Weirdest Rush albums or songs

[chemistry1973]

Heh. I went to a couple Snakes tour shows and couldn't wait for then to get past all the new songs. Like I said, Far Cry kicked ass but the others, yeeech. Talk about a string of bathroom or beer stand break songs... lol

I've sometimes wondered if bands ever notice fans leaving their seats walking away during certain songs or segments of their sets and if it bothers them

 

Yeah that was rough - they did bring back Digital Man and played Entre Nous for the first time - big pluses there.

 

But Spindrift is awful.

[Rutlefan]

I'm listening to my car's music USB track by track, alphabetically. I'll listen to most tracks but skip many as well, being those I just don't have any interest in compared to what might be coming next (with nearly 2K tracks recorded I usually have no idea what's next). As I have all the Rush albums on it a Rush tune will come up time to time. I've found that with few exceptions, I'll skip every track from PoW through T4E. I can listen to those songs if listening to those entire albums, but when mixed with tunes from Zeppelin, or The Beatles, or any of the other many bands I've got on that USB, the PoW through T4E songs just come off as extremely weak. Does that make them weird? Kind of to me, as I find myself thinking, "How does a band this talented, and who made such amazing music for it's first decade of existence, go on to record these nearly unlistenable songs?" I guess that seems weird to me.

 

Entirely too many songs to discount, IMO. There’s some great stuff in there.

 

But to each his or her own.

 

I did say there were a few exceptions, most of which I could have anticipated, but one song that surprised me was Nobody's Hero. Listening to it in isolation I realized that I think it a pretty fine song, despite the weird/clinical/awkward rhyme of "sexuality" and "masculinity." I used to think Sting's "knowledge" and "college" in Wrapped Around Your Finger was the worst rhyme ever but I think we've at least a tie here.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Rutlefan

[tas7]

To me personally, there was a time and I hope fellow fans can pinpoint it, when Geddy's delivery of Neil's lyrics didn't quite fit the music anymore, and we started to get wooah's. Counterparts? maybe after that?

[Narps]

Heh. I went to a couple Snakes tour shows and couldn't wait for then to get past all the new songs. Like I said, Far Cry kicked ass but the others, yeeech. Talk about a string of bathroom or beer stand break songs... lol

I've sometimes wondered if bands ever notice fans leaving their seats walking away during certain songs or segments of their sets and if it bothers them

I took my then 16 year old musician son to a Snakes tour show. I had of course seen them 20 times before since 79' but it had been a while. It was his first live show seeing a band I had been raving about all of his life and he knew quite a bit of their music. The first 30 minutes or so I was just sitting there not very excited apparently and he asked me why am I not excited. They were playing the Snakes songs but things changed quickly thank God... Edited August 30, 2019 by Narps

[jnoble]

I pinpoint TFE as the album where A: Neil's lyrics really started decline in quality and B: Geddy and Alex couldn't come up with inspired music to put them to. Their long time method of coming up with riffs and parts and fitting them to the words started sounding obvious (Time And Motion comes to mind as a particularly disjointed sounding song)

Color Of Right is another example of bland music put to bland words with a bland melody by Geddy

[jnoble]

And TFE was also the beginning of the layers upon layers of distorted guitars & bass wall of noise production plus the infamous Geddy choirs of "whooaaass" and "ooohhhhhs" which just got worse with Vapor Trails onward lol

[Lurkst]

This thread seems to have moved from discussing "weirdest" to "shitest"

[taurus]

I'm listening to my car's music USB track by track, alphabetically. I'll listen to most tracks but skip many as well, being those I just don't have any interest in compared to what might be coming next (with nearly 2K tracks recorded I usually have no idea what's next). As I have all the Rush albums on it a Rush tune will come up time to time. I've found that with few exceptions, I'll skip every track from PoW through T4E. I can listen to those songs if listening to those entire albums, but when mixed with tunes from Zeppelin, or The Beatles, or any of the other many bands I've got on that USB, the PoW through T4E songs just come off as extremely weak. Does that make them weird? Kind of to me, as I find myself thinking, "How does a band this talented, and who made such amazing music for it's first decade of existence, go on to record these nearly unlistenable songs?" I guess that seems weird to me.

 

That's interesting because even going back to the mixed tape days, Rush did not meld well with other music. There are exceptions but over all I avoided putting Rush on my own mix tapes/cds and now those random file playbacks. Tull and Zappa the same.

 

I disagree on your assessment of Rush's music from PoW-T4E

[Freeze]

To me one of their weirdest songs is "Red Lenses". Not bad, not great.. Just weird :)

[New_World_Man]

Red Lenses is great. Not really weird to me. It does have one of Geddy's best bass lines though. Edited August 31, 2019 by New_World_Man

[Rutlefan]

I'm listening to my car's music USB track by track, alphabetically. I'll listen to most tracks but skip many as well, being those I just don't have any interest in compared to what might be coming next (with nearly 2K tracks recorded I usually have no idea what's next). As I have all the Rush albums on it a Rush tune will come up time to time. I've found that with few exceptions, I'll skip every track from PoW through T4E. I can listen to those songs if listening to those entire albums, but when mixed with tunes from Zeppelin, or The Beatles, or any of the other many bands I've got on that USB, the PoW through T4E songs just come off as extremely weak. Does that make them weird? Kind of to me, as I find myself thinking, "How does a band this talented, and who made such amazing music for it's first decade of existence, go on to record these nearly unlistenable songs?" I guess that seems weird to me.

 

That's interesting because even going back to the mixed tape days, Rush did not meld well with other music. There are exceptions but over all I avoided putting Rush on my own mix tapes/cds and now those random file playbacks. Tull and Zappa the same.

