Favorite Rush Era

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: Horizons wrote: Vapor Trails is lacking progressiveness just as much as any album after it.  Rush, since 2002, have been in the same vein as bands like Muse. I've always thought of VT as a full-blown prog album;  sure, it's not "progressive" on a grand epic scale like Hemispheres, but it's easily Rush's most complex album ever, complete with layers upon layers of instruments and vocals and tricky time changes you don't even know are there until you actually try to count them.

Epignosis wrote: Ambient Hurricanes wrote: Counterparts - T4E:  Alternative rock Ho ho!  No. Tons of progressive rock in those albums!  Underrated as hell too.

I consider them "progressive" in the literal sense, but not "progressive rock."

Favorite Rush album?  Hemispheres.

Second favorite Rush album?  Vapor Trails.

Take that for what you will. 

Follow up post to when I talked poorly of Vapor Trails. I spun it today in the store and really enjoyed it. Now, I spun it after having to listen to Astronautilis and Tool, and next to that I might even think that Carly Rae Jepsen's Kiss was a masterpiece. But I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to never having Vapor Trails listed as my least favorite Rush album again. Rush is somewhat infaliable to me though lol.

Ambient- I love your shorthand for Grace Under Pressure lol p/g is awesome

dtguitarfan wrote: Hmm, I always considered 2112 to Moving Pictures to be one era - like it was their proggy era.  And that's always been my favorite section of their catalog.

You could include Caress of Steel in the "proggy" era as well, since it was their first full-blown progressive rock album.

Just for fun, here's how I would divide them if I was going to be really picky:

Rush - FBN:  Hard rock era/"Finding their way"
Caress - 2112:  Hard rock/metal + prog
AFTK - Hemispheres:  Full-blown progressive rock
PW - MP:  More song-based, accessible prog; a refinement of the previous era
Signals - p/g:  semi-progressive rock, less aggressive and more textured
PW - HYF:  More keyboard driven, thoughtful prog related arena rock
Presto - RYB:  Pop rock with mature songwriting, rhythm and groove
Counterparts - T4E:  Alternative rock
VT - Snakes:  Complex, layered song-based progressive hard rock
CA:  Straight-ahead hard rock with progressive touches

Well, of course that I like 80`s era, but as a person that live in Europe, I've never had a chance to catch Rush live because they are not touring that part of the world too often. And since I am going to see Rush in July 2013 I had hoped  that they would play more 'evergreens ' . Because you know, it's great to hear rare gems such as " Middletown Dreams " , " Territories " , " Body Electric " , " Where's My Thing ' , " The Analog Kid "  Grand Designs " , " Bravado " or " Manhattan Project " for people who already have seen Rush for quite few times.  But to be honest, I would prefer to hear more classics like  " Xanadu " , " Limelight " , "Red Barchetta " , " A Passage To Bangkok " " Closer To The Heart " "Freewill " , " Natural Science " " Circumstances " etc for my first show. But anyway, I hope that my first meeting with boys will be great. And I cross my fingers for R40 Tour including brilliant setlist !

I agree Clockwork Angels is amazing and has extraordinary playability. I usually listen to music.by.inserting a cd and pressing play, but certain albums stand out as excellent rides. For instance Selling England By The Pound

Hah Mike , Hold Your Fire contains my favourite Live Rush song ever, and it is " Force Ten " . Badass bass by Geddy..  Actually that longplay is too soft and poppy, but it has some outstanding lyrics ( " We pay a great price for our vision of paradise.. ) and moments . ( Lock And Key - One of the most overlooked songs ever ) . And well, Power Windows is indeed a great album but has some lower points such as "Emotion Detector" and " Middletown Dreams", they are not bad, but they could have been better . But I think it's a matter of time to get use to SynthSound that Rush presented on that era. Sometimes it sounds like New Romantic songs, but well, it was Geddy main inspiration I assume haha :)

I had a great time with Rush In Rio week ago, what a show it was ! Check the behaviour of the Brazilian fans during 2112. They are maniacal fanatics ! One of their best sets ever.  Gorgeous performance of " The Pass " , " Natural Science " " Red Sector A "  ...

Progressive Mike - Yeah , funny but for me Different Stages is also my favourite live album. Contains so many overlooked songs, like T4E, Resist , Nobody's Hero ,Show Don't Tell , performance of 2112 in it's entirety, a bunch of classics. And undeniably best vocal shape of Geddy in Rush history. Eargasm !

And Vapor Trails is truly wonderful album, with so many emotional lyrics written by Peart.. He dealt with his tragedy in a wonderful way. But what ruined that longplay in the eyes of the fans is production. Propably worst ever. Apart from Norwegian Black Metal from 90`s such as Darkthrone, I've never heard album that sounds worse.  Anyway, " Ghost Rider " and " Earthshine " are propably two most emotional songs ever written by that band. For those who want to give a try to that album I strongly recomend " Bubba Skarda Remix - Vapor trails less Vapor " , it improves the sound a lot !