Rush Top 50

[Unlegit]

Breaking into the top 30!

30. Circumstances

The shortest song off Hemispheres, but a great one as well. Geddy's vocals are in top notch shape here, especially in the chorus. It was cool that they brought this song back for the Snakes and Arrows tour even though they had to lower the tune of the song, obviously because of the high vocals. The instrumental section is awesome, but it's a bit short. I wish the whole song was longer, but especially the soft instrumental part.

29. Red Sector A

A very dark song lyrically, and a little musically, off of Grace Under Pressure. Written mostly about the Nazi concentration camps, but also concentration camps in general, it's very interesting to see a different kind of lyrical writing from Neil. The synth in the prechorus and chorus is awesome. The slightly electronic drums are also a very nice change from the norm. I actually don't really care for the guitar solo, or the instrumental section in general, but the lyrical content is so good it puts it up this high.

28. Bastille Day

Another great song from Caress of Steel. I'm sure most of you know, but in case you didn't, this is the song where Dream Theater got their original name Majesty. They were listening to the outro, and Mike Portnoy mentioned that it sounded majestic. Anyways, the song is definitely majestic as a whole, not just the ending. Geddy's voice is in top notch form, but the guitar solo is probably my favorite part of the song.

27. By-Tor & the Snow Dog

The first multi-piece extended song that Rush ever did. I feel like I've said this a lot during these write ups, but Geddy's voice is at its best here. The singing sections are short, only at the beginning and end, so the song is mostly instrumental. The first part of the instrumental section is a growling guitar solo that fades in and out of each channel, which is quite cool. After this is an awesome riff and a part with extended drum fills and guitar riffs where the riffs get a measure or so less each time there is another fill. The 3rd and final main part is a nice, soft acoustic section that finally speeds back up into a part like the beginning to wrap up the piece.

26. Tom Sawyer

One of Rush's most popular, if not the most popular, song. There is definitely a reason why Tom Sawyer has been played on every single tour since it's release. Everything about the song is just great; the vocals, guitar, drums, bass, synth, the list goes on. The synth part in 7 is one of the best parts, but then again, the guitar solo is smoking and the drums fills after the solo aren't too shabby either.

[jjrock88]

Great selections!!

[ColdFireYYZ]

Red Sector A is one of my favorites. I was glad to see it live on this past tour, and it really came alive with the strings. I can't wait until the live album comes out so we have a recording of it. Bastille Day and By-Tor are two of my favorite early Rush tracks and I'll never get sick of Tom Sawyer. I do think that Circumstances is a bit overrated though but its still a great track.

[Ruba]

Circumstances!!!

Animate would be a lot higher in my list. It almost brings to tears of joy.

Far Cry is IMO overrated, though I love the chorus.

Unlegit, could you please sign me up? However, I have still a few albums to catch, so I'd reserve a right for delaying my list.

[Zydar]

Controversial opinion time: Circumstances is my favourite song on Hemispheres.

[chaotic_ripper]

Controversial opinion time: Circumstances is my favourite song on Hemispheres.

Controversial indeed!!

[Cedar redaC]

I don't really think that there is a bad track on Hemispheres, so if you like Circumstances, I'm fine with that. (although my favorite is probably La Villa Strangiato)

[Unlegit]

Top 25 time!

25. Leave That Thing Alone

Another great track from Counterparts. Every instrument is great, but the bassline and guitar are easily the best two things from this song. The bass groove is so awesome throughout the song, especially in the version on Rush in Rio, where Geddy practically has a bass solo at the end of the song. Still, the guitar riff coming in at 1:12 is also one of my favorite parts of the song. If you are not a fan of the 90's albums, I recommend you try this song again and Counterparts in general.

24. The Analog Kid

The Analog Kid is such a great song. It's so awesome that they brought it back from the archives for the Clockwork Angels tour. The guitar riff is great in the intro, and the part after where the bassline mimics the guitar is also quite cool. The chorus features an awesome choir patch sound and some nice high hat work on the drums. I think the best part is the outro with the choir patch again. I just love the feel of it. It's a shame that they didn't want to extend this part and instead decided to end on a reprise of the original riff. Still, it's a great song.

