RUSH

Well, here it is, the full stop - whilst archival Rush material and rare gems will doubtless be dug out here and there, and whilst strictly speaking the idea of a Rush album without Neil Peart isn't totally unprecedented - he wasn't on their debut album, remember - he'd become such an integral part of the band from Fly By Night onwards that I think everyone realises the prospect of new Rush concerts and albums following his passing just doesn't make sense. This big 40th anniversary blowout live set essentially draws a line under their career; everything that comes out after this is solely going to be a matter of filling in the gaps.

How is it? Well, it's resolutely OK, but not better than OK. Like most Rush live releases of the 2000s, it's somewhat overlong and is a bit too keen on including audience noise, and Geddy's vocals aren't what they used to be. Everything is deftly and precisely performed, save for those moments of vocal shakiness, but on the other hand it doesn't quite land like archival live performances that have been creeping out from their heyday through recent reissues. If you want a lot of live Rush, sure, this is fine. If you want the best of live Rush, I'd look to releases from substantially earlier in their illustrious career.

This is probably the only progressive record that I have listened to that is as close as perfection as is humanly possible. The shift from progressive hard rock still a hallmark of the trio's previous album may not have been perceived by every fan as positive, but I think it injected much-needed change in the band's musical direction. I consider this album superior to both Hemispheres and Moving Pictures, although for different reasons. The musicianship is top-notch as per usual (2112 was the last album where there were still some flaws in execution) and Geddy Lee's singing has become better over time, this being the first album where his voice sounds more natural.

The album's opener The Spirit of Radio is simply one of the best songs in the band's catalogue, easily on par with other the songs that would open the subsequent three albums. More importantly, this song also shines on the audio recording of the Grace Under Pressure Tour (which I incidentally once captured from a Super VHS tape to burn onto a CD, but is luckily available on CD now as part of a box set). I honestly don't know many songs that sound equally great in the studio as well as live, but The Spirit of Radio pulls it off.

Next on to Freewill, a great song accompanied by insightful lyrics. Whilst it doesn't elevate itself above the other songs on the album, that is no slight. Jacob's Ladder is the song it took me the longest to like, but now I love it. It just happens from time to time that a song I have trouble really appreciating I come to love over time (Witch Hunt is another example). A standout song from start to finish. Entre Nous is one of those songs that could easily be overlooked, but whilst not the most complex of songs, it has that special energy that only Rush songs seem to exhibit.

Different Strings is a personal favourite and just shows how far the band has come in its evolution. Compared to previous attempts such as Tears (2112) and Madrigal (A Farewell To Kings), this song is better in almost every aspect. Great lyrics with some very good singing on Geddy Lee's part make this one of the few times when Rush has succeeded with a ballad-like song.

Natural Science closes the album on a perfect note. Again insightful lyrics and Neil Peart's drumming is just wonderful along with great performances of Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee. Of course it could not continue, but it just shows how good music can be.

This album easily makes the desert Island top 10. A masterpiece with very few contemporaries.

Entering the new decade Rush strikes again with "PERMANENT WAVES" as their 7th studio album in 1980. This album displays a ton of rush's best qualities such as the strong bass by Geddy Lee (and his iconic vocals), powerful riffs by Alex Lifeson and some well written lyrics by Neil Peart but I can't forget his drumming on the album neither. I found the CD today!!! i found it along other CDs in my attic and I have already listened to it twice today. Spirit of radio shows the side of Rush that was played a lot more on the radio than others opening with Alex Lifesons recognizable riff and would become a hit. My introduction to the album and my favorite song on the album "Jacob's Ladder" hits deep with great synth and more guitar by Alex Lifeson. The track "Different strings showed me a side of rush I had never seen before, I have never heard a more mellower song by Rush and this was a great one.The ten minute closer "Natural Science" harkens back to work on albums like 'A Farewell to Kings' and 'Hemispheres,' exploring the progressive side of their music with long instrumental sections, weaving through various time signatures and styles and abandoning the desire for radio time. This song is simply gorgeous from the nature sounds that open the tune, to the big riffs and synth layers that weave through the runtime. With each massive Rush song, they find a way to create drama and suspense almost like watching a short film or a three-act play. The movements, the ebbs and flows are so natural yet can be a bit spontaneous at times. It's masterful, it's angelic, it's perfection and I love it.Overall 5 stars this album really stood out to me and captured me like Farewell to kings did.

I knew early into my love affair with Rush that I was mainly a fan of their 80's synth-heavy era. As a long-time prog fan, I gravitated to albums like 'Grace Under Pressure', 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals'. That's not to say I disliked the bands more hard rock material, I just had a firm belief of what my preferences were. So, going through the bands discography from the start, 1974's self-titled debut is a solid hard rocker that holds up today, but after that, it's been all downhill so far.

