The RUSH discography

Nothing but gushing praise for this masterpiece. I've never met anyone into hard rock who doesn't like this album. They used to play album sides when I was a kid and the played the first side of this all the time and it never got old.

Simply put, a perfect album. I'll have to give this one a listen later.

One of the last really great headphone lps

One of last really "amazing" Rush albums front to back

Of course, just an opinion.

Great album from back to front - the album that pushed Rush into Superstar status. I remember hearing it at a friend's shortly after it was released. Tom Sawyer was constantly on the radio.

I just listened to the disc tonight, and really nothing I can add, just a perfect album and an album even people who aren't Rush fans are familiar with.

Wurthless wrote:

Simply put, a perfect album. I'll have to give this one a listen later.

Yup. It never gets old -I can play this in any mood and love every second of it. Rush at their best.

The song "The Camera Eye' flows so smoothly and works so well, that I forget its 11 minutes long.

manny wrote:

The song "The Camera Eye' flows so smoothly and works so well, that I forget its 11 minutes long.

Excellent point, when songwriting is this good then track length doesn't even enter into the equation.

Look at an album like Nektar's Remember The Future, 1 long 40 minute song, but it never gets boring or feels tired because it is so well-arranged, written and performed that you want it to last longer than it does.

S.D. wrote:

Witch Hunt. I have always loved the creepy vibe of this song, Rush at it's darkest. Lifeson's guitar tone is just HUGE on this song and Peart really works in so many different layers to the arrangement. Another tune that was tailor made for the stage.

Witch Hunt has what are probably my favourite Peart lyrics ever:

Quick to judge, quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand

In fact the whole song is awesome lyrically, but those lines stand out for me.

Not much more to add to what has already been said. It's a great album. Witch Hunt is the production experiment on this album, Vital Signs shows us where they are headed and The Camera Eye rules.....

I think I wore out my lp of this.

Exit...Stage Left (released October 1981)

Between the 1976 live album All The World's A Stage and the 1981 release Exit...Stage Left, Rush had gone through a myriad of changes. So it made perfect sense to document the "second era" of Rush on a live recording. There are actually two different versions of this to discuss, the original 2-LP set and the video release, which are from different performances.

The LP set is compiled from a variety of performances on the Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves tours. I've never been a fan of this practice, I prefer live albums that are captured either in one night or a couple of nights, there's a personality to a live performance that gets lost when you compile different shows together.

The best part of the album are the tracks from the PW tour, this is songs 4-7 on the remastered CD release. It's especially nice to hear Beneath, Between & Behind performed again during the era and the live version of Jacob's Ladder is superb. My main complaint about this album is the production, it's rather lifeless, the guitar is too low in the mix throughout and there is too much separation in the instruments, it makes it sound like a studio recording. For this reason the original LP release of this album has never been one of my favorites...



...however...

...the video release is KILLER!!! Filmed at a single concert in Montreal the mood is captured much more effectively, plus the audio mix is superior to the LP version. The tracklist is different as well. It's not a complete concert, it was edited down to 60 minutes, but that still makes for a good representation of the Moving Pictures tour. The version of Xanadu on here is my favorite, it smokes the studio recording. Also nice is the ending medley of In The End/In The Mood/2112: Grand Finale.



All in all, I would consider the DVD to be an essential purchase by Rush fans...and the CD version is nice to own, if a tad sterile in places.

I never really listen to this album much because it is more enjoyable to listen to the albums the songs come from. The VHS tape made the rounds between all us neighborhood musicians back then and it was nice to finaly get a DVD version on the RUSH Replay X3 set.

Seems I may have to get the cd version, Shawn usually nails things in the ol' audio dept. His ears work really good, though his tatses may not be for all.

I listened to the album last night and loved it. As a kid, it seemed everyone had this album on tape or vinyl, everybody but me, but I heard several times.

It was not til about 4 years ago I finally bought my own copy and I loved it. I do not like it as much as I do 'All the World's A Stage' but very enjoyable.

I bought the DVD of 'Exit Stage Left' a couple of years, and it is excellent, the only downside that it is only an hour long, but it is great to see Rush on film, around the time I discovered them.

manny wrote:

I bought the DVD of 'Exit Stage Left' a couple of years, and it is excellent, the only downside that it is only an hour long, but it is great to see Rush on film, around the time I discovered them.

The video for Exit...Stage Left really deepened my appreciation for Rush at the time. Being able to see these guys play and see how much fun they have doing it just made it that much more enjoyable. I love watching Alex and Geddy goof around while playing By Tor, during the 80s people thought Rush was so "serious", but if they watched ESL they'd see a different side to the band.

The Exit..stage left video was the first Rush video I ever saw. Its what really sold me on the band. I knew who they were and had 2112 before this but this video caused me to go buy all the other Rush albums out at the time.

"he's not afraid of dying, he's more afraid of your lying..."


SIGNALS - (released Sep 4, 1982)

Signals seems to be one of the most consistently underrated Rush albums of their entire career, something that has always confused me considering the quality of the songwriting and performances. Those afraid of keyboards & synths tend to ignore this album out of hand...despite the fact that stylistically it's very similar to Moving Pictures.