23. Time Stand Still

Time Stand Still is one of those songs where you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the music. The lyrics to this song are quite obvious and simple, but they provide such a great message. You can drift off and think of the good times you had when you were younger. I don't mind the female guest vocalist, but she isn't amazing either. Geddy's voice is much better, and on this track it is no different. The synth is also a highlight of this song. I wish they had faded out on the chorus, instead of a solid note, but that's not important at all. I don't like Hold Your Fire that much, but this song is definitely one of the highlights of the album.

22. Freewill

The first song off Permanent Waves, and it definitely won't be the last either. Most everyone likes this song, and for good reason! What's not to like about it? The guitar solo and Geddy's high vocals almost directly after the solo are the best parts of the song, but everything is great. It still surprises me that Geddy is able to hit the high notes in recent years, even though he does strain a bit. I don't know how you wouldn't know this song, but if you somehow don't, listen to it right now.

21. Anthem

Anthem is another great track that opens up an album. This is such a hard rocking track, and I can see why they opened the whole Hemispheres tour with it. I'm sure the main reason why they stopped playing it live after the Permanent Waves tour (and even during that they played it within a medley) was because the vocals were too high for Geddy to reach every night. They did bring it back for the R30 overture, but obviously in instrumental form. Still, it's great to hear what he could do early on. But let's not forget about the shredding guitar solo and the insane drums. Anthem is the epitome of what Rush was like during their early years.

[ColdFireYYZ]

I love all 5 of those songs. Leave That Thing Alone is a great, fun song that was a blast live and The Analog Kid is one of my favorite songs ever. Time Stand Still is great as well, but it was a bit weird hearing Aimee Mann singing when I first listened to the song. I don't like how they triggered her voice live though. Just seems a bit tacky, for lack of a better word.

I remember the first time I heard Freewill a little over 3 years ago. I had been a casual fan for about a month (I knew about 5 songs or so but Freewill wasn't one of them) when I heard it on the radio. It blew me away and inspired me to check out the rest of their music and I've been a fan since then. Its still one of my favorites.

As for Anthem, I can't think of a better song to open an album with. Its a step above their debut and introduced the world to Neil. 

[Lowdz]

The last ten selections are all awesome. Many of them are higher on my list. I'll take Circumstances over Cygnus 2 any day. I'm strange like that.

[jjrock88]

The video for Time Stand Still is a pure cheesfest, and I love it!

[SomeoneLikeHim]

I don't like Hold Your Fire that much

but i had the CD and some spare time so what the fuck.

[nicmos]

Does anyone else think the inner sleeve for HYF would have made a much better cover than the actual cover?  I don't know, but it sure seems like they started with that and some record exec decided it needed to be more modern and sleek, so they went with the minimalist version.

Anyway, what can you say, these are all great songs.  Especially Anthem.  That should be higher.  The live version rocks hard.  If you played it to someone who didn't know, without telling someone they were listening to Rush, they would probably say "Oh, this is way better than that wuss nerd rock I thought Rush was about."

[Unlegit]

Got some extra time, so here's another update.

20. A Farewell to Kings

I love the intro to this song. The acoustic guitar with the soft ringing bells and keyboard is so awesome to listen to before launching into the more heavy part of the song. The chorus and verses are great, but the best thing in this song is definitely the instrumental section. Even though it is very short it seems to accomplish so much within its time frame.  The very fast guitar solo is great with the busy drums and rhythm from the bass. The part right after that reminds me of the section in Octavarium right before James' awesome scream. Finally, there is a sweet transition back into the chorus.

19. The Camera Eye

The last true extended song that Rush has done so far (and probably will ever do), and it's a great one. The drawn out synth intro is so cool especially with the drums fading in slowly. I love the transition at 2:20 from the intro into the preverse part. The verse starts at about 3:30 (which is funny considering most mainstream songs are almost done at that point) and has some awesome acoustic guitar strumming along with a grooving bass line following Geddy's vocals. The song does essentially repeat twice, but it's that good and deserves to be. The outro is like the intro, awesome, extended, synthy.

