Rush studio albums countdown thread!!! (#01 revealed!!)

[KevShmev]

This could have landed anywhere from 19-14 or so and I wouldn't be upset. Bastille Day is an absolute banger, the clear standout of the album, and Lakeside Park is a beautiful nice softer tune. But does that even account for 10 minutes? Past that you have the quirky but okay throwback to the first album in Going Bald, and two epics that are good, even great at times, but not great enough to carry an album into the musical history books like 2112. That said I do feel like because this is sort of a forgotten album, the epics don't get quite the listens and love they deserve from fans, myself included.

[devieira73]

Going back a bit to the first album, most of you already know this for sure, but I recommend the excellent soudboard recording  Rush - The First US Tour (at least the show from 08/26/74), avaible on Spotify. Six songs from debut and more played with an amazing upgrade by Neil.

[Samsara]

CoS checked in at 13 for me. Bastille Day, FoL, and the Necromancer really push this from lower end of the catalog to the early teens.

[hefdaddy42]

I had this ranked # 8, and I'm sure I had my reasons at the time, but right now I can't remember.

Maybe I was experimenting with something.

[billboy73]

CoS came in at 14 for me.  Bastille Day is one of my favorite early era Rush tracks, and the Necromancer is solid as well.  Lakeside Park is a nice little song, and Lamneth is a good attempt at a side-long epic.  Bald is one of my least favorite Rush tunes.

[DragonAttack]

I had this ranked # 8, and I'm sure I had my reasons at the time, but right now I can't remember.

Maybe I was experimenting with something.

One of the main reasons for me having the self titled album at #3.  

[425]

I very much hold with the traditional view of Caress of Steel. Not the retrospective positivity of some Rush fans—the view that this album is kind of a mess. There are good sections spread across this album, but they're mixed in with sections I don't like, and the music is structured really poorly.

The Fountain of Lamneth is obviously the paradigm case of this, where each section just kind of... ends. And then a totally different section starts up. You get this intro that feels like a promising start... and then all of a sudden you get this annoying drum solo/scream section. Then it's on to something else. And then something else. And so on. All of this is, I think, a mix of good and bad elements. As I suggested, I don't like Didacts and Narpets at all. But then No One at the Bridge is a really good section. But then Panacea is hard to take. But Bacchus Plateau is pretty good. All throughout there are a couple of recurring motifs that I don't think are worthy of repeating that many times.

Listening to it this morning, I liked The Necromancer a bit more than I remember doing, but I still find it to be a kind of amorphous thing that is not good by the standards of "this is meant to be a 12 minute song." The second half has some of the best parts of the album, though.

Even the shorter stuff is not structured very well, I don't think. Lakeside Park and Bastille Day are the best songs here by far, in my opinion, but even they suffer at times from suddenly stopping one part and jumping in a different direction kind of jerkily. I guess I Think I'm Going Bald is cohesive, but there's not a lot of there there.

I find this interesting in a Majesty Demos kind of way (same as Rush), but I don't like it as an album. I like Lakeside Park as a song, and there are individual sections I enjoy in the long pieces (more so in The Necromancer than in The Fountain of Lamneth), although I don't think they're good as whole songs. Bastille Day is maybe the best song, and it's one I used to enjoy, but I discovered today that I have an unfortunate negative personal association with it, so I doubt I'll even be enjoying that one much anymore. The end is still nice to hear as the inspiration for "Majesty."

While I'm sure the label executives had some very commercial-oriented reasons for what they told the band after this album, I sort of understand where they're coming from. My reaction, too, is "you guys can really play, but can we work on writing some actual songs?"

#18, only ahead of the debut because I like hearing the Neil/Geddy rhythm section and Lakeside Park plus the second half of The Necromancer are better than anything on the s/t. But there's a huge gap for me between #17 and these two.


19. Rush
18. Caress of Steel
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12. Snakes & Arrows
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

[pg1067]

17 Caress of Steel

Highest Finish: 5 (ReaperKK)
Lowest Finish: 19 (jingle.boy, faizoff, coz)

This has been a tough one for me over the years.  There are parts of I absolutely love, and then there are parts of it that are a bit of a hard pass for me.  I remember Geddy saying there were a lot of funny aromas in the air when they were writing and recording this album, so they were experimenting with many things, including the music.  Some of it landed well, some of it did not. I ranked it 18th, simply because I never listen to it anymore.  The Necromancer used to be a top 10 Rush song for me, but even that rarely gets time in my CD player anymore.  Props for the ambition it took to tackle their first sidelong epic, but while The Fountain of Lamneth has some great moments, it sounds pretty messy when thinking of it as a singular piece.

Favorite songs: The Necromancer and Bastille Day, with special nods to the No One at the Bridge and Bacchus Plateau sections from the epic.

