Order the Rush Albums

[Phlakaton]

Hemispheres
Signals
Moving Pictures
Grace Under Pressure
Clockwork Angles
Permanent Waves
Power Windows
Farewell To Kings
2112
Counterparts

[Trane]

Moving Pictures
Farewell to Kings
Hemispheres
Permanent Waves
2112
are all the Rush albums I need. Even Peart lost his mojo in the 80's as he stopped taking risks !

I won't even go that far... I'll take those three and the live World's a Stage and Exit Stage Left

[jot]

2112
A Farewell To Kings
Permanent Waves
Hemispheres
Signals
Moving Pictures
Grace Under Pressure
Power Windows
Counterparts

and at the far bottom of the list....

Vapor Trails

[trurl]

OK, let me try:

1) Signals, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves (tie)
4) Farewell To Kings
5) Moving Pictures
6) Caress Of Steel
7) 2112
8) Grace Under Pressure
9) Fly By Night
10) Power Windows
11+ ) The rest of them

[Progatron]

The first few people to reply gave "Grace Under Pressure" high ratings, anywhere from 1st to 4th, which surprised me. Always thought it was a good album but not great, with no monster stand-out tracks. Also glad to see "Test for Echo" not dead last on everyone's list, which is where it ends up when hardcore Rush fans vote on a Rush forum I'm on. Probably the only post-Hold Your Fire album I enjoyed until Clockwork Angels came along.

I've been a Rush fan since I was fifteen (so, twenty-five years now... yikes!) and Grace Under Pressure has been my favourite for a long time now. There is no other Rush album that sounds like that one IMO... It has a real moodiness to it and I dig the whole vibe of it from beginning to end. I still love every album my hometown boys have ever made - it just took a lot of years before they all 'settled in' to their positions, if you know what I mean. Test For Echo only ends up so low on my list because something has to. I'd happily listen to it any day of the week. The 'synth' era ended up as my favourite overall after initially preferring stuff like Caress Of Steel and A Farewell To Kings when I was younger. I still think A Show Of Hands was a magical period in their career that doesn't get the attention it should. What Geddy was accomplishing on stage every night around that time was astonishing - even more so than usual, I mean!

[Sean]

Hemispheres
Signals
Clockwork Angels
Permanent Waves
Grace Under Pressure
Moving Pictures
Power Windows
2112
A Farewell to Kings
Hold Your Fire
Vapor Trails
Presto
Caress of Steel
Fly By Night
Rush
Counterparts
Test For Echo
Snakes and Arrows
Roll The Bones
Feedback

[ThomasKDye]

Always fun to do this. I haven't looked at anyone else's, so here goes.

1. A Farewell to Kings
2. Hemispheres
3. Grace Under Pressure
4. Permanent Waves
5. Moving Pictures (would be higher except it's been overplayed; that makes a difference)
6. Signals
7. Roll the Bones (yes, really)
8. Power Windows
9. 2112
10. Hold Your Fire
11. Counterparts
12. Presto
13. Caress of Steel
14. Snakes and Arrows
15. Feedback
16. Clockwork Angels
17. Test For Echo
18. Fly By Night
19. Rush

...

99999999999999999999999. Some piece of crap that they didn't really make called "Vapor Trails"

[Wisdomview]

Too hard for me, I just can't......

But my least favorites by a long shot are: Their debut and Feedback.

[jarmsuh]

I don't need to order any Rush albums. I have them all. Please do not call again, I'm on the national No Call list. Good Day.

I can sell you the 5.1 mix, new sacd, new high resolution cd, etc...

[klothos]

my mood changes all the time so I can't order them in preference,

I will say that i am one of the many that worships all their albums from 1974(Rush) to 1983(Signals).

Anything after that is hit-n-miss for me (except for "Hold Your Fire" which is almost a huge turd sans a track or two) all the way until "Snakes and Arrows", which is a fun listen.
"Clockwork Angels" is the Rush album I have anxiously been waiting for since 1983.

[Garden Dreamer]

I've been a Rush fan since I was fifteen (so, twenty-five years now... yikes!) and Grace Under Pressure has been my favourite for a long time now. There is no other Rush album that sounds like that one IMO...

And we've just had two more replies with GUP in the top five. Interesting.

