MOVING PICTURES

If there's any album that makes me question citing Permanent Waves as my favorite Rush album, 'twould be Moving Pictures. Side One is UNquestionably their best side ever, with "Tom Sawyer" leading things off and anouncing to the listener that we're in for a truly classic album. I won't go into how awesome the bass playing on that song is, or how perfect that analog synth tone is, or how much the guitar rocks, or how powerful and entrancing (strange word for them, probably, but don't they seem to supernaturally command repeated listening?) those definitively virtuoso drum fills right before the outro verse are, but I could! Every song is great on this album, and if you've only heard "Tom Sawyer", "Red Barchetta". and "Limelight" but are into them, it's also very likely you'll love their best instrumental since "La Villa Strangiato", "YYZ", the prog-but-different-kind-of-prog in the tradition of Led Zeppelin's "Carouselambra", "The Camera Eye" (with some very luminous vocals by Lee), the important and insightful lyric-ed and full-synthed "Witch Hunt", as well as the ever changing and panning "Vital Signs." Maybe not, though, because none of those songs sound exactly like any of the other ones, although the production does tie all of the songs together with a completely listenable sound that I never get tired of. In fact, when I think of Rush's sound in general, I think of Moving Pictures. In a related matter, when I think of Neil Peart's drumming in general, I think of Moving Pictures, as it does have some of his best and most defining drum parts. It's just a great album, and if you haven't heard it already, I kind of don't believe you.