This is some serious ball shite right here.  All the comments yesterday about "would I rather listen to __ or Roll the Bones or Power Windows."  There's no way I'm ever not choosing COS in that situation.  Wow....COS is not without its faults (Bald and Panacea chief among them), but it's still a great album.  Bastille Day and the Necromancer are top notch metal (or what passed for metal in the mid-'70s) and prog songs.  I love Lakeside Park (although I prefer the ATWAS version), and No One at the Bridge is grossly underappreciated.  I had it at #9 and easily could've had it a notch or two higher.


19  ??
18  ??
17  ??
16  Snakes & Arrows (18)
15  ??
14  ??
13  ??
12  Rush (19)
11  ??
10  ??
9  Caress of Steel (17)
8  ??
7  ??
6  ??
5  ??
4  ??
3  ??
2  ??
1  ??

[King Postwhore]

Ball shite or you're in the minority sir. 

[TAC]

I just had a listen to Caress Of Steel. It's not a great album by any stretch, and I don't go to it nearly as often as a couple of albums that will follow it in this countdown. The thing with Rush is that I feel sometimes like they're not trying. Like they wrote some songs, recorded them, and released an album. I feel they've made a number of albums that are beneath them musically.
Even though I don't totally love CoS, that is not how I feel about it. I do feel like they're trying. I do feel like they're pushing.

Bastille Day is a great track.
I Think I'm Going Bald is poorly titled. It's simply a song about getting older, and if it had a better title, it'd not be the butt of jokes that it is now. It'd merely be a song that had a crazy line in it.
Lakeside Park is wonderful.

The Necromancer is ok. The last part of the song is amazing though. I may edit that into its own track.

The Fountain is quite long and choppy. The sections don't really run together naturally and there's no part that on its own is very compelling or memorable, except for the very end.


Two other things also jumped out at me.

First, Geddy is fucking awesome on this. He lays it all out vocally. I love him on this. Just so raw, but much more developed than the first album. And his bass playing really stands out too. and,

Second, Alex Lifeson is the Ace Frehley of progressive rock. I'm sorry if that sounds like an insult to the Rush snobs, but I happen to love Ace Frehley. He has made a ton memorable solos. It seems like Alex as a guitar player was always miles away from Neil's drumming and Geddy's bass playing, but he has also created a lot of memorable guitar parts as well. He has a nice melodic solo during the end of The Necromancer that seems short on notes, but long on melody, and well, it reminded me of Ace Frehley.

[KevShmev]

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.  Despite not being one of my favorites, there was a lot of experimenting and trying new things on this record.  Not everything you do it going to be a home run.

[HOF]

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.  Despite not being one of my favorites, there was a lot of experimenting and trying new things on this record.  Not everything you do it going to be a home run.

The experimental/first draft nature of Fountain of Lamneth (and this whole album) might be part of why I prefer it to what came next... Steven Wilson calls albums like this "noble follies." An artist trying to achieve something that is maybe beyond their skill or capability at that moment in time and accidentally creating something unique and interesting in it's own right despite it falling short of the intended mark.

[King Postwhore]

Tim, definitely they were expanding their musical horizons and like Kev said, sometimes you don't hit the home run but improve the model which was 2112.   

[TAC]

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.  Despite not being one of my favorites, there was a lot of experimenting and trying new things on this record.  Not everything you do it going to be a home run.

Oh I definitely agree with that. I'm fine with not achieving a home run, as long as I feel as a listener that there's effort there, and there is definitely effort on CoS.

Tim, definitely they were expanding their musical horizons and like Kev said, sometimes you don't hit the home run but improve the model which was 2112.   

I wasn't complaining!!!

[King Postwhore]

No, I'm agreeing with you.  It's not a bad album at all.  Like I've said before, I don't gravitate to it as mush as the other albums so that's how I rank them. 

[425]

I agree that Caress of Steel was a necessary album in their development, and is interesting for that reason. I just distinguish that from being an album that I enjoy as a musical experience.

I also think it's interesting to think about what they would have done under somewhat different circumstances and whether that would be better or worse. In other words, they were operating in a musical world in which it was important to have a regular stream of new material coming out. But maybe if there were different incentives they could have taken another year to work on it and improved it. Or maybe they would have decided to shelve much of it. Or maybe they were really happy with it at the time and would have done the same thing they really did. And then what would be better or worse from the audience perspective.

I just think of the comparison to what happened with another first epic with a similar concept—A Change of Seasons—which really benefitted from sitting on the shelf for a few years and being revised a couple of times.

[ReaperKK]

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.  Despite not being one of my favorites, there was a lot of experimenting and trying new things on this record.  Not everything you do it going to be a home run.

The experimental/first draft nature of Fountain of Lamneth (and this whole album) might be part of why I prefer it to what came next... Steven Wilson calls albums like this "noble follies." An artist trying to achieve something that is maybe beyond their skill or capability at that moment in time and accidentally creating something unique and interesting in it's own right despite it falling short of the intended mark.

That's an interesting description. Funny enough I'd use that to describe most of SW's solo work

[HOF]

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.  Despite not being one of my favorites, there was a lot of experimenting and trying new things on this record.  Not everything you do it going to be a home run.

