All 180 Rush songs ranked from #180 to #1

[Three Eyes]

For the longest time Geddy always named Power Windows and RTB as his personal favorite albums they ever did

 

Yikes.

[New World Kid]

The fact Rivendell isn't occupying #190 on this list of 180 songs means it's inaccurate.

[Three Eyes]

... Edited August 5, 2019 by Three Eyes

[Three Eyes]

For the longest time Geddy always named Power Windows and RTB as his personal favorite albums they ever did

 

If this is true, then it's a pretty good indicator as to why Rush never again regained their '70s and early '80s greatness, imo. That and the fact that they parted ways with Broon.

[Nova Carmina]

I've always liked Power Windows, and I will fight for it to the last -- it has some great songs and ideas -- but RTB is a low point to me. If Rush kept hitting new heights from 1975 through 1981, HYF and RTB represent two misses out of three albums (and it's 0-3 if you agree that Presto is Rush's "most awkward era").

 

It's just always hard to go back, artistically, to what was being done before; the "back to the basics" doesn't really work well for musicians, novelists, poets, etc. Now, if an artist never changes much -- the creative equivalent of a crocodile or AC/DC -- then later albums may match what was done before, but Rush always evolved, so that means some greatness and some dead ends.

[Three Eyes]

It's just always hard to go back, artistically, to what was being done before; the "back to the basics" doesn't really work well for musicians, novelists, poets, etc. Now, if an artist never changes much -- the creative equivalent of a crocodile or AC/DC -- then later albums may match what was done before, but Rush always evolved, so that means some greatness and some dead ends.

 

For me, the problem is that they stopped evolving for the most part after GUP.

[ytserush]

It's just always hard to go back, artistically, to what was being done before; the "back to the basics" doesn't really work well for musicians, novelists, poets, etc. Now, if an artist never changes much -- the creative equivalent of a crocodile or AC/DC -- then later albums may match what was done before, but Rush always evolved, so that means some greatness and some dead ends.

 

For me, the problem is that they stopped evolving for the most part after GUP.

 

I feel pretty lucky in that I think they continued to evolve until the very end.

[Na na na]

I`ve never ranked Rush songs, too difficult to do. So I`m gonna do it, might take some time though.

[Rick N. Backer]

“Moving Pictures is certainly Rush's best album.”

 

QED. Even though it’s wrong about Witch Hunt.

[jnoble]

Geddy seemed to really love the songwriting they accomplished on RTB but even when it was brand new and still on the charts he was vocal about how weak the production sounded

[JohnnyBlaze]

It's just always hard to go back, artistically, to what was being done before; the "back to the basics" doesn't really work well for musicians, novelists, poets, etc. Now, if an artist never changes much -- the creative equivalent of a crocodile or AC/DC -- then later albums may match what was done before, but Rush always evolved, so that means some greatness and some dead ends.

 

For me, the problem is that they stopped evolving for the most part after GUP.

 

What’s your definition of “evolving”?

Do you hear any difference between Power Windows and Presto? From Bones to Test for Echo? From Vapor Trails to Clockwork? I don’t like all of those albums but to me it’s clear that they were naturally changing things up even just slightly at times.

[Three Eyes]

It's just always hard to go back, artistically, to what was being done before; the "back to the basics" doesn't really work well for musicians, novelists, poets, etc. Now, if an artist never changes much -- the creative equivalent of a crocodile or AC/DC -- then later albums may match what was done before, but Rush always evolved, so that means some greatness and some dead ends.

 

For me, the problem is that they stopped evolving for the most part after GUP.

 

What’s your definition of “evolving”?

Do you hear any difference between Power Windows and Presto? From Bones to Test for Echo? From Vapor Trails to Clockwork? I don’t like all of those albums but to me it’s clear that they were naturally changing things up even just slightly at times.

 

One long-winded, unpopular opinion comin' right up. :)

 

For the record, there are many great post-GUP Rush songs that I honestly love. It's just that many of the albums they come from don't come close to matching the creative brilliance, dynamic playing and full-of-surprises arrangements of the pre-PoW ones, imo. Just because they changed up styles from time to time after GUP doesn't mean they evolved all that much artistically. The motive was probably to combine Rush style with the style dujour in order to remain commercially viable. But that's not even my complaint because great work can still be accomplished in a such context. My complaint is that too many songs from these albums feel like under-cooked trivialities. Making matters worse is that these songs often contain "Rushy" sections that seem almost condescendingly thrown-in as bones to the fans. I'd describe these types of songs as Rush flavored Tic Tacs. I find more than a few of them highly annoying and I'll even go so far as to say some of their arrangement choices are pretty tacky.

 

Starting with PoW, the album formula they fell into, consciously or unconsciously, seemed to take on a more typical form of rock/pop album: Let loose single upon the world in support an album full of songs that were of equal or lesser value. And in Rush's case, these singles were often a few notches below the quality of what we were accustomed to getting from the band during its glory days...in my opinion, of course. In this light, the stylistic changes they mounted every few years for these albums didn't amount to a lot of evolutionary change. Contrast this with their evolution from '74 to '84 which I'd say rivaled that of the Beatles' run from '63 to '70 for its rapidly changing sound and lyrical subject matter.

 

Pre-PoW, a Rush single was the tasty appetizer that preceded an amazing main course and a variety of awesome deserts. Post-GUP, the single was an appetizer that lead to 8 or 9 other appetizers! One can only fill up on so much bread! Gone were breathtaking showpieces like 2112, La Villa, Natural Science, The Camera Eye, Freewill, Entre Nous, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Between the Wheels, etc., that the singles from those albums coaxed us into experiencing. To my mind, Xanadu by itself is worth more than than probably all the post-GUP albums combined (with the exception of Clockwork Angels which I hold as a near return to Rush greatness). And '74 to '84 has a couple dozen Xanadus! I'm not saying Rush should have continued writing epic after epic but a few more might have been nice because they're so damn good at them.

 

Of course, the guys in the band probably have a less flattering opinion of their Broon era albums than I do. I'm guessing they think a lot of it is kids stuff.

 

I'll finish by saying I think Rush should have never recorded an album longer than 45 minutes. The time limitations of vinyl really worked in their favor, imo. But I doubt the labels would have ever let them get away with that even if they'd wanted to do it.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Three Eyes

[jnoble]

The 45 minute thing is absolutely true. The final three studio albums were all at least 3 or 4 songs too long. Especially VT, they could've left the last few tracks off that one and not lost anything worthwhile

[ytserush]

Definitely disagree. I think that's as good as an album as they've ever made in spite of being the longest studio album they ever recorded.

 

Rush is about value for money. While Rush was obviously writing for CD at this point they still weren't stuffing as music on a CD as they could fit on a CD (80 minutes and they never went over 70.) like other bands.

 

That value appears to be in the eye of the beholder.