#rushalbums

[nickfanemusic]

Ranking the Rush Albums Pt. 3 (#10-#6)

10. Snakes and Arrows (2007)

This was the first album (of 2) that Rush put out that I purchased when it actually came out instead of years, usually decades, after the fact. My first reactions to it were fairly lukewarm, and that I felt it had some good songs while others were real sleepers. Upon revisiting it recently, though, my attitude has warmed up to it significantly. The band is balancing their heavier, more modern sound with more dynamic arrangements, featuring a lot of acoustic guitar and spacey synth sounds to create some interesting textures. Lyrically, Peart is exploring current events in a direct way, as there are many references throughout the album to the chaotic state of the world that the Bush years had helped instigate. In fact, one of the compelling elements of this album to me upon re-listening is how the lyrics help the listener track Peart’s ideology over time. A self described “bleeding heart Libertarian”, may of Rush’s early songs are inspired by his reading of Ayn Rand, such as Fly By Night’s “Anthem” and one of Rush’s most well-regarded works, “2112″, which is actually dedicated to “The Genius of Ayn Rand” as I was boldly reminded of upon receiving the album on vinyl as a gift recently.  I have my problems with this because I think Ayn Rand was misguided at best and a malicious agent of chaos at worst, but that’s beside the point. Snakes and Arrows shows Peart reflecting on some of these notions in his lyrics, such as the prechorus of “Far Cry”: “It’s a far cry from the world we thought we’d inherit; it’s a far cry from the way we thought we’d share it” seems to be an acknowledgement of the unfairness of our current situation. “A Larger Bowl” is another example. Written as a Pantoum, a style of verse that originates in Malaysia, the lyric begins with the potent question, “If we’re so much the same like I always hear, why such different fortunes and fate?” This isn’t me saying that this is evidence that Peart has changed his ideology or anything, but much like how Kurt Vonnegut poses ideological questions in his works but also has viable counter-arguments represented by other characters, Peart has never been one to propagandize in his lyrics. Overall, this one is a fun listen from start to finish mainly due to the variety of sonic avenues they travel down throughout its runtime; from the hard edge of “Far Cry” and “Armor and Sword” to the softer tracks like “Hope”, it’s a roller coaster and a damn good one.

9. Grace Under Pressure (1984)

Grace Under Pressure is sort of a curious exhibit  in the band’s catalogue, and contains what I would describe as “growing pains” in their expansion to a more synth-based and textured sound. Alex Lifeson often sounds like he doesn’t know what to do, and the synth textures aren’t as mature as on later albums. When it comes to their 80’s releases, though, I regard Grace Under Pressure very highly. There are some real burners on this album, from the opening cut “Distant Early Warning” to the driving “Afterimage” and the dark and industrial sounding “Red Sector A”. “The Enemy Within” actually has one of my favorite verse riffs in the Rush catalogue, and the album does a compelling job meshing darker themes with a new found funkiness. The B side isn’t as strong (the aforementioned songs make up the entire A side) but I would say there’s no sore thumbs across the album’s runtime. This is Rush’s first album in years without Terry Brown as producer, and as such I would say this is the album that marks the end of their classic period. Nonetheless, this one still makes for a great listen now.

8. Signals (1982)

The last album with Terry Brown as producer and the last in Rush’s classic era of releases, Signals is a fan favorite. Most known for the opening song (always with the opening songs being top tier!) “Subdivisions”, which is a bonafide classic and stands among Rush’s best songs, the album has plenty of synth to go around without drowning out the guitar or bass too much, as happens on some later albums. The song “New World Man” is also Rush’s highest-charting song in their career, peaking at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. That song never really did it for me, but other songs on the album certainly do! “The Analog Kid” is an excellent song throughout, and the guitar solo is particularly excellent. “Digital Man” is among my favorites by the band as well. A slightly weaker B-side is at play here, but this one is definitely worth your time.

