The History of Rush v. Discography Thread: Epilogue

[Zydar]

My absolute favorite album of theirs


I love every song here, even Vital Signs which seems to be quite a polarizing song. The Camera Eye is a Top 3 Rush song for me, while Limelight comes pretty close to the top as well.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

A Top 5 Rush album in my book. Absolutely amazing. I actually like Vital Signs a lot--I never understood all of the hate it's gotten. The Camera Eye is my favorite track on it without a doubt.

[Orbert]

My favorite as well.  I can listen to this album all the way through, then all the way through again, and have done so a few times.

Not too many times, because that would be silly.  But enough to matter.

[Lowdz]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

Almost the perfect album.

[mikemangioy]

Words aren't enough for Moving Pictures  - until now, my favorite. Hemispheres is slowly starting to take over it, but it's still my favorite by them so far.

[Zydar]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

Almost the perfect album.

One can almost say that you "deviate from the norm".

[Podaar]

At the time, I thought this album struck just the right balance of guitar and synth and was thus my favorite for many a year. Also, I've been a big fan of Neil's lyrics on this album.

Red Barchetta, YYZ and Witch Hunt are the highlights for me.

Over the years, Hemispheres, and A Farewell To Kings have supplanted this one at the top, but I absolutely have no problem with anyone listing it as their favorite. Like I said, it was mine for a long time too.

[TAC]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

Almost the perfect album.

One can almost say that you "deviate from the norm".

 

[Orbert]

Man, in "The Camera Eye" where the Oberheim first comes in with that dissonant interval and it takes forever to resolve (you know the spot I'm talking about), I think they've completely lost their minds.  I actually start looking around the room for relatively inexpensive things to break, it causes me so much discomfort.  Then it finally resolves, and I feel so much better that I go to the kitchen and make a large glass of chocolate milk and drink it all.  Mmm!  So good.

Then they do it again!  Oh my God!  The world is ending!  Quickly now, what can I break?  WHAT CAN I BREAK?!  Then it resolves again and all is well again, I think I'm gonna be alright.  And I'm feeling better again.

[nicmos]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

Almost the perfect album.

Pretty much how I feel.  I really am not a fan of anywhere Rush put in a reggae rhythm (with the possible exception of The Spirit of Radio where it's okay).  Vital Signs sounds like Rush responding to critics thinking their music was too uppity and saying they should dumb it down, or them actually trying to follow the trend that was happening at the time towards simple new wave-ish songs.

other than that, Great listen, but I think later live versions of Witch Hunt exceed the studio version.

[jammindude]

This is where it all started.

Some kid brought Moving Pictures to the last day of 6th Grade (teacher let us have a "free day")....Tom Sawyer started, and I was dumbstruck.  I couldn't believe my ears.  I had never heard anything so cool in my entire life.

I immediately begged my parents to let me get the record.   They were pretty conservative about music, but Rush was always the one band they had absolutely no objection to.     It was the first record I ever owned, and I *played it til it wore out*.    By the time 1984 came around, I was so obsessed with Rush that no one wanted to hang out with me any more.   I could turn a conversation about taking a piss into a conversation about Rush.    I was *that* fan.  I was the reason everyone else hated Rush.   

It's my fault...I'm sorry...I've gotten much better.   

Moving Pictures is an amazing album, and it deserves every ounce of credit it gets.   It's one of the very few times that I heartily agree with the mass populace....sometimes, even the public at large can get it right.   Moving Pictures is one of those times.     The only reason it stands as 3 or 4 on my list (depending on mood) is because of burn out and nothing more.    And yet, even when I think I'm burnt out on it...one of the songs will come on, and I'm just reliving it all over again.

I think I'll play some of this on Rock Band with my son today.   

[Lowdz]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

Almost the perfect album.

One can almost say that you "deviate from the norm".

 

 

[hefdaddy42]

Man, in "The Camera Eye" where the Oberheim first comes in with that dissonant interval and it takes forever to resolve (you know the spot I'm talking about), I think they've completely lost their minds.  I actually start looking around the room for relatively inexpensive things to break, it causes me so much discomfort.  Then it finally resolves, and I feel so much better that I go to the kitchen and make a large glass of chocolate milk and drink it all.  Mmm!  So good.

Then they do it again!  Oh my God!  The world is ending!  Quickly now, what can I break?  WHAT CAN I BREAK?!  Then it resolves again and all is well again, I think I'm gonna be alright.  And I'm feeling better again.

I love you so much.

[King Postwhore]

 

Second favorite album for me.  The production for the time is unreal and their writing skills were at their peak or close to it.  This is the album that got me into Rush and I went back franticly buying their back catalog as a 13 year old.

[TAC]

Second favorite album for me.  The production for the time is unreal and their writing skills were at their peak or close to it.  This is the album that got me into Rush and I went back franticly buying their back catalog as a 13 year old.

7th grade bro. Remember this fondly.

[King Postwhore]

Owned the album.  Carried my boom box with the cassette everywhere with my jean jacket on with the collar up, work boots untied, jeans tucked in the untied boots thinking I'm the shit.

[Orbert]

Man, in "The Camera Eye" where the Oberheim first comes in with that dissonant interval and it takes forever to resolve (you know the spot I'm talking about), I think they've completely lost their minds.  I actually start looking around the room for relatively inexpensive things to break, it causes me so much discomfort.  Then it finally resolves, and I feel so much better that I go to the kitchen and make a large glass of chocolate milk and drink it all.  Mmm!  So good.

