Best 70’s RUSH album

1.  A Farewell to Kings - By this time in their career, Rush had honed their songwriting and they were able to create their first full-blown prog album.  The title tracks shows the band's songwriting has matured by leaps and bounds, and Xanadu + Cygnus X-1 are the obligatory epics.  There isn't a single wrong note played on this one...

2.  Hemispheres - How do you follow-up an album like Farewell to Kings?  Easy, you go for excess!  Perhaps the most ambitious album they ever did...  Everyone likes to heap praises on the first and last tracks, and sure they're brilliant, but check out the middle tracks.  The Trees has become a concert staple, and for good reason, but the real gem of the album is Consequences...  the chorus riff is just about the catchiest thing the band has ever written.  Genius.

3.  2112 - A lot of critics tend to call the second side of the album filler, but I couldn't disagree more!  Check out the eerie whispered vocals on Twilight Zone, and Something for Nothing is one of their strongest closing songs ever.  Their first masterpiece.

4.  Fly By Night - Who would have guessed after the debut that they would have come up with this?  One foot still firmly planted in classic rock, but that seems to enhance the album's prog moments.  And let's not forgot the mindblowing By-Tor and the Snow Dog.  Incredible.

5.  Caress of steel - A very good album, but it has its flaws.  For one thing, I Think I'm Going Bald is a total filler track... fun to listen to perhaps, but completely beneath the band.  Secondly, the epics are perhaps a bit TOO ambitious for this particular moment of time..  They both contain moments of pure genius, but there also rather unorganized and lack focus... it wouldn't be until their next album where they perfected their songwriting to tackle something of this magnitude.  Bastille Day is a classic.

6.  Rush - Led Zeppelin worship here folks, not that there's anything wrong with it.  Most of the album could easily stand head to head with the best of Jimmy Page and folks.  The real highlight is Working Man, which pretty much towers over everything else here and hints at the direction of the band.  Underrated, perhaps, but by no means essential to anyone other than big fans of the band.

Crimson Prince wrote: I chose AFTK because it is the best of the 2112/AFTK/Hemispheres post-apocalyptic trilogy. All the other 70s Rush albums are only mediocre.

This post-apocalyptic trilogy? Intentional? Or just reocurring themes? I am I dumb or am I dumb?

thta's too easy:

1HEMISPHERES

2Fly by night

3farewell to kings

4caress of steel

5rush

62112

Hemispheres gets my vote

I liked everything they done in the 70's, the debut obviously being my least favourite. Hemispheres has superb production, has La Villa Strangiato, and is altogether a more polished and complete album than AFTK - Which is also excellent

I CHOOSE 2112. THE FIRST BSONG IS THE BEST EPIC EVER COMBINING HEAVY RIFS, EMOTIONAL THEMES AND CLEVER - TECHNICAL STRUCTURES.

THE OTHER SONGS SHOW HOW PROG CAN BE WRITEN IN LESS 4 MINUTES TRACKS.EVERYTHING HERE IS A SMALL DIAMOND.