7. Vapor Trails (2003)

Vapor Trails has a bumpy history. The original release of the album was a notable casualty in the “loudness wars”, which saw mixing and mastering practices sacrificing overall sound quality in favor of pure volume. This meant that the album actually had digital distortion in its final mix, which is an inexcusable situation for an album of this caliber. The poster child for this practice is Metallica’s Death Magnetic (produced by Rick Rubin, who one might call the Charlemagne of the Loudness War), which was especially notable for one reviewer who recommended illegally downloading the Rock Band versions of the tracks since they were more deftly mixed. Fortunately, Vapor Trails got a much deserved remaster in recent years which helps to showcase to the world what I’ve felt for years: Vapor Trails is a top-tier Rush album. The first album since Caress of Steel to not feature any synthesizer, the power trio rages through the 67-minute run time with a ferocity that the band hadn’t displayed quite so well in years. Recorded after a long hiatus due to personal tragedies in Neil Peart’s life, the renewed band comes out swinging with maybe their heaviest track ever, “One Little Victory”, and doesn’t let up from there. Plenty of head bangers are present, with songs like “Nocturne” and "Vapor Trail” providing a more dynamic arrangement. Both of those are highly recommended, as are “Earthshine, “Sweet Miracle”, “Secret Touch” and “Ceiling Unlimited”. I honestly recommend the whole album, best listened in the car on a road trip, which I have a hunch is how Peart, and avid motorcyclist and author (as detailed in another great cut from the album, “Ghost Rider”) likely came up with many of the lyrics for the album, or at least the seeds for them. Peart spent years in a perpetual road trip after the death of his daughter and wife. I’m very thankful for him being able to recover from those tragedies to go on to make more music, as it has been among the most impactful for me. Vapor Trails is a big part of that. Not the biggest though.

6. 2112 (1976)

I know, I know. This one is probably unexpectedly low on the list. This is the album that began Rush’s classic period of releases, and it’s quite excellent. The A-side is the now-iconic title track, a 22-minute opus about an individual in a future dystopia where the arts are banned or at least heavily centrally regulated by some sort of political/religious organization. Person finds a guitar, shows it to the people at the top, they lose their shit and destroy it, guy dies from crippling depression, nebulous voice declares to all planets of the Solar Federation that they’ve assumed control. As previously mentioned, the lyric is basically a Libertarian fever dream, but that’s not the reason why I rank this album lower than one might expect. Politics of the title cut aside, it is without question the highlight of the album. Listening to Caress of Steel’s misguided “Fountain of Lamneth”, which was on the album that they just recorded, followed immediately by the more coherent, more refined and ultimately outstanding “2112″ suite shows just what sort of creative leap they made in that short time. In fact, the album never should have existed: Rush’s international label at the time, Mercury, had stated that if Rush didn’t produce a more radio-friendly album, they would be dropped. In the face of that, they decided to stick with their guns and made something truly brilliant, solidifying their entire decades-long career in the process. That artistic confidence is on full display on the title track. The album ranks a bit lower because of its B-side. While the songs are pretty good overall, they simply don’t match the brilliance of the A-side, and while they’re not necessarily forgettable, their other albums have better songs to match their headier, longer works. “A Passage to Bangkok” and “Something For Nothing” are my favorites of the short songs.

Next up, we dig into the Top 5!

[nickfanemusic]

Ranking the Rush Albums Pt. 2 (#15-#11)

#15 - Counterparts (1993)

Counterparts is sort of the godfather of every Rush album that came after it. The production/engineering side of the album (notably Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, an engineer who has since worked with a who’s who of rock and progressive metal bands) nudged the band further towards a harder-edged sound which became the main through-line for every post-Counterparts release. Every album that came after (with the exception of Test for Echo) ranks higher for me than this one, though there’s some great music here, and unlike some of their albums, this one simply sounds good. The production is clean and heavy with some of Alex Lifeson’s best guitar tone in years, and some awesome tunes to be found. It also features “Leave That Thing Alone”, a live show staple that is likely their best instrumental since “YYZ” (the band actually considers it their best instrumental, period). Maybe most interesting is that Counterparts is, along with only one other Rush album (more on that later) a genuine concept album. Many Rush albums have long movements that tell a narrative coupled with shorter unrelated songs. All throughout, Counterparts’s lyrical content touches on the nuances of personal relationships, especially romantic ones. Notable tracks include “Nobody’s Hero”, a song tackling the AIDS epidemic and stigma of homosexuality in our culture, and “Stick it Out”, among the heaviest guitar riffs that the band had published at the time.