[Jubal]

A Farewell To Kings
Moving Pictures
Permanent Waves
Hemispheres
2112

[everyday]

Signals
Permanent Waves
Moving Pictures
A Farewell to Kings
Hemispheres

[Yanks2014]

Am I allowed to make comments on mine? No? OK, doing it anyway!

Moving Pictures - This is where it ALL came together! Great playing, perfect arrangements, accessible yet still real proggy, memorable solos, this has it all. Plus it has may all-time favorite Rush tune, Red Barchetta.

Permanent Waves - Nearly an equal to MP. First Rush album containing radio friendly fare, but lets face it, Spirit of Radio and Freewill are killer tunes. And the prog is still there with Jacob's Ladder and Natural Science -quite the epic!

A Farewell to Kings - The best of their pure prog years, and perhaps the album that introduced prog-metal. Cygnus was downright sinister and frightening first time I heard it. Xanadu is one of their main masterpieces. Just an awesome album that has inspired so many bands.

Hemispheres - Rush at their proggiest, and with really high pitched vocals, even for Geddy. The Trees and La Villa, enough said!-

Signals - What a shock this was following MP. But it works well. LOVE The Weapon, Subdivisions, Losing It and Countdown. Really no poor tracks.

2112 - their first prog masterpiece in the side length title track. So heavy and powerful. The other tunes? Bangcock shows the band's sense of humor, Something For Nothing is pure metal, and Twilight Zone has a good melody. Great stuff.

Fly By Night - Their first classic. Just love By-Tor and the rarely mentioned Beneath, Between and Behind. Could do without Rivendel, which goes on forever.

Power Windows - the most keyboard heavy album, which totally appeals to me. Plus strings and even a choir in places. Forget back to basics, I wanted more of this. Marathon, Manhattan Project, Territories really stand out for me.

Grace Under Pressure - such a cool and original sound on this, plus killer songs like Red Sector A, Body Electric and the underrated Between the Wheels. This album has gotten more respect in recent years, well deserved.

Counterparts - Rush goes grunge! Sort of, influenced anyway. I was astounded when this came out how heavy it is, that beefy guitar tone was back. Mostly great rockers, even if the male/female theme is a bit heavy handed. Between Sun and Moon, Animate, Cut To the Chase and Leave That Thing Alone are my faves here.

Clockwork Angels - Hard to believe they could make an album so good this far into their career. Loads of great songs on here, but may favorite is the gorgeous "The Garden" that closes this out. Headlong Flight, Caravan, The Anarchist and the title track are standouts for me.

Caress of Steel - Without this attempt at longform prog, 2112 would have never happened. It works for the most part with the epic Necromancer and Fountain of Lamneth. The album rocks, bottom line, not a failure to me.

Hold Your Fire - Similar to Power Windows in sound and style. A couple weak tracks close this out, but has killer songs like Force Ten, Mission, Lock and Key and Turn the Page.

Snakes and Arrows - Ah, Alex remembered how to solo! Love the instrumentals on this, and songs like Working Them Angels, Spindrift and We Hold On.

Rush - Every band has to start somewhere, and this is a fun, rocking album. Rutsey is no Peart, but I don't hate the drumming on this. Barely a hint of what the band would become.

Vapor Trails - Production issues? Never bothered me. But no keys? Still some good tunes, despite my dislike of One Little Victory. Secret Touch is a great rocker, and Freeze is rather proggy.

Test For Echo - So similar in sound to Counterparts. The good songs really rock, and it has a killer instrumental. The poor songs are full of PC dreck. "Half the World" and Totem"? No thanks. Love Driven however.

Feedback - fun for what it is, some golden oldies getting the Rush treatment.

Presto - Again with the terrible guitar sound. Still some kiler songs like Show Don't Tell, Chain Lightning and my favorite, Available light. The band and a lot of fans love "The Pass". Can't stand the song!

Roll The Bones - Ugh, hate the thin production of the guitars, and some pretty weak songs near the end. Still has "Where's My Thing", and not terrible overall. They could do better.

[Digital_Man]

The shorter songs killed Rush for me !
l!

That's how Mike Portnoy feels too. However, many Rush fans like the fact that they have tried different styles and didn't stay with just the long songs. They had to evolve and explore music outside of prog or hard rock or whatever. It's one thing that makes them interesting.