The experimental/first draft nature of Fountain of Lamneth (and this whole album) might be part of why I prefer it to what came next... Steven Wilson calls albums like this "noble follies." An artist trying to achieve something that is maybe beyond their skill or capability at that moment in time and accidentally creating something unique and interesting in it's own right despite it falling short of the intended mark.

That's an interesting description. Funny enough I'd use that to describe most of SW's solo work

Except there’s usually not anything interesting about his solo albums!

[Jamesman42]

I remember trying to get through this album a long time ago and only Bastille Day sticking out to me. Relistening now.

Also, avatar-quoting in 2023, nice.

[MrMike]

I had CoS at 8, which in retrospect is probably a couple spots too high.  Still I find it a damn entertaining album for the most part and prefer it over many of their later albums.  Definitely not fully formed Rush yet, which is part of its charm.  On some of the latter period albums, I thought the band started to take themselves TOO seriously.  While a few moments on CoS miss the target, I enjoy hearing them just go for it and play their asses off while finding their way.

[pg1067]

The Necromancer is ok. The last part of the song is amazing though. I may edit that into its own track.

The Fountain is quite long and choppy. The sections don't really run together naturally and there's no part that on its own is very compelling or memorable, except for the very end.

Re The Necromancer, the last section, "The Return of the Prince," was the lead single from the album in Canada.

Re TFOL, "No One at the Bridge" is amazing and totally stands on its own.

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.

This is interestingly worded.  Rush didn't nail it on the first try, but I don't see why they couldn't have done so.  Yes certainly nailed it on the first try.

[twosuitsluke]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

[Glasser]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

 

[King Postwhore]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

Yeah, but you only carved out your eyes. Not your ears.

[jingle.boy]

Rush couldn't have made 2112 without Caress of Steel.  They had to take a crack at a sidelong epic before getting it right on the second try.  Despite not being one of my favorites, there was a lot of experimenting and trying new things on this record.  Not everything you do it going to be a home run.

Precisely. The above, and Bastille Day are the only good things going for this album.  Lakeside Park has been so overplayed on Canadian Rock Radio, I tire of it from the opening drum fill and chord.  It has it's charm, but I've heard it a few hundred times too many already.  Lyrically, every Canadian in the history of ever can relate to it ... "though it's just a memory, some memories last forever".

[jammindude]

This is WAY too low for COS.

I slightly prefer this as an album to 2112.  2112>TFOL, but COS Side 1>2112 Side 2.

I had COS at 13.

[twosuitsluke]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

Yeah, but you only carved out your eyes. Not your ears.

Yep, I’m about to start listening to the albums. Ear carving out incoming.

[The Realm]

Caress of Steel. My rank is 11. Really struggling to understand how this album can be ranked so low overall. Disappointing result.

[Glasser]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

Yeah, but you only carved out your eyes. Not your ears.

Yep, I’m about to start listening to the albums. Ear carving out incoming.

I would recommend starting with Permanent Waves then Moving Pictures.

Luke! Devin Townsend did the vocals on "Natural Science" on the Rush Tribute album Working Man. Check that out to grease the wheels.

Here! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1KTC9M6LQ

[Stadler]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

Yeah, but you only carved out your eyes. Not your ears.

Yep, I’m about to start listening to the albums. Ear carving out incoming.

Hee hee.  I love it!  I love Rush, I do, but - and I mean this with love, I really do! - there's a fair amount of fanboying around here.  A little contrast is good for the system!! 

[twosuitsluke]

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

Yeah, but you only carved out your eyes. Not your ears.

Yep, I’m about to start listening to the albums. Ear carving out incoming.

I would recommend starting with Permanent Waves then Moving Pictures.

Luke! Devin Townsend did the vocals on "Natural Science" on the Rush Tribute album Working Man. Check that out to grease the wheels.

Here! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1KTC9M6LQ

Cheers dude! I’m already very familiar with Moving Pictures, and don’t mind it at all. I also know my first Rush experience was Caress of Steel, as I remember a friend lending it to me (it didn’t leave a good first impression clearly). I’m gonna listen to the albums in the order they’re being ranked here, so it should only get better (in theory) 

Came here to post that maybe this is a chance for me to deep dive all the Rush albums I’ve never heard (I’ve probably only heard 4 or 5), but ended up seeing Tim in a thong.

Just another day on DTF I guess.

Yeah, but you only carved out your eyes. Not your ears.

Yep, I’m about to start listening to the albums. Ear carving out incoming.

Hee hee.  I love it!  I love Rush, I do, but - and I mean this with love, I really do! - there's a fair amount of fanboying around here.  A little contrast is good for the system!! 

I can give a lacklustre take on the albums, to help counteract the fanboying.

[Glasser]

Rush are no Pizza Death but not too shabby. 

[Kram]

19. Rush
18.
17.
16.
15.
14. Snakes & Arrows
13. Caress of Steel
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1. 

As many have stated - quirky, experimental and an obvious big step in their development as a "Prog" band if you will..

[King Postwhore]

How many times have those participating seen Rush live?

[jingle.boy]

Not as many as you