Then they do it again!  Oh my God!  The world is ending!  Quickly now, what can I break?  WHAT CAN I BREAK?!  Then it resolves again and all is well again, I think I'm gonna be alright.  And I'm feeling better again.

I love you so much.

Music moves me like that. 




Moves me to violence sometimes! 

[jjrock88]

A+
100%
5 stars

[Big Hath]

my #1 album of all time


I told the story in my top 50 thread.  Basically my brother gave me a CD-R with a bunch of various music on it, in the middle of it I found Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, and YYZ.  My music listening life was never the same.

[?]

Not my favorite Rush album, but probably top 5. Witch Hunt and Limelight are among my all-time favorite Rush songs.

EDIT: At first I didn't like Vital Signs either, but nowadays I can appreciate it.

[TAC]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

In your defense, that song does feel like an outlier to the album. Almost like they needed one more song so they came up with Vital Signs. It feels closer to Signals than it does Moving Pictures.

[Zydar]

The band says that each album has one of those "last minute" songs, and Vital Signs is one of them.

[KevShmev]

And Witch Hunt was, at the time, their "typical" 2nd to last studio-only song, one that was never intended to be played live (but eventually was thanks to advances in keyboarding, which made it possible for it to played).

[TAC]

The band says that each album has one of those "last minute" songs, and Vital Signs is one of them.

I think at some point I was aware of that, and you know what, it feels that way.


So anyway, this is the point that I got into Rush. At the time, it was AC/DC, Van Halen, Aerosmith, that kind of thing for me. Rush really appealed to me. Love the high vocals, which still appeal to me in a big way (Kiske, Labrie). I was ready to be a Rush fan for life.  Loved the heavy, progressive, and virtuosity in their music.
When I discovered Dream Theater, I said that THIS is the music Rush should be playing.

[Mister Gold]

While I'm sure that Moving Pictures isn't my favorite Rush album, I will concede that this album is almost certainly the 'sound' I think of when I think about the band.

YYZ is my personal favorite off the album. Quite possibly the band's best instrumental, even over La Villa Strangiato.

[Mladen]

Moving pictures used to be my 2nd favorite Rush album, but then I discovered their later stuff. Vital signs definitely drags it down, and I don't think Red Barchetta is as awesome as the rest of the fans say, although it's still really good. The rest of the album, however, is perfect. Also, Moving pictures features my favorite Rush song - The Camera eye.

[Lowdz]

Great album. It's all highlights until Vital Signs. Yes, I'm that guy. Hated that song for the longest time. I can listen to it now and actually enjoy the "Impulse is pure" and "leave out the fiction" parts but hate the reggae-isms.

In your defense, that song does feel like an outlier to the album. Almost like they needed one more song so they came up with Vital Signs. It feels closer to Signals than it does Moving Pictures.

And that's not a good thing going forard as half of Signals is almost unlistenable to me. The other half I love.

[Anguyen92]

I, for one, don't mind the reggae-isms in Vital Signs.  I keep singing that "Everybody got mixed feelings About the function and the form Everybody got to deviate from the norm," because I just liked how it sounded.

As for the rest of the album, nothing else that needs to be said as usual with Rush.  Tom Sawyer, Limelight, Red Barchetta, YYZ, all are great, but you guys already know that.  The only songs I'm really too fond with in this one is The Camera Eye and Witch Hunt.

[KevShmev]

In 1990/early 1991, before I was really a Rush fan, my friends Matt and Eric and I used to cruise around a lot, always listening to tunes and doing stuff most do at the ages of 17-19, and Moving Pictures was a popular cassette tape for Matt to play in his car.  I was really only a fan of Tom Sawyer for a long time and always tuned the others out (I had told myself that I hated Rush cause of Geddy Lee's voice and stubbornly refused to budge for a while ), but he only ever played Side 1.  We'd listen to Side 1, rewind it back, do it again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Then one day, Matt was like, "Ya know, I listened to Side 2 the other day, and it is really good, too."  Ahhh, to be 18 and ignorant again.

[jingle.boy]

Oh man, I'm so behind on commenting.  Well, no sense in going way back yet, will just comment on MP.

2nd fave Rush album, but still in my Top 10 overall.  Red Barchetta ties with Xanadu as my favorite, and side one is without a doubt the greatest 4-song run in the history of music.  Loved your story Kev... Side 2 is pretty good actually! My first exposure to Witch Hunt was on A Show of Hands, so I prefer that electronic drum version for some odd reason.  Seeing DT perform The Camera Eye back in ProgNation '09 was f'n incredible.  When they opened with the keyboard intro, then kept going it was like :omg.

Kev... loved your assessment as to why Tom Sawyer is their flagship song.  And I think it's deserving of being such.

Will try to load up some 'fun facts' over the weekend before I'm traveling for work again.

[KevShmev]

Bring on the facts!

At first, I was thinking I should jump pack my reviews with as many of those fun facts as possible, but a few of you bring them to the table every time I do a new album, so it all works out.

[TAC]

Chad, I'm with you. Red Barchetta and Xanadu are my two favorite Rush songs.

[KevShmev]

Both are in my top 5 along with 2112, La Villa Strangiato and Jacob's Ladder (with Natural Science narrowly missing the cut).

[TAC]

Both are in my top 5 along with 2112, La Villa Strangiato and Jacob's Ladder (with Natural Science narrowly missing the cut).

I would also have 2112 and LVS in my Top 5, probably along with Hemispheres, but both Natural Science and Jacob's Ladder are easily in my Top 10.

[King Postwhore]

Marathon is #1 for me.  Then those mentioned are right up there.