thizzellewashington

Geddy is such an underrated melody writer and that aspect was never better than on Power Windows.

Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures collectively have everything Rush does best with no filler at all. If you don't like those two albums you won't like the rest. If you like the longer songs, check out the earlier stuff. If you like the shorter songs, check out the later stuff. No better starting point.

Agree 100%

I don't see what the downside is to Rush getting recognized by the powers that be (RRHOF, Rolling Stone, etc.). Not like they actively courted that stuff or changed what they were doing for it. If it comes, great.

I thought it was an entertaining read even though I disagreed with a lot of his rankings and opinions. The whole point of these lists is to inspire debate, not for everybody to agree with every placement and opinion. I enjoyed it.

1. Eclipse - Pink Floyd 2. In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson 3. A Day in the Life - The Beatles 4. The End - The Beatles 5. Profession Of Violence - UFO 6. Rocket Queen - Guns N Roses 7. Hallowed Be Thy Name - Iron Maiden 8. Redemption Song - Bob Marley and the Wailers 9. Fight the Power - Public Enemy 10. When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin 11. Do You Feel Like We Do (live) - Peter Frampton 12. Mystery Achievement - The Pretenders 13. You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones 14. Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who 15. Fairies Wear Boots - Black Sabbath 16. Into The Void - Black Sabbath 17. Siberian Khatru - YES 18. Soft Parade - Doors 19. Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles 20. Would? - Alice In Chains 21. Rock n Roll Suicide - David Bowie 22. Love, Reign O'er Me - The Who 23. Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd 24. Reason To Believe - Rod Stewart 25. Eyes Of A Stranger - Queensryche 26. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner - Iron Maiden 27. Like Suicide - Soundgarden 28. Release - Pearl Jam 29. Jungleland- Bruce Springsteen 30. Train in Vain- The Clash 31. Steeler - Judas Priest 32. The MC5 - Starship 33. In A Simple Rhyme/Growth - VH 34. Foreplay/Longtime (8track) - Boston :P 35. The End - The Doors 36. When the Music's Over - The Doors 37. La Villa Strangiato - Rush 38. Natural Science - Rush 39. Diary Of A Madman - Ozzy Osbourne 40. I'm a Believer - The Monkees 41. Love is Blindness - U2

Virtuality rules. It gets a bad rap because the "net boy, net girl" stuff is kind of dated but that's one of Alex's best riffs.

"The Anarchist" is a top-10 Rush song to me. It has everything they've ever been great at. Other highlights: The Garden, The Wreckers, Headlong Flight, Seven Cities. Only one I'm not crazy about is Halo Effect. The rest is extremely good. Probably their best album post-Power Windows.

ABBA rules

Another one in this category: "Half the World" and "Peaceable Kingdom."

There was an emo band called Yellowcard in the early 2000s that had a violinist but they sucked.

Tool - No Quarter Eddie Hazel - I Want You (She's So Heavy)

1. Back in Black - AC/DC 2. Here Comes the Sun- Beatles ​3. Wake Up Sunshine- Chicago 4. Unchained- Van Halen 5. Street Fighting Man-Rolling Stones 6. Rock and Roll Band - Boston 7. Question 67 and 68 - Chicago 8. The Boys Are Back in Town-Thin Lizzy 9. Money - Pink Floyd 10. KISS - Love Gun 11. Smoke On The Water- Deep Purple 12. Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker 13. Reelin' In The Years - Steely Dan 14. Killing Yourself to Live - Black Sabbath 15. The Entertainer- Billy Joel 16. The Number Of The Beast - Iron Maiden 17. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen 18. The Clash - Spanish Bombs

It's got too many mid-tempo tracks.

Surprised by how many people have the debut in the top 3. Not mad at it, just unexpected.

Brutally good? I really like it at first, but to my ears it hasnt aged very well in terms of songwriting. A great sounding album, though. HAAA No. It is an awful album. Production wise it may be the greatest album of all time but I wouldn't know because I can't listen to it. I agree. Test for Echo is one of their best-sounding albums but the songs aren't there. Funny cause SnA has the same issue - great production, but the songs aren't there. I think T4E suffers from a lack of energy and enthusiasm. It feels very workmanlike. I think that can be attributed to Alex, who admitted he wasn't into the album, having just come off Victor and wanting to do more of that. S&A is also one of their weaker albums in the songwriting department but I count several more highlights on that one than on TFE. The latter basically just has "Driven" and "Resist" that I'd put up there with their best stuff.

Power Windows Permanent Waves Third spot revolves between Signals, Moving Pictures, A Farewell to Kings and Clockwork Angels. Impossible to definitively pick out of that group.

Brutally good? I really like it at first, but to my ears it hasnt aged very well in terms of songwriting. A great sounding album, though. HAAA No. It is an awful album. Production wise it may be the greatest album of all time but I wouldn't know because I can't listen to it. I agree. Test for Echo is one of their best-sounding albums but the songs aren't there.

1. For Those About To Rock - AC/DC 2. Brighton Rock - Queen 3. Sun King - The Cult 4. Highway Star - Deep Purple 5. Back in the Saddle - Aerosmith 6. Running With the Devil - Van Halen 7. Black Dog - Zep 8. Detroit Rock City - KISS 9. Magic Man - Heart 10. Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones 11. Aces High - Iron Maiden 12. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath 13. Baba O'Riley - The Who

Ted's (early) music is better but I can't co-sign him in any way for other reasons. His music isn't so good that it's worth looking past the other factors that come with his public presence.

I've definitely gotten more down on Snakes in the years since it came out but it's still got a handful of incredible songs on it. Far Cry, Armor and Sword, all three instrumentals and The Way the Wind Blows are all great.

Neil's lyrics are usually either incredible or jaw-droppingly terrible. Not much in-between. More of the former than the latter, obviously, but there isn't much middle ground. Neil's lyrics start being consistently awesome with Power Windows and generally get better throughout their career, culminating on Snakes & Arrows, which is the best collection of Neil Peart lyrics ever assembled. Neil's lyrics prior to Permanent Waves are largely uninspired, boring, and pedantic with few exceptions. I actually disagree. Some of S&A is really good but a lot of it feels like he's trying to cram too many ideas and big words into a song structure in a way that doesn't work. Like he's writing an essay set to music. Doesn't translate very well. Most of Counterparts is pretty bad lyrically. "Alien Shore" might be his worst ever.

I would consider the following albums to be lower-tier: Rush Fly by Night Presto Roll the Bones Test for Echo And there are probably 20 all-time great songs between those albums still.

How do we define "bad"? There are definitely Rush albums that are weak or mediocre, but every one of their albums has at least a handful of great songs. Test for Echo is their weakest album IMO and even that one has Driven, Virtuality and Resist.

There's a biiiiiiiig difference between redoing six-year-old material and redoing 44-year-old material. You really think Geddy could handle any of that stuff vocally? I'm not generally huge on bands re-recording old material, but if they wanted to do some synth era stuff with their heavier live sound, I'd be up for that. Of course, all of this is moot because the band is done.