18. The Trees

A very odd concept lyrically, and Geddy's vocals are a bit strained, but that doesn't really matter, because the lyrics/vocals are few and far between; the song is mostly instrumental. The beginning of the instrumental section is very soft, with lots of interesting percussion and a cool synth line. It builds up slowly to an awesome guitar solo by Alex that I wish was longer. Still, the song continues into a conclusion of the instrumental part and goes into another verse before finishing off. And there's always this one thing that annoys me so much: I don't know if it's my CD or something, but there is like 15 seconds of complete silence at the end of this song. I've never understood why. There are some slight bird noises but even those stop far before the song does. Eh, whatever.

17. The Spirit of Radio

The Spirit of Radio is one of the first Rush songs I ever heard, and it still is one of my favorites. This song marked the distinct transition between their more progressive stuff and their more "radio friendly" songs, and it still manages to be 5 minutes long! The whole positive vibe of the song is great. The reggae section was some cool experimentation, and while pretty simple and in a mildly awkward place, would evolve to work much better in songs such as Digital Man. Don't really know what else to say about this song, except I whenever I try air drumming this I always miss the ending chord. 

16. Between the Wheels

A little story: A couple years back, my friend and I were experimenting with some chords on the piano, and he played the EXACT chord that starts off this song, which I think is a C7 root chord with an F instead of an E. We thought we had come up with an amazing new chord. Needless to say, I remembered that that chord was in this song and told him, and both our minds were blown. A word of advice: if you ever think you have made something new and innovative, remember that Rush has already done it. 

Anyways, this song is very underrated. I love the drums in this song. They definitely help to move the song along. I love the outro , where apparently the track is stopped before it fades out so you hear them finishing. The synth is definitely another high point of the song (with the aforementioned infamous chord).

[Mladen]

if you ever think you have made something new and innovative, remember that Rush has already done it. 

Also, always heartwarming to see The Camera eye. 

[Zydar]

The Camera Eye is in my top 3

[wolfking]

Between the Wheels is easily top 10 Rush for me, incredible pick.

[Nick]

Let me just step back a few posts and say to everyone that Animate isn't a top 50 song, or even a top 75 song. It does have one amazing breakdown, my favorite on the album and one of my favorite sections of music they've ever written, but other than that it's a sub-par song at best.

[KevShmev]

Aw, look at Nick demonstrating his epic fail for us once again.

Animate is all kinds of awesome, from start to finish. 

[Lowdz]

More awesomeness in this post. Again a lot of these are higher in my list.

And I'm with Nick- Animate is in the pretty good category rather than the great.

[TAC]

Controversial opinion time: Circumstances is my favourite song on Hemispheres.

[Big Hath]

The Camera Eye and Between the Wheels are top 10 for me for sure.  Awesome songs.

[Lowdz]

Controversial opinion time: Circumstances is my favourite song on Hemispheres.

not controversial with me. Side 2>side 1.

[jjrock88]

Between the Wheels is definitely an underrated gem. GUP is one of my favorites.

[ColdFireYYZ]

Great update, especially Between The Wheels.

[nicmos]

I'm gonna go full-on nerdy-Rush geek on your ass and remind you the correct way to abbreviate Grace Under Pressure is p/g (which is originally from the album sleeve).  Other than that, Between the Wheels is probably my favorite on p/g, and one of the best songs from the 80s synth era for them, up there with Subdivisions.

Good to see AFTK the song in there too.  I think it's a great one to crank up, and often overlooked because of Cygnus and Xanadu.

For the record, I don't care if you write GUP.  My abbreviation nazi had to come out since that is one of the only cases where it's ever seen to refer to an album title differently.

[Unlegit]

15. Subdivisions

Subdivisions is one of the high points of the synth era. The synthesizer is definitely the backbone of this song and holds it together, but every instrument is great. I love the bassline right before Geddy starts singing the chorus. The drums are top notch as always. The intro has one of my favorite air drumming sections. Alex is more in the background, but he still does a great job, especially on the solo.