1975's 'Fly By Night' didn't really do much for me, and sadly, neither does this, the bands third studio album, 'Caress of Steel'.

Which is a shame, because Rush are one of my favourite bands, and the trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart have created some absolutely stellar albums over the years. But there's just nothing about this one that clicks with me. There's a couple of decent tracks, such as 'Bastille Day' and 'I Think I'm Going Bald', but I'm really not likely to listen to any of these by choice.

And to top it off, the Canadian's make their first foray into full-on progressive rock territory, with two tracks reaching durations of almost 13 and 20 minutes respectively, but holy hell these tracks are boring! I absolutely struggle to keep listening without losing interest, oftentimes forgetting it's even the same song I'm listening to.

And sadly, that's 'Caress of Steel'. As much as I love Rush, this album just isn't resonating with me, and since their next studio album is a firm, prog classic, I think it's time to move on to that one?

I had bought it just because it was Rush and I wanted to have everything. For some reason, in the beginning only Distant Early Warning appealed to me (come to think of it, maybe because I had already listened to A Show of Hands and it was familiar) and now I feel appaled by my early judgment! In fact, if the overall quality was not watered down by The Body Electric and Kid Gloves (which I keep listening in case my judgment changes once again - it hasn't) it would be a top Rush album. Afterimage (written about Robbie Whelan, a tape operator at Le Studio who was killed in a car accident) drips with emotion, Red Sector A which speaks about the Holocaust imprisonment camps manages to convey a feeling of anxiety and desperation, Red Lenses is spectacularly groovy (thanks, mostly, to the bass lines). As a whole, Geddy Lee's keyboards have taken a more leading role and Alex Lifeson's guitar focuses on the rhythm where the reggae influence is kind of obvious (consider The Enemy Within - the first part of the trilogy The Fear which started on Moving Pictures and was presented in descending order). The music generally is permeated by a dark atmosphere (excluding Kid Gloves) and I have read this was because the band was thinking seriously to break up - in fact Distant Early Warning was about it and the picture of a C-clamp in the inner of the artwork hints at that, too.

It was an album that Rush had difficulty to do. It took them three months to write the material and then spent five months recording it and the sessions were pretty hectic. Many times they felt that they couldn't come up with what the song demanded. They wanted new challenges because they had achieved a certain level of proficiency in what they were already doing. Consider also that they worked for the first time with another producer than Terry Brown in order to go into other musical territories. Many fans miss their up-to-1980s sound, but to my ears the music is so good that quite a few times I get the goosepimples. Try Between the Wheels and hear for yourselves.

Another Rush live set which offers plenty of material but which doesn't quite hit the mark, in part because of the annoying decision to have the crowd comparatively high in the mix, something which has affected their live releases from at least as far back as Rush In Rio. It's because these live releases of theirs tend to have accompanied DVDs, and are usually just the audio from the DVD transferred to CD with some touch-ups here and there - the problem is that if you're listening to a CD rather than watching a DVD, it's probably because you want to hear the music and can take or leave the live crowd ambience.

With 'Counterparts' Rush returned to a sound much more familiar to themselves and to their fans, in a metaphorical way "abandoning" entirely their synth-based meanderings and composing a heavy album that can without a doubt be seen as the band's strongest and perhaps most consistent release since 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals'. Juggling between crushing riffs with a rampant rhythm section and gorgeous melodies with balanced writing, 'Counterparts' is a great example of a return to form after the less enthralling albums 'Presto' and 'Roll the Bones'. Of course, as the story goes, some turmoil did encompass the band during the writing of the album, mainly coming from Lee's desire to use synths extensively for the embellishment of the songs, and Lifeson's insistence on sticking to a more guitar-based sound. Notwithstanding, the end result is a strong collection of songs dealing with the duality of human nature as well as love and sexuality, which is a bit unusual for Rush as a band not known for their love songs.

Stylistically, we can hear the prevailing influence of alternative rock and grunge over many of the album's tracks - the band utilized heavier guitars and a more organic production resulting in a daring and unfiltered sound that simply suits Rush well. Working with produced Peter Collins, it becomes even less surprising to understand why the Canadian trio opted for a heavier sonic presentation on 'Counterparts'. Cathartic opener 'Animate' sets a fantastic and engaging tone for the album, declaring its strong departure from the more lighthearted nature of preceding albums. 'Stick It Out' follows up with an even more traditional hard rock sound, this is a great track in which each player is able to stand out. 'Cut to the Chase' is a bit more experimental but still very good. What makes a lasting impression here is the excellent songwriting and the smart arrangements - e perfect combination of Rush's sophisticated classic albums and their accumulated experience, given that 'Counterparts' is their fifteenth studio album. 'Nobody's Hero' is another beautiful entry, a bit more melancholic, this is not the typical Rush song. After that, the middle of the album loses some of the initial steam, although still cramped with good songs that tend to get less heavy, until the end of the album where the listener encounters a gorgeous instrumental 'Leave That Thing Alone' and the powerful 'Cold Fire'.