#14 - Presto (1989)

This is Rush’s first album in over a decade that had fewer synthesizer tracks on it than its predecessor, and the power-trio focus is a welcome change from the thick digital textures of Hold Your Fire. The band retains the slickness from its 80′s recording experiments in this record, however, so those looking for a full return to the hard rock Rush of bygone albums will be left wanting. This is an album with plenty of good songs but few true standouts, with the exception of “The Pass”, which is most notable for being a maybe-unanimous pick by the band for their best-ever song. It’s a great showcase for the song-craft that Rush had developed over years of recording and touring, which is the characteristic that the band self-identifies with most, often in opposition to the rock media’s perception of the band (not to mention the fans, oh the fans!). In any case, Presto is a landmark album for the band in their creative journey, and must be regarded as such. The fact that it has some really cool songs on it as well is a plus! Personal favorites are the opening track, “Show Don’t Tell” (Rush often has their A+ material up first in the batting order) and “Scars”, a great bassline and drum performance.

#13 - Rush (1974)

Robert Plant once said that everything that Led Zeppelin ever did could have its seeds traced back to their first album. This is likely an exaggeration, but makes for an interesting thought experiment about the nature of the band’s catalogue. The same cannot be said for Rush, whose decades-long experiment with songwriting, recording, digital technology, etc. has only a small sliver of its output traceable to its first release. Rush is a great album, and I often put myself in the shoes of a rock listener in the year 1974 when I listen to it, intentionally forgetting that everything that came after exists. What you’re left with is a pretty great rock album that makes for a pretty alright Rush album. What a statement! One would be remiss to not point out that Neil Peart, Rush’s iconic drummer/lyricist, hadn’t yet joined the outfit, with original drummer John Rutsey making his only LP appearance with Rush on this release. Rutsey makes the band sound great, and while calling him underrated is a stretch considering his limited music career, I still appreciate what Rush sounds like without Peart behind the skins. A great choice for anyone looking for a hard hitting rock album. I personally dig “What You’re Doing” and the album’s closer, “Working Man”, certainly the “classic cut” from this record.

#12 - Fly By Night (1975)

Rush’s first release of 1975 (Caress of Steel would come out later in the same year) serves as a logical bridge between their straight-ahead rock first album and the progressive release to come, and serves as my favorite of the pre-classic Rush period. The title cut is among the band’s classic repertoire, and the album opener, “Anthem”, is one hell of an entrance for the new blood behind the drums, Mr. Peart. “By-Tor and the Snow Dog” serves as the bands earliest experiment in a conceptual piece; the song has singing at the beginning and end with a long instrumental jam detailing the events of a battle between the titular characters, and it rocks. “Beneath Between Behind” is one frenetic bit of hard rock and also hits home. My main contention with this album is that the B-side, excluding the title cut, is thoroughly forgettable. This isn’t a great album throughout, but it has some powerful stuff on it before it gets tied down in filler.

#11 - Power Windows (1985)

Welcome to the crucible of all crucibles, Rush’s most divisive album. For fans that belonged to the hard rock sphere, this was the point in which it was okay to stop buying Rush albums. The album features the most synths of any Rush album with the exception of its followup, Hold Your Fire. While Hold Your Fire dives headfirst into a poppier sound with its more recognizable tracks, Power Windows feels more experimental with the technology, to the album’s benefit. While this isn’t the Rush that many people loved in the 70′s and early 80′s, the album is a cohesive piece and has some awesome material on it. I would also argue that it features some of Geddy Lee’s most soulful vocal performances, which is a huge plus. While it’s far from Rush’s best album, many of its songs are very memorable for me, and while I can often get mixed up with exactly which song is on which album in Rush’s music, each song on Power Windows is distinctly and unmistakably a Power Windows cut. That realization of a particular vision and sound is admirable! It’s not perfect, nor does it crack my top 10, but it’s one I still revisit relatively often. Check out the opening track “Big Money”, “Middletown Dreams” and “Mystic Rhythms” in particular.

NOTE: Some editing occurred after publishing due to some truly clumsy writing.

[nickfanemusic]

Ranking the Rush Albums Pt. 1 (#19-#16)

Over the past 12 years of me pursuing music first as a hobby, then a genuine passion, then a higher academic pursuit and now as a career, I’ve had many experiences that have broadened my horizons to all sorts of different music. One of my favorite things about music, after all, is just how different it can all be, and enjoying a wide swath of flavors and genres. Whether it’s extremely math-y metal like Meshuggah or stripped down folk like The Tallest Man on Earth, I love a lot of different stuff. But lately, I’ve been revisiting some of the music of the band that originally inspired me to play bass, and start this whole crazy journey I’ve been on, in the first place: Rush.