14. Jacob's Ladder

This is a song they need to bring back. I can't believe they only played it for the Permanent Waves tour, and stopped playing it after that. The dark and brooding (See what I did there?) feel of the song makes it so ominous (I should stop now...). While the vocals are not the main point of this song, they help add to the mysterious feeling. The acoustic break in the middle is so cool with the "whew" synth sound.

13. Limelight

Right from the beginning guitar riff, you know that this song is going to be awesome. It's so fun to air drum to this song. The time signature changes are so smooth, so you hardly even notice them. And of course, who could forget the guitar solo? I feel this is one of Alex's more under appreciated solos, especially because it is on the same album as Tom Sawyer, which is one of his most popular solos. It has a sort of solemn tone to it, probably helping to convey the same feeling as the lyrics. Limelight shows how even one of their most popular songs is complex.

12. Force Ten

Similar to what Anthem was like for the early years, Force Ten is the epitome of what Rush was like during the synth period. The intro to this song is magical, with the odd samples and the awesome "voice" synth. Alex, unfortunately, has almost no part in this song, because while he has some great moments here, most of his riffs are undermined by, admittedly, better keyboard riffs or parts. Geddy really had a field day, experimenting with tons of sounds on the synth. This is a song you need to give another try if you are not a fan of the synth era.

11. The Big Money

Am I crazy? Probably. When I first started making my list, this song barely even made my top 30. Now it moved almost 20 spots up. There's just something about it that makes it so addicting to listen to, so it boosted up in my ranking. The electronic drums and synth work so well together. The guitar does take a backseat in this song for the most part, but during the bridge, Alex does have some great moments with Neil, and the heavily distorted sounding guitar solo is really cool as well. It's awesome that they brought this song, along with Force Ten, back for the Clockwork Angels tour.

So... does anyone have any guesses for the top 10?

[ColdFireYYZ]

Subdivisions is one of my favorites. Force Ten and The Big Money are also awesome.

I'm guessing that Natural Science, 2112, YYZ, La Villa, Hemispheres, and maybe Working Man are going to in the top 10.

[nicmos]

Easier to guess the top 10 if you recap your list so far...

[Unlegit]

Of course.

50. Between Sun & Moon
49. The Body Electric
48. Grand Designs
47. Digital Man
46. One Little Victory
45. Closer to the Heart
44. Stick it Out
43. New World Man
42. A Passage to Bangkok
41. The Pass
40. Show Don't Tell
39. Where's My Thing?
38. Far Cry
37. Finding My Way
36. Mission
35. The Fountain of Lamneth
34. Lessons
33. Animate
32. Mystic Rhythms
31. The Necromancer
30. Circumstances
29. Red Sector A
28. Bastille Day
27. By-Tor & the Snow Dog
26. Tom Sawyer
25. Leave That Thing Alone
24. The Analog Kid
23. Time Stand Still
22. Freewill
21. Anthem
20. A Farewell to Kings
19. The Camera Eye
18. The Trees
17. The Spirit of Radio
16. Between the Wheels
15. Subdivisions
14. Jacob's Ladder
13. Limelight
12. Force Ten
11. The Big Money

[Big Hath]

Subdivisions is one of my favorites. Force Ten and The Big Money are also awesome.

I'm guessing that Natural Science, 2112, YYZ, La Villa, Hemispheres, and maybe Working Man are going to in the top 10.

and Xanadu

[Cedar redaC]

For the top ten, I'm going to guess Red Barchetta, YYZ, 2112, Something off of Power Windows, La Villa Strangiato, both Cygnus tracks, Working Man, Lakeside Park, and probably something off of Counterparts.

[nicmos]

good guesses Cedar redaC.  I think you're mostly right, but I would take out Lakeside Park, and put in Dreamline. Especially agree that something from Power Windows is coming, but it could easily be one of about 4 tracks.  Also going to add in Available Light.

[ColdFireYYZ]

Subdivisions is one of my favorites. Force Ten and The Big Money are also awesome.

I'm guessing that Natural Science, 2112, YYZ, La Villa, Hemispheres, and maybe Working Man are going to in the top 10.

and Xanadu

How did I forget Xanadu?!

[Unlegit]

I'll say this: more than 3 songs have been guessed.