Opening with Subdivisions (one of the best Rush songs of the 80s) it had me hooked from the very first time I heard it. Geddy's lush keyboard textures offer a comfortable pad for Lifeson & Peart to play over, Peart's performance on this song is especially noteworthy...it's obvious that he was listening to bands like The Police during this era and was able to integrate some of that groove into his playing. Something about this song is just plain magical, it's SO memorable, it sounded like a classic the instant it came out. The keyboards also allow Lifeson to explore different sonic territory than usual, no longer tied to specifically guitar riff based songs, he has the freedom to explore a more textural approach.



The Analog Kid has one of the most fun little riffs from this era, Geddy's bass sound here is enviable. The opening verse section is an uptempo straight ahead rocker, then it takes a gorgeous left turn into the orchestral-sounding chorus. Again the use of synths as a harmonic "pad" works to great effect here (a sound they would continue to expand upon). Lifeson's guitar solo is a monster, he found a way to keep that same intense fire but compress it into a smaller section of time.

Chemistry is another of my favorite Rush songs from this era, here the synth again creates a huge lush landscape for Lifeson's guitar to slash and burn over. One of the most interesting aspects to this era of Rush is that they were still throwing in lots of little prog-style bits without ever sacrificing the overall groove of the song. It's so well integrated that some people don't even notice it.

The Weapon is the album's masterpiece track, this was a tune Geddy concocted while playing around with sequencers and drum machines at home and later re-arranged for the band, it's basically Signals answer to The Camera Eye. Everything works perfectly on this song, another one of those "instant classics" like Subdivisions. Lifeson's solo on this tune is one of my all-time favorites.



Losing It is another neglected Rush ballad, the use of electric violin is especially striking. A beautiful melody and another great Lifeson solo nails this one home.

Countdown was inspired by the band watching the Space Shuttle launch, an interesting idea to be sure...but this song has always felt like a bit of a throwaway tune to me.

The remaining two tracks are the more commercial offerings from the album and are usually the ones that inspire the most disdain from old school Rush fans. Digital Man fully embraces the bands fascination with The Police, however I have always loved this tune...despite the slight reggae vibe it totally rocks and was a concert favorite. New World Man ended up being an accidental hit single, when I was younger I didn't care much for this song but I've gained an appreciation for it since they resurrected it on Rush In Rio.



I still think Signals is a resounding success and a CLASSIC Rush album. Is this the same band that recorded 2112? No, but they didn't want to be either. Rush had the maturity and foresight to continue growing and exploring new sounds.

Signals was the end of their long-time relationship with Producer Terry Brown, him and the band had a falling out over the song Digital Man. Brown wanted the group to continue down the prog-rock path, but the band was 100% committed to their new sound and wouldn't budge. In the end it was probably the best decision...as their next album was yet another classic.

I personally think it is an excellent album but when first heard it, I was like 12, 13 years old, I did not want to hear about synths or the Police, or musical growth, I wanted loud guitars, loud vocals etc, also my crew of stoner ( i.e. dumbasses) wanted nothing to do with the album, too many keyboards blah blah blah

Years later, actually only two years later, bought the album on vinyl and loved it. I had no idea why I disliked it so much, because lyrically the album spoke to me, and musically it was excellent. It seemed like a natural progression.

Unlike other bands that went crazy with synths, this album does not sounded dated in the least.

Being the huge fan that was me, my butt got clowned (Big Time) for playing this album by my bandmates at the time. I recall blasting it as loud as the Pioneer Super-Tuner in my baja bug could manage when pulling up for band practice.

This probably was one of the first moments where I actually listened to song lyrics and went I can releate to that on something other than a superficial level. Piture that folks.... A skinny red headed teen with hair to the waist having an epithany whie cruising in a 65' VW baja. Oh the humanity.

As much as I enjoyed this album...It was my last hurrah for this band. (for awhile anyways)
It was sad because I bailed on a band that I'd cut my teeth on due to my short sightedness and missed out on going down a road they traveled. That might not make much sense ? More often than not, elaboration can be daunting for simple things.

Analog Kid, Subdivisions, and The Weapon are my favorites

I wrote a paper my freshman year based on the song, Subdivisions. I don't think the teacher was overly impressed by my using it as a theme but I thought I was super cool then. I love this album almost as much as Moving Pics, no songs I skip on it.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I wrote a paper my freshman year based on the song, Subdivisions. I don't think the teacher was overly impressed by my using it as a theme but I thought I was super cool then. I love this album almost as much as Moving Pics, no songs I skip on it.

That's funny, cause I wrote a paper on Mystic Rhythms from Power Windows for my literature class in 10th grade.

The last Rush album I really liked for a long time.... I finally saw Rush this year and they opened with Subdivisions, which is one of my favorite Rush songs and it sounded great live!

I remember when the album as released (I was in 8th grade) and all the kids on the bus seemed to have the album.

This is probably my favorite Rush album, actually. Every song is fantastic, and I love the use of synths and keyboards. The songwriting is fantastic as well.

My favorites are Subdivisions, Chemistry, and Losing It (I dig the hell out of the electric violin solo on that one; it's a really underrated track).

thejokeriv wrote:

I remember when the album as released (I was in 8th grade) and all the kids on the bus seemed to have the album.

All 6 of them, the "short bus" rocked in '82

James B. wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

I remember when the album as released (I was in 8th grade) and all the kids on the bus seemed to have the album.

All 6 of them, the "short bus" rocked in '82

LOL!!! If you must know, I went to Catholic school at the time and it was a normal bus.....