NWK's Rush Song Rankings and Reviews

**New World Kid** · August 10, 2020

Well I don't feel embarrassed doing it. It's a fun little writing project I figure :)

**goose** · August 10, 2020

I really like your approach. It's cool that a song's ranking isn't based solely on whether you like it, just its merit within the canon.

**New World Kid** · August 10, 2020

Do you think I should keep going bottom-up, or to switch it up and not be so negative at the beginning, and keep it a bit unpredictable, should I randomize the review order?

**_hi_water._** · August 10, 2020

I actually attempted to make a list, but I could only place like 15 songs, then it got hard after that

**laughedatbytime** · August 10, 2020

I think randomizing could be a good idea. Maybe keep the top ten or top twenty to the end.

**goose** · August 10, 2020

Yeah, maybe build the list in order, but do the write-up on the songs that most compel you.

**New World Kid** · August 10, 2020

I like this idea best so far I think. It keeps it fresh every time. Right now I think everyone's going to start coming around to find Tai Shan and Dog Years soon. Like, it's expected? But if I randomize it, then you don't know what you'll get. A prize every time!

And then save the bests for last to end on high note after high note.

**_hi_water._** · August 10, 2020

I honestly hope Dog Years doesn't come low

**JohnnyBlaze** · August 10, 2020

That’s a good way to do it. Another possibility is to list them as you are now but 3-5 tunes at a time

**New World Kid** · August 10, 2020

Making Memories

Rank: 132 out of 165

Overall Score: 2/10

Category scores out of 10:

Historical Significance: 5

Fan Favoritism: 3

Lyrics: 4

Music: 6

Uniqueness: 6

Extra Credit: 9

In a review for 2004’s Feedback, Rolling Stone wrote that fans already know it, but, “Rush have always been a decent bar band.” Just in case you needed that sobering in 2020; when the mainstream media seems to look back with fondness of Rush. But with that same tone, I have to look at Making Memories and say:

Fans already know it, but Rush could always have just been a decent classic rock band.

And the best example for this is Making Memories. And don’t let this lower-than-average ranking and score fool you: I genuinely adore this little gem. When I used to make compilation CDs for friends, it usually had a place. That’s reflected in the Extra Credit score above being higher than any other category: it’s cohesive, a chilled-out favorite of mine that's more than the sum of its parts.

It’s strange to me, but this might be Rush’s most polished and accessible Classic Rock song. Full stop. It isn’t flirting with old-school metal, it isn’t pushing progressive boundaries, it isn’t overly philosophical or overtly metaphoric. It’s an up-beat rock song punctuated with comfortable acoustic guitar, optimistic and youthful lyrics, and a very easy-listening Geddy Lee.

If you told me that in 1975, REO Speedwagon, The Allman Brothers and The Eagles collaborated on a song together, and had Geddy Lee come in to guest sing on it, I feel like this would be the product. It's interestingly, and I mean that, interestingly not a heavy homage to Zeppelin. In 1975, that's very cool to hear from Rush.

And you can totally understand the record label, Mercury’s, exasperation with soon-after fledgling progressive attempts. Why are you doing this prog rock thing, we know you can make safe, steady, marketable tunes. We’re doing our best to push your career stability!

What record companies and reviewers didn’t know about Rush’s potential could fill the entire Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But if you imagine everything you’ve heard from Rush to this point, and it’s your bottom line on the line - it becomes understandable. That confusion. Because this is such a decent tune.

Rush could always have been a decent classic rock band.

It’s for those reasons that it doesn’t stand out in the Rush canon though.

The drums are tight in a very non-Peart-in-the-70’s kind of way. Understated, filling the pocket, throwing odd snare hits to push the feeling. Neil is capable of relaxing, and letting the song speak for itself. Frankly, something that needed to be seen, given much of the rest of the record’s drumming. There are some odd missteps in that general vibe though, where maybe there’s an unnecessary double bass fill here and there. You know, if you’re going for that Allman Brothers space.