[mozo-pg]

That's how Mike Portnoy feels too. However, many Rush fans like the fact that they have tried different styles and didn't stay with just the long songs. They had to evolve and explore music outside of prog or hard rock or whatever. It's one thing that makes them interesting.

For me, far less interesting but I realize I'm in a large minority. I thought Pert's drumming was far more challenging in the 70s, as was the rest of the band's playing.

[Wounded Land]

I still don't understand all the hate for Vapor Trails. It has some of their best late-period writing, as far as I'm concerned, plus it has a real energy and aggressiveness to it that they hadn't had for a long time.

The weakest track on the album is "One Little Victory," which is unfortunate because it starts off the album. I know why they did it (the awesome drum intro which says not only Rush is back but specifically Peart is back), but it makes the album seem weaker than it really is, IMHO.

Seriously: "Ceiling Unlimited"? "The Stars Look Down"? "Vapor Trail"? These are great songs, guys.

NP: Rimsky-Korsakov "Scheherazade"

[Garden Dreamer]

I still don't understand all the hate for [I]Vapor Trails

I don't hate it. I just have a hard time fully evaluating it. Objectively I hear some great songs on there with great energy. The noisy production makes for difficult listening. I can't get through the whole thing in one sitting. The sound is bleak and colorless, and 70 minutes of it is more than I can take. I like my Rush with more sound colorings. And even though it appears to be "stripped down", the guitars, bass and voice are still multi-tracked, adding to the clutter. For me, "stripped down Rush" would sound like Fly By Night, Caress of Steel or 2112, i.e. pre-keyboards but lots of breathing space between instruments creating interesting dynamics, and only one Geddy voice instead of choirs.

[Garden Dreamer]

That's how Mike Portnoy feels too. However, many Rush fans like the fact that they have tried different styles and didn't stay with just the long songs. They had to evolve and explore music outside of prog or hard rock or whatever. It's one thing that makes them interesting.

No, I think it was more an issue of shorter songs that were less interesting. During their proggiest era, they also had short songs like The Trees, Circumstances, Closer to the Heart and anything on Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures or Signals that were chock full of proggy twists and turns and clever passages, all in 3-6 minutes. Its just that later in their career they were still doing 4-6 minute songs but they were basic verse/chorus arrangements that lacked much of the WOW factor you would get from the instrumental breaks in Circumstances for example.

[Sean]

I still don't understand all the hate for Vapor Trails. It has some of their best late-period writing, as far as I'm concerned, plus it has a real energy and aggressiveness to it that they hadn't had for a long time.

Agreed. Writing-wise I think it's a lot stronger than Snakes And Arrows, save for a couple tracks. CA kinda kicks both their butts though.

[Digital_Man]

No, I think it was more an issue of shorter songs that were less interesting. During their proggiest era, they also had short songs like The Trees, Circumstances, Closer to the Heart and anything on Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures or Signals that were chock full of proggy twists and turns and clever passages, all in 3-6 minutes. Its just that later in their career they were still doing 4-6 minute songs but they were basic verse/chorus arrangements that lacked much of the WOW factor you would get from the instrumental breaks in Circumstances for example.

Well, in the Rush dvd "beyond the lighted stage" Mike Portnoy stated something like "they lost me when they started doing the shorter songs in the 80's" so I'm guessing he means around the time of Signals and GUP. Yes it's a bit of a generalization and as you say they did do shorter songs before that but I think it's safe to say MP was referring to the post MP era as when he started to lose interest in the band.

[Digital_Man]

Someone mentioned that S&A is about the same as VT soundwise. I don't agree with that. I only heard VT once but I remember thinking it sounded sort of like Nickleback or other typical post grunge at the time and not very proggy at all. S&A although not that good over all at least has good arrangements and better production values and some nice "window dressing." VT from what I remember was just a very stripped down sound with bass, guitar and drums and not very imaginative at least for RUSH. I would like to hear a cleaned up version of it though.

[Garden Dreamer]

I would like to hear a cleaned up version of it though.

Here you go. After one listen I already like it better.

[trurl]

Isn't judging a remaster via a Youtube video a bit like looking at the picture quality of an HDTV on an old black and white TV? I haven't heard VT in years but I know the cd sounds better than that video.

[Digital_Man]

Does anyone know when this new version of VT will be available on cd?