Rutlefan

Easy for me -- Hemipsheres (sic). Would have died to see them live at that time but I was a 7th grader living in the great white north of Dakota so it wasn't happening.

ATWAS. First Rush album I ever heard and of course was blown away. Still amazed by Lakeside Park, Bytor and In the End. For a band that had seemingly come out of nowhere (I hadn't heard of 2112 yet), it was a revelation. ESL has my favorite setlist but I've never cared for the production.

Agree completely, though I'm really only a fan of Analog Kid from that album (and New World Man is an admittedly good single). At a later point in their career I would have welcomed Signals, but coming on the heels of PW and MP, when Rush was poised to rule the world, it was like "WT#?!? Is this the same band?" I play it now and then thinking I might like it more, but it really does sound sort of unfinished, esp the last two