CHRONICLES

Rush was never a great music video group, but still they made them. This collection, originally released in 1990, is a compilation of all of their major promo video releases. Some of the videos are completely ridiculous, some of them have their moments, but on the whole it's not a necessary video for fans of Rush to own. What we have here is a collection of videos spanning from A Farewell to Kings to Hold Your Fire, so you can see (literally, in terms of looks) the evolution of the band and how they changed their sound within those ten years. The songs that are on this set are amongst the best in the Rush catalogue, but the videos range from utterly ridiculous to completely cheesy.

Closer to the Heart opens the set with an extreme close up on Geddy's eyes, while famous figures from history are portrayed in pictures around him (Chairman Mao for example). It's nothing more than a simple in the studio version. This goes with the next four videos, with The Trees, Tom Sawyer, and Limelight all being in the studio versions of the song, with nothing truly interesting to add. Red Barchetta's video is the exact same one as on the video for Exit... Stage Left, including the cheesy proto 3D effects. It's a fun version, none the less. Subdivisions is the first true video on the set. With a nice use of filming of a troubled teen throughout a cold city. It's one of the better videos of the set, in my opinion. Distant Early Warning suffers from a completely ridiculous video that features Geddy Lee's son. It's laughable, actually. Red Sector A benefits from another concert version, taken from the Grace Under Pressure Tour video. It's a top notch performance with some incredible drumming from Peart.

The Big Money and Mystic Rhythms, despite being excellent songs, are not excellent videos. More incredibly dated and cheesy 3D effects are used, and the band are at their most ridiculous looking. The Hold Your Fire videos suffer from the same problem, they are just too cheesy and overblown. In the end, though, it was the 80s and you can't really expect the best of videos in that decade (despite awesome ones like Sledgehammer). The two bonus videos on this set are both from the Grace Under Pressure album, but they both have the same amount of cheesiness as Distant Early Warning, so there's nothing truly spectacular about them.

In the end, Rush was never a great music video group. Their in the studio videos are cool, and their concert videos are of interest, but their music videos are nothing but ridiculous film. Not to say there isn't anything good about this set, the songs chosen for the videos are among the best in their catalogue, but you'll probably get a good laugh at the videos that accompany them. This set is really for Rush fans and collectors. If you want a good Rush dvd, start with R30 or Replay X3. 2.5/5.