The guitar is also letting the song speak for itself. The acoustic guitar is a hummable, pleasant, non-confrontational accompaniment to the song. It isn’t filler, it truly adds to the song’s tone: but it’s not impressive in its technicality. The electric guitar solo is a nice passenger sedan to getting through the instrumental section: we’re not melting your face, we’re going from Point A to Point B here in a comfortable way. Just more classic rock stapling. It returns in the fade out, reminding you that this sedan does also have a reclining seat. That’s nice, if not a bit standard in my classic rock experience.

The bass guitar is maybe the largest stand-out. It soars above the rhythm guitar at times, particularly in the choruses. Providing bottom end, but also grabbing the listener’s ear to say something slightly unique. Not mind-blowing, but it prevents this experience from being stiff. Which again, isn't outside the comfort zone of Classic Rock. Something shines a little bit, that's expected.

Vocally, Geddy is very subdued. There’s absolutely no sign of the infamous “Geddy screech” that critics loathed and many fans had to come to terms with. Some added gravel and higher notes (but not HIGHER notes, if you catch my meaning) to punctuate excitement, particularly with “oh yeahs!” Because, oh yeah, this is indeed a classic rock number.

And the lyrics aren’t particularly other-worldly either. We’re young, we’re away from home, touring is kinda cool. I do enjoy the line about rock stars of yesterday-decade wearing out their welcome through classic antics. “The cities in the land all extend a welcome hand/ ’till the morning when it’s time for us to go.” Or maybe I’m reading a little too much subtle humor in that line.

I'm glad Making Memories exists. There aren't very many Rush songs that live in this space, even if that's because it's fairly industry-standard in comparison to the output of a band that never compromised for too long over 40 years.

But what do you think about Making Memories? And the new randomized format?

Subtle change here as well, instead of "Total Score", I'm calling the score relative to Rush's output an "Overall Score." That seems like. a better word for it.

Previous Reviews:

#164 Rivendell

#165 Anagram (for Mongo)

Edited August 10, 2020 by New World Kid

**laughedatbytime** · August 10, 2020

Nicely done.

**driventotheedge** · August 10, 2020

Ditto.

And I prefer in order rather than random but this is cool too. Maybe at least save the top 30 for "in order"?

Edited August 10, 2020 by driventotheedge

**New World Kid** · August 10, 2020

So I think I landed on a good reviewing order. Songs that have an overall score of 9/10 or higher will be saved for last, which is 32 songs (remember, we divided the Rush catalog every 16 songs). The rest of the catalog I had Google Sheets randomize an order for me. If a song's number comes up and I'm not feeling any good thoughts, I'm allowing myself to substitute it out for a different random song.

The top 32, rated 9/10 or 10/10, are saved for last. I'll do those in order, starting at #32, once we get there.

Here's a sneak peek at how this looks in my Google Sheets doc. Left column is their rank, right column is "debut order", or when I'll be reviewing it.

Thanks for all the feedback, both on the reviews themselves and on my methodology. This is a fun project :)

**_hi_water._** · August 10, 2020

Making Memories? YOU'RE CRAZY

**New World Kid** · August 10, 2020

Maybe I am. I'm just checking to make sure you know it's ranked 132/165, and not 163/165 as the appearance order would imply.

There are 33 lower ranked songs, not 2.

But if you knew that and still think I'm crazy, well, that's fair too :)

**New World Kid** · August 11, 2020

Lessons

Rank: 139 out of 165

Overall Score: 2/10

Category scores out of 10:

Historical Significance: 6

Fan Favorite: 6

Lyrics: 4

Music: 4

Uniqueness: 5

Extra Credit: 5

Alex Zivojinovich: What do I feel? A little angry. ‘Cuz, with parents… I notice a lot of parents have this great difficulty of listening to their kids, and it’s so true.

Nenad Zivojinovich: Okay! You want to say [that] you know better.

