There's people in the fan base like you who love Power Windows and people like me and Tim. There are people in the fan base who don't love Hemispheres. If there's any fan base where nothing is "universally agreed," it's the Rush fan base.
There was a thread a few months back about if you had a time machine what tours/shows would you travel too.
One of my choices was Rush's Hemispheres tour.
Can't disagree with that. The set list from Dec. 28, 1978 in Toronto:
Anthem
A Passage to Bangkok
By-Tor
Xanadu
Something for Nothing
The Trees
The Voyage
Hemispheres (in its entirety)
Closer to the Heart
Circumstances
A Farewell to Kings
La Villa Strangiato
2112 (excluding The Oracle and supposedly including Discovery, but I don't know how much of it)
Working Man
Bastille Day
In the Mood (with drum solo)
The Moving Pictures set list was no slouch either.
Maybe it's me, but when people say "universally" about Rush, it's a way of justifying their own position/opinion. I know for me, I run counter to about 95% of the fanbase:
- I think Permanent Waves is the worst album from 2112 to Signals;
- I think P/G is a bottom two album;
- I think "The Garden" is massively overrated by many Rush fans;
- I think Hold Your Fire is probably their best collection of SONGS (and the one album I would LOVE to hear done acoustically);
- I think for all his vocal troubles, Geddy is underrated as a singer;
- I think Snakes And Arrows is the high point of the last third of their recorded output (from RtB on);
My first show was the Power Windows tour, and my last was Test For Echo (not for lack of desire to see them; it didn't work out logistically for the most part). T4E may have been the best of those, but the PW and Presto tours were pretty damn strong themselves.
Agree about the premise and the use of "universally."
As for your hot takes:
- From 2112 to Signals, I'd probably say 2112 is the weakest, bit it's painful to use negative superlatives with any of those albums.
- I wouldn't say bottom 2, but GUP is definitely bottom 5, and you and I are generally in lock step about the weaknesses of that album.
- Couldn't agree more about The (zzzzz) Garden.
- HYF is where we part company. For me, it's the worst of the three synth era albums.
- Agree about Geddy, although I'd never actually given it much thought (especially given how highly regarded he is as a bassist, and deservedly so).
- I liked S&A when it came out (I kinda bought into the "return to the classic Rush sound" hype), but I like VT better and maybe also T4E.
- Cygnus X-1 is the weakest Rush epic;
Which part? Or are you grouping both Books together?
- Power Windows is Rush’s finest moment with everything firing on all cylinders.
That makes me LOL, but it seems not to be a particularly contrarian take around here.