As part of this, I thought it would be a good thought/writing exercise for me to rank them in terms of how much I like them (not which is objectively best!). In doing so, I’ve found that my opinions on some albums are remarkably different than I would have originally thought, at least in terms of the enjoyment I get from them relative to each other. That’s what I’m starting today, with the lowest-4 ranked. Let’s begin!

#19 - Roll the Bones (1991)

Roll the Bones, released 3 days after my birthday (fun fact!), isn’t a bad album. From start to end, it’s an inoffensive collection of songs that showcase the band’s musicianship and songwriting chops well enough. There’s just not much to say other than it’s an inferior version of its predecessor, Presto. Rush can be described as having their particular creative direction representing itself in 2 albums at a time before they progress to the next thing, and these two fall into that category; Presto just has better songs and makes for a more appealing final product. If there were a Rush album to skip altogether, this is certainly it in my eyes. Special shout-out to the rap bridge on the title cut, though. Very likely the most playful and silly thing that Rush has done in the studio!

#18 - Hold Your Fire (1987)

Oh, Hold Your Fire. I’ve read other rankings of Rush’s albums, and this one seems to be the consensus decision as the absolute worst. So, while I rank it as my 2nd least favorite, let’s point out some strong points. “Time Stand Still” is a solid 80′s pop song that wouldn’t be out of place on a John Hughes soundtrack. The opening song, “Force Ten”, has one of Geddy Lee’s most underrated and overlooked basslines. Problem is, the rest of the album is kind of a wash. I had to look up the track listing to refresh my memory on just what else is on the album. This finds Rush at it’s most synth-heavy, which was a trend in their album releases for years up to this point, culminating in Power Windows (Hold Your Fire’s predecessor) and this album (the pairs theory stands!). It’s funny that this album came out in 1987, the same year that Appetite for Destruction was released. In a rock music world that was very soon to become much less synth-based, much more raucous and grungy, Rush puts out an album like this. It’s not a bad thing that Rush is less influenced by moment-to-moment changes in the music landscape; their independence is what many fans love about them. This album just doesn’t hold much value to the modern listener.

#17 - Caress of Steel (1975)

This album almost tanked Rush’s career. Quite a thought to consider now, considering the numerous platinum albums released in its wake. Much like bands such as Yes that Rush had admired greatly, an entire side of the LP of Caress of Steel is one long song, with a series of movements. While the previous albums were much more “classic rock” oriented, this one is where the band began to pursue a more progressive sound. Their first attempt was entitled “The Fountain of Lamneth”, and is nigh-indecipherable. Whereas future similar attempts have a much clearer musical direction and narrative, “Lamneth” is messy and even comical at times. It also has very good moments, but they shouldn’t have been strung together in such a way. There’s likely around 7 minutes of good material in the 20-minute piece, and it’s clear that it ended up being a side-long opus out of a feeling of necessity (Geddy Lee has even corroborated this idea in Contents Under Pressure, a book about the band chock full of interviews). Also included is the 12-minute “The Necromancer”, which straddles between silly D&D-inspired voiceover and some genuine gold moments, atmosphere and heavy riffs in equal measure. The shorter songs on the album are also solid, though “I Think I’m Going Bald” seems to be trying too hard to offset the pretentious B-side of the album.

#16 - Test For Echo (1996)

Rush’s 1996 release is a solid rock album. The title track, which also serves as the album’s opener, has great dynamic shifts from section to section, as does the 2nd track, “Driven”. These are likely both classic Rush songs at this point, and this dynamic energy can’t be found on many of their late 80′s/early 90′s releases. The rest of the album is totally serviceable with some small standout moments, particularly the more tender “Resist”, which is an overlooked gem and among Alex Lifeson’s favorite songs that Rush produced. Unlike previous albums on this list, I don’t find this album to have any true missteps. It ranks low on the list more because Rush has a lot of great albums! This one also serves as a good creative stepping stone to their 2000′s offerings, though it’s important to note that Rush took a long hiatus after this album due to the untimely death of Neil Peart’s daughter in a car accident and his wife to cancer.

Stay tuned for the next post coming soon!