Alex Zivojinovich: No, I’m not saying that, Dad. I’m just saying it’d be really great if parents sit down and listen to what their kids say and go, ‘well, it’s good that you feel that way, now this is the way I feel.’ Instead of parents going, ‘no no no, that’s all wrong, you’ve got to feel like this. This is how you’ve got to feel.

The excerpt above is from the documentary “Come on Children”. Debuting in 1973, it chronicles ten teenagers coming to terms with the realities and responsibilities involved in the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. As circumstances would have it, one of the featured teens was our very own Alex Lifeson, who was likely 19 at the time of recording.

It’s from conversations like this that Lessons deals its lyrics three years later. The song, the only one ever credited to Lifeson lyrically from my memory, is an extension of that documentary vignette. Made even more clear in the lyric video version that now resides on Rush’s YouTube Channel, even if the comic portrays a revised history skewed towards the saccharine.

And that’s truly the strength of this song: its honesty. Its not philosophy, its not pompous. It’s a straight-ahead rocker with personal meaning. And it truly does seem unfortunate to me that it has ranked so far down my list here.

But while the foundations of the song have a lot of merit, there’s some problems that simply can’t be over-looked.

These wonderful lyrics, and their meaning, absolutely escaped me in my adolescence, especially at times when they should have been a crystal clear message to stay the course in the face of authority. I missed that entirely, which means the lyrics are failing to communicate to their target audience, at least in this instance.

To my young ears, the lyrics seemed like they were more about a lover’s quarrel, or a series of lovers’ disappointments, than a parent and child. Perhaps that’s as much a failing on myself as the song, but many lines simply don’t make sense to me. Even knowing the song’s truer context.

“I’ll be there when I teach what I’ve been taught/ and I’ve been taught,” and “sweet memories/ I never thought it would be like this/ reminding me just how close I came to missing.”

To be frank, the lyrics are very disjointed. Its hard to infer any meaning from them without context. Once the context came out, from the documentaries and lyric videos of career retrospectives, it could click into place. But before then, from my first time listening in 2004 until about 2016, this song was utterly meaningless to me.

A lack of imagery and understanding left these words concretely empty.

But let’s move on from the lyrics and look at the music. Which, given its a Rush song, is never a weakness. And here, the groove and construction is on-point. It’s hitting the numbers perfectly.

But it’s absolutely nothing special in the Rush canon. Much like other songs that appear this low in the rankings, it borrows sonically from much greater songs on the same album.

In particular, the lead guitar tone has a shrillness that works very well in the titular 2112 and is again used to great effect to provide a tarnished, other-worldly atmosphere on The Twilight Zone. But by the time you’re hearing it again in Lessons (and later on in Something for Nothing), it’s nothing new to hear, and gives this a sameness sonically to what it will be immediately compared to. Perhaps even worse, there are times when this guitar tone and Geddy’s high pitch screams are simultaneously clashing.. The guitar really wants to get in the way of the vocals. As such, the vocals are required to soar into that early-era Geddy territory that turns off so many.

It also gives the whole atmosphere an immature, adolescent vibe that might actually fit the lyrics too well. If your Dad is accusing you of acting like a child and not taking your future seriously, screaming like a child without being able to formulate full sentences probably isn’t the best rebuttal.

For the most part the song stays predictable in every way imaginable. You’ve got a verse/chorus structure that makes this standard in just about any body of popular music, bobbing along in 4/4 time, and fading out with an instrumental. Admittedly the instrumental fadeout has some very impressive lead guitar work, but it fails to impact where its placed.

I do think its interesting that, in Rush’s career, there is a transition mentally in song construction. On many songs early in the discography, the verses are the simpler, more approachable sample of music. And then the song explodes into fantastical Geddy wailing and complex musicianship in the choruses. This is true for Lessons in 1976. But then around 1980’s Permanent Waves, and onwards, Rush keeps the complexity to instrumental sections and verses, getting out of the way of the chorus to let the words and melody do the heavy lifting.

