Classic Rush

I left out the live albums.

Although "The Trees" is my fav Rush tune of all time, it is really hard to beat 2112. So many memories with that album!

Hemispheres. It's unlike anything they did before or since and just a damn interesting slab of music.

It was either going to be that or 2112, which was my introduction to the band outside of the singles which I was convinced in my teens were sung by some bizarre woman.

This was, of course, before I started liking people like Nina Hagen and other such bizarre women...

2112

Went with Farewell to Kings. Was hard to choose. Caress of Steel would sit pretty high, as well as 2112 & Fly By Night. Farewell to Kings was the record that really got me into Rush as a kid. Cool cover art too.

Tough to pick between Moving Pictures and 2112 as they're very different albums so it's a tricky comparison.  I went for Moving Pictures, but ask me on another day and I might go with 2112.

First album for me.

2112 - such a great album!

Wow!!! That is tough!!!!!
Moving Pictures and Signals were the first two Rush albums I bought, but....... I'm gonna go with Hemispheres.

I am confused hahaha


anyways I guesas I go with Moving Pictures.

Moving Pictures, my first Rush album and a record I would still take to my desert island.

Everything between the debut Rush and Grace Under Pressure is essential.

All great albums but I went with Hemispheres. I love that album....

Hemispheres

Impossible to choose.....

Caress of Steel was the very first Rush album I'd ever heard.... I played 2112 four times in a row back to back to back to back.... Hemispheres left me speechless.... A Farewell to Kings has XANADU!!!!..... Fly By Night was the last album I needed to have 'em all in 1982 and when I got it WOW....

However..... Moving Pictures was a culmination of all the elements they had put together before... and a bit more concisely.... I never get tired of Tom Sawyer.... Witch Hunt is just as poignant now and KILLER LIVE as ever.... YYZ .... sheer brilliance.... Vital Signs when I finally saw the music video played on MTV when they did that sort of thing I loved it... The Camera Eye??? Geddy's bass tone shook my foundations.... Barchetta? brilliant slow build to a rocking end but Limelight.... FM fodder now but in the original it was a monster....

One of my top ten discs of all time.... a desert island disc fer sure....

Permanent Waves for me as it is the first Rush album I owned. I had heard many of the others but PWaves is still my favorite. Need to revisit that one on vinyl if I can find it again. Out of the early stuff I really enjoy the debut and COS. Excellent albums.

Moving Pictures

mikeinfla wrote:

Permanent Waves for me as it is the first Rush album I owned. I had heard many of the others but PWaves is still my favorite. Need to revisit that one on vinyl if I can find it again. Out of the early stuff I really enjoy the debut and COS. Excellent albums.

Same here, was the first Rush album I heard and owned, made me a fun for life

I'm both really surprised to see the love for Hemispheres and Caress of Steel.

Hemispheres was a slow grower on me, but I've found that it's so ODD that it sticks in my head in their discography. Still, I'm surprised that it's weirdness has registered as a good thing for so many on here.

Caress of Steel... Um... Good effort? I get what they were going for, but JEEZE. I'm a prog fan, but I want some of those longer songs to be OVER already! Bastille Day is a scorcher, but after that, it's downhill from my end.

Geddy Lee on Caress of Steel: "Listening to it now it sounds like we were really high when we made that record."

Thus, definitely part of the charm.

I voted 2112. Ask me again tomorrow and I'd prob say Moving Pictures. (and next week I'll say Hemispheres)


Personally - IMHO - I think the Classic era culminates with Hemispheres, and another era begins.

I like all these various polls !
Unfortunately, I was never a RUSH fan -
they were just too brainy for me -
They were big with the cool kids in High School though.

This one was easy. 2112.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, that album is one of my "desert island" albums. Although Fly By Night isn't far behind. And both have a major clunker on them for me; 2112 has "Tears" and Fly By Night has "Rivendell".

Still, I love both albums immensely.

Nomadic Drifter wrote:

I voted 2112.  Ask me again tomorrow and I'd prob say Moving Pictures.  (and next week I'll say Hemispheres)  


Personally - IMHO - I think the Classic era culminates with Hemispheres, and another era begins.  

I agree.  It's at that point that the band got too "proggy" for me.  But I still enjoy anything from Hemispheres on back in their catalog.

Moving Pictures threw me a curveball because that to me felt like a return to form and I would rank that album 3rd in the Rush catalog but after that they got waaaaay too proggy for me.

All The Worlds A Stage. I know "I left out the live albums"... Still my favorite.

As for studio releases, can't pin one down as they all have hits and misses, probably a coin toss between the S/T and Moving Pictures.

tohostudios wrote:

Nomadic Drifter wrote:

I voted 2112.  Ask me again tomorrow and I'd prob say Moving Pictures.  (and next week I'll say Hemispheres)  


Personally - IMHO - I think the Classic era culminates with Hemispheres, and another era begins.  

I agree.  It's at that point that the band got too "proggy" for me.  But I still enjoy anything from Hemispheres on back in their catalog.

Moving Pictures threw me a curveball because that to me felt like a return to form and I would rank that album 3rd in the Rush catalog but after that they got waaaaay too proggy for me.

That really makes no sense.  Their albums from Caress through Hemispheres are by far the most "proggy" in their discography.  Permanent Waves & Moving Pictures brought in more radio-focused pop sensibilities into the the mix, that continued on Signals, Grace, Power...with each successive album the prog leanings DECREASE.

Maybe it's because they became less "rock guitar oriented" after Moving Pictures? Lots of new wave influences, Peart's infatuation with Police drummer Stewart Copeland, keyboards moving to the foreground and Lifeson also showing that he had been listening to Talking Heads and The Police in his playing.