 

I disagree on your assessment of Rush's music from PoW-T4E

 

Fair enough. One thing I learned, in a sense, was that the music on Signals is a lot better than I'd thought over these many years. When those tunes came up, even Countdown which back in the day I couldn't even listen to it annoyed me so much, I found myself enjoying them without being tempted to skip at all. I found myself skipping very few tracks from Signals and earlier. Middle of 2nd side of AFTK didn't fair so well, along with I'm Going Bald and Rivendell, but other than that pretty much every track was worth a listen, the direct mirror to PoW to T4E, with GUP and VT on being a mixed bag.

[Red3angel]

Weirdest album is 2112 and I mean that in a good way. Weirdest song is Limbo

[_hi_water._]

But Spindrift is awful.

what's wrong with Spindrift?

[_hi_water._]

Rivendell

 

The Necromancer

 

The Fountain Of Lamneth

 

The Twilight Zone

 

Madrigal

 

Countdown

 

Red Lenses

 

Tai Shan

 

Available Light

 

You Bet Your Life

 

Double Agent

 

Limbo

 

The Stars Look Down

[chemistry1973]

But Spindrift is awful.

what's wrong with Spindrift?

 

It's overwrought - it sounds like it has 2 choruses. The "a little closer to you..." sounds like another chorus, but's a bridge.

 

Also the tempo - tempo issues pervade the entire album actually. It just plods along. The song feels like it's 10 minutes long.

 

NP should've played it evenly right off the bat - established a 4/4 rock groove. Instead - the swishing cymbal play makes the song sound like it's adrift - but in a bad way - Alex has already established that motif - Neil should've brought the hurricane, but didn't.

[Bahamas]

Presto is my most challenging listen. Tinny in mixing, difficult to blend with a song list.

 

But we would never have gotten The Pass, Presto, Superconductor.

 

That is why I find it very, very difficult to discount Rush albums and songs. Honestly, they finished a song (in all its agony or glory), or else it got tossed.

 

They included every single song because they felt it was worth including. Remember, they earned the right to choose their songs and work it to release production. If they didn't like something, it got tossed.

[goose]

A Farewell to Kings is the weirdest RUSH album for me. The songs are all over the place, as a collection and even within single songs. I get the ambition, but for me it just doesn't work.

[The400Boys]

By Tor and the Snowdog (for the odd guitar sounds in the middle)

I recall a friend's that with the weird guitar effects the Snowdog sounded more like a pig.

Edited September 27, 2020 by The400Boys

[goose]

Vital Signs was a pretty strange departure considering the RUSH catalog up to that point. It took me forever to warm up to it.

[jnoble]

Scars is a song I've always liked but seemed like an odd type of arrangement for Rush. One reviewer said it sounded like The Fixx more than Rush

 

 

[goose]

Scars is a song I've always liked but seemed like an odd type of arrangement for Rush. One reviewer said it sounded like The Fixx more than Rush

It also features a sequencer rather than Geddy playing bass, which is odd for a RUSH song.

[JohnnyBlaze]

But Spindrift is awful.

what's wrong with Spindrift?

 

It's overwrought - it sounds like it has 2 choruses. The "a little closer to you..." sounds like another chorus, but's a bridge.

 

Also the tempo - tempo issues pervade the entire album actually. It just plods along. The song feels like it's 10 minutes long.

 

NP should've played it evenly right off the bat - established a 4/4 rock groove. Instead - the swishing cymbal play makes the song sound like it's adrift - but in a bad way - Alex has already established that motif - Neil should've brought the hurricane, but didn't.

 

The sometimes indecipherable Geddy-marbles-in-the-mouth vocals don’t help. He sounds half drunk in parts.

[Weatherman]

Scars is a song I've always liked but seemed like an odd type of arrangement for Rush. One reviewer said it sounded like The Fixx more than Rush

It also features a sequencer rather than Geddy playing bass, which is odd for a RUSH song.

I love the story about how Neil got the idea for the pattern while biking through W Africa and hearing the drumming of the villages.

Ged's sequencer sounds tight, even today. His vocals are on point too.

Alex has fun noodling around, playing with the slide.

It doesn't sound much like anything else they've ever done.

[chemistry1973]

Scars is a song I've always liked but seemed like an odd type of arrangement for Rush. One reviewer said it sounded like The Fixx more than Rush

It also features a sequencer rather than Geddy playing bass, which is odd for a RUSH song.

I love the story about how Neil got the idea for the pattern while biking through W Africa and hearing the drumming of the villages.

Ged's sequencer sounds tight, even today. His vocals are on point too.

Alex has fun noodling around, playing with the slide.

It doesn't sound much like anything else they've ever done.

 

 

I thought NP's playing was pretty innovative for the time. The "tribal" pattern is a straight up paradiddle. The snare is triggered with his left foot. Perhaps that was inspired by Rick Allen??

[Weatherman]

Scars is a song I've always liked but seemed like an odd type of arrangement for Rush. One reviewer said it sounded like The Fixx more than Rush

It also features a sequencer rather than Geddy playing bass, which is odd for a RUSH song.

I love the story about how Neil got the idea for the pattern while biking through W Africa and hearing the drumming of the villages.

Ged's sequencer sounds tight, even today. His vocals are on point too.

Alex has fun noodling around, playing with the slide.

It doesn't sound much like anything else they've ever done.

 

 

I thought NP's playing was pretty innovative for the time. The "tribal" pattern is a straight up paradiddle. The snare is triggered with his left foot. Perhaps that was inspired by Rick Allen??

 

Between Neil's experimentation in Scars, Alex's backwards solo in Chain Lightning, and Ged singing both lead and backing vocals thru much of the album...

...I don't think they cared much about recreating Presto live.

Edited September 29, 2020 by Weatherman