Overall, 'Counterparts' is a more typical Rush album, mature and digestible, the heavier sounds are more than welcome after more than a decade of experimenting with pop and new wave. Both hard rock and prog fans should find plenty of delightful material on here, and while not a perfect album per se, this is a strong and contemporary release that still sounds as good.

'Roll the Bones' from 1991 continues the musical musings of Rush indicated by their previous studio album 'Presto'. Reacting to the popularity of the "digital" way of writing music, the band had turned their backs on synths and keys and embraced the more traditional way of writing as a rock band, only using a guitar, bass and drums (with the keys occasionally supporting or providing an orchestral touch to the songs). With an album that deals with the theme of chance, 'Roll the Bones' is a fine mixture of solid, rocking tracks and funkier, more lighthearted pieces, even famously featuring a rap section on the title track. And while the album might seem to have a little bit of an experimental nature, it is often a bit less cathartic than your usual heavy Rush, and definitely slightly mediocre at times (very few times, though).

Alex Lifeson is definitely at the forefront here, Lee's basslines sound as good as ever, and the warm, technical and immersive playing of Neal Peart could not leave Rush fans cold on this LP, with a "visibly" better songwriting but definitely not a brilliant production, we have an interesting and intelligent but not necessarily always musically exciting album that serves as a fine transition between the band's pop rock sound from a few years prior and their excellent return to their original sound, although with much stronger songwriting, better playing and vocals and a maturity in the lyrical content. 'Roll the Bones' is a good 90s rock/pop album, although nothing exceptional - great songs on here include 'Dreamline', 'Bravado', 'Where's My Thing', 'The Big Wheel', the excellent 'Ghost of a Chance' and to an extent 'You Bet Your Life'. The rest of the material is good but lacking something in terms of production. Nevertheless, 'Roll the Bones' was a commercial success for Rush, bringing the band back to the charts.

Rush concluded their fruitful and rather successful decade of the eighties with the release of 'Presto', an album that unlike its predecessor, exhibits signs of the band coming back to their rock heritage yet still embracing techniques and production values from their previous experiments with lush instrumentation and more straightforward arrangements. Generally astute, this 1989 release is a good return to form for Rush, featuring several really fine songs, although one might get the impression that something is missing, knowing how much the band had relied on synths and keyboards up until that point. With the decision to come back to a more guitar-driven sound, Rush indicated a sign of maturity in a sense, understanding that they had reached a certain level of their music that had necessitated a refreshment.

Still, we see the use of synths in a more supportive role all over 'Presto', which lyrically feels a bit more personal and maybe even adult-oriented despite not having an overarching theme like the previous album. The result of all this is a solid album that opens up with a great song ('Show Don't Tell'), is followed by a few hit-or-miss moments, has a rather strong middle and keeps the bar even until the end, offering nice tracks like 'Scars', 'Superconductor', 'Hands Over Fist' and 'Available Light'. Slightly forgettable, 'Presto' tends to sound like a feelgood soft rock album, which just doesn't necessarily fit a band who is much better at writing heavy music - good LP but not essential Rush.

'Hold Your Fire' comes soon after the great 'Power Windows', and as a late 80s Rush album, this is a release that sees the band embracing their pop side to the fullest - we have lush instrumentation all over, the typical new wave production values, a more straightforward writing (and subsequently, a less sophisticated musical palette) as well as some fine vocals delivering some even finer lyrics dealing with various aspects of life and the like. Lee's role as a band leader is arguably more prominent on this album than on some of the preceding ones, and this might also be the first time where Alex Lifeson's role is "reduced" to a more supportive one, with the guitars taking a back seat in favor of synths and effects. Even within the frame of such an incarnation, Alex Lifeson delivers some tasteful licks and some truly wonderful solos, so do not be fooled by the pop direction of 'Hold Your Fire', this is still Rush!

The album is composed of ten tracks, five on each side, and following the strong releases by the band in recent years, we have some brilliant tracks - powerful, passionate, intricate and very melodic, there are great entries like the opener 'Force Ten', the lovely 'Open Secrets', 'Prime Mover' and 'Lock and Key', together with the thoughtful 'Misson'. At the same time, 'Hold Your Fire' bolsters some songs with questionable quality, leaving the listener wondering what the band was trying with some of these songs - the single 'Time Stand Still' is a too obnoxious 80s sugar pop, 'Second Nature' is too mellow and wimpy, 'Tai Shan' is another surprising entry that lacks a general direction, and the album closer 'High Water' is a bit indulgent. So, the overall personal reaction to 'Hold Your Fire' would be generally indifferent, but this is a good album, nonetheless, featuring both excellent and mediocre songs; good but not excellent in its entirety.