As such, I’m distracted in the choruses in Lessons. A lot of Peart-ian flailing, while technically masterful as you’d expect, it’s absolutely the opposite of that “serving the song” mantra he was living in his later years.

It’s actually quite the coincidence that Lessons was randomly drawn to be reviewed immediately after Making Memories: they’re cut from the same cloth. Classic rock standards featuring acoustic guitar that come from the early Rush years. But Making Memories scores slightly higher due to, in my opinion, being more accessible and focused.

If Rush’s fourth studio effort had been compositions on the level of Lessons across the board, there wouldn’t have likely been a fifth one. Lessons is easily the most forgettable of the tracks on 2112. It's not a must-skip song, but it's not a must-listen by any means.

I think this review will ruffle some feathers, as much of 2112 the album is seen as sacrosanct. But I’ve got to call them like I see them.

What about you though? I bet you would rank this song higher. Let me know!

Previous Reviews:

#132 Making Memories

#139 Lessons

#164 Rivendell

#165 Anagram (for Mongo)

Edited August 11, 2020 by New World Kid

**_hi_water._** · August 11, 2020

bruh Lessons kicks ass

**_hi_water._** · August 12, 2020

ready for the next one :dweez:

**goose** · August 12, 2020

I probably would rank it higher, because I never had any issues with the lyrics. My biggest beef is probably the fade-in and fade-out used for the song.

**New World Kid** · August 14, 2020

Time and Motion

Rank: 88 out of 165

Overall Score: 5/10

Category scores out of 10:

Historical Significance: 5

Fan Favoritism: 7

Lyrics: 6

Music: 8

Uniqueness: 6

Extra Credit: 8

A mature Rush use many of the tools they learned in their early phases for a modern take. That’s the one-sentence review.

The song opens with a feast for the progressive listener: rotating time signatures. To my casual observation, we’re getting some 5/4, 6/8 and 4/4 right off the start. But in true Rush fashion, it never hits you over the head with its odd-time heroics.

Allow me to draw a metaphor: If progressive rock groups were part of the stinging insect family, a prog act like Dream Theater is a wasp: demanding respect while stinging you with prog complexities and not apologizing for it. Rush, on the other hand, is the mosquito: softening you up before biting - it’s only after the Rush bug has bitten you that you realize you’ve had a prog-rock encounter.

So that’s not the best metaphor I’ve ever written, moving on.

With more modern Rush tracks come more modern production, and it has to be said that Test for Echo is, for my money, the best sounding Rush album. Every instrument is clear, with enough separation to appreciate each performance and element. Yet there’s also a total fullness to each aspect.

Synthesizers in this track are present, but never unintentionally overwhelming. In fact, there are some very tasteful moments that I had never noticed until giving this song the repeated listenings for this review. In particular, at the end of the Choruses’ “…long enduring kind” lines, there is a punctuating synth note right before breaking into the repetition of the introductory keyboard line. A definitive “blurt” of a machine warming up before being assigned a task.

Speaking of the synthesizer in this song, at its most prominent, is poignantly hard-hitting, if a tad-bit dated by the late 90’s. The metallic melodic compromise it finds would have been revolutionary five to ten years earlier, but it serves the purpose here very well.

Beyond that, you get some of the classic whooshes of synths that fill out the sound and provide texture and color. Test for Echo, the album, has always felt very cold to me. And it’s because of these background, bristling, transparent synthesizers in the background. Evoking in me the same chilly warmth as peeking out a winter’s window, watching snow fall at a diagonal through the wind, reflection of purple-blue ice on your windowsill.

But I digress.

The softer middle sections are heralded upon their arrival with the heaviest, most unrestrained sections of the song. In a heavy section, a large concept will be introduced lyrically:

“The might ocean dances.”

The back half of the line will speak to something more mysterious, and as such, will be reflected with a subduing of the music:

“With the moon”.

This dancing interplay between the tone of the lyrics and the matching of the instrumentation shows Rush at their most mature ever: unlike times early in their career, every single aspect of the musicianship is supporting the song.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some very nice solo moments, particularly highlighted by Lifeson’s energetic guitar solo. He launches into an assault on the guitar, and you can feel him wrangling this solo out. The feeling very much is that this is a solo being fought with, rather than the effortless flying fingers of the 80’s solos. There’s weight in the notes. And perhaps that is more song-serving, when given the lyrical meaning. More on that in a moment.

Beyond the solos, Alex is also providing some very distorted, very heavy metal riffs in this song, the entire time. No one will call this number soft. Even the more complimentary parts, single note arpeggios and soaring background instrumentation, has Lifeson flipping on the heavy distortion. Only in the intentionally softer sections in the middle to we get a shedding of the coordinately oppressive loudness in favor of some reverb and dynamics.

The other instruments don’t particularly highlight on the track. Not to say there isn’t good stuff going on back there, but Geddy Lee and Neil Peart take more of a backseat in comparison to other songs in the Rush catalog. Lee’s vocals are his focus, with the rather infamous “choir of Geddys” sounding pretty good here, actually! Peart’s focus is on that left foot, with the hi-hat plugging away as a time-keeper.

The lyrics, to my comprehension, tell the tale of squeezing out of life the most you can, just as the rest of nature does. That time and motion will brutally and spiritually influence the world, the universe, and you, listener, should also find the ability to influence the world through non-stop progression of yourself. Whether through the calculated, like filling “boxcars in a train” or circumstantial like “spontaneous emotions.” Make your time and motion full.

I choose to have an a-romantic view of a line like, “spontaneous relations and the long enduring kind,” but there could be a potentially awkward double-meaning of fleeting infidelity in context of long term relationships there. Not the first time this strangely interpretable thematic double meaning creeps into Peart’s lyrics on the album Test for Echo, curiously.

But again, I’m dismissing that for its more innocent reading.

Time and Motion is a hard rock number that sees the band putting all of their efforts into serving one aim, one meaning. It works very well in the studio. Attempts to recreate this song live were mixed, and it was jettisoned from the Test for Echo Tour very early on. Which is a shame, because had it been workshopped through time, this is a fantastic song. A combination of hard rock, progressive rock, Peart-ian lyrics. It falls just short of standing out amongst the amazing songs in the catalog, but is never-the-less very good.

One other thing to note: I do think this song would have benefitted from a slightly higher tempo. While too far in the other direction, go over to YouTube sometime and turn the Playback Speed to 1.25. The song could hit you a little less deliberately, and still retain its moodiness. At times, it feels like this song is warming itself up to transition to new parts. I prefer a more aggressive approach. The mature Rush felt that slower felt heavier. But for my money, it’s the attack that gives you heaviness. Just a hair faster, and this song really cuts into you.

The written tempo makes you wonder if it's plotting, or plodding. But it doesn't detract from the song too seriously.

Previous Reviews:

#165 Anagram (for Mongo)

Edited August 14, 2020 by New World Kid

**driventotheedge** · August 14, 2020

Agree with your opinion that T4E is "the best sounding Rush album". That may be why I like it better than the typical Rush fan. Regardless, this song is definitely a highlight from the album.

**_hi_water._** · August 14, 2020

Time And Motion? oof I love it cuz it sounds a lil like Dream Theater

**New World Kid** · August 14, 2020

Just cuz I asked this earlier and idk if you saw it, but Time and Motion is not the 5th worst Rush song. Just the 5th one I've reviewed. I'm going in a random order on ranking to keep it spicy. It's about halfway up the ranks. There are 77 Rush songs below it, in my opinion.

**_hi_water._** · August 14, 2020

I'm aware lol

**New World Kid** · August 14, 2020

Alrighty! Cool. I'd feel bad if you thought Time and Motion was my like, 5th least favorite song. I think it kicks ass tbh.

NWK's Rush Song Rankings and Reviews

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