them looped for quite a long time.

We are the priests....of the Temples....of Syrinx....

[saint_john]

42. Moving Pictures: Witch Hunt

Read the lyrics from this one, and tell me they don't apply to what's going on right now in America. It's prophecy, I tell you.

(PS: This thread finally made me register and post, been reading the site for quite some time)

[Rabrrrrrr]

46. Welcome to DU saint_john!

:hi:

Great song, Witch Hunt.

[youngred]

43. none

sorry, but Rush is the worst product of Canada ever

[GOPisEvil]

49. No way they are worse than Celine Dion...

...oh, didja hear? Coming to DC and Philly at the end of April. :hi:

[PVnRT]

50. Or Loverboy...gaaahhhhhh

Loverboy should be grounds for an invasion....gaaahhhhhh

[Zomby Woof]

52. oh yeah!

And Loverboy, to add to the above I listed.

[Zomby Woof]

51. no way

Bryan Adams, April Wine, Celine Dion come to mind as worse.

[MrSlayer]

53. I have to go with "Moving Pictures"

It's a perfect album.

[tigerbeat]

54. gun to my head?

i gotta say "moving pictures"....but there is a soft spot in my heart for "hold your fire" as well. "tai shan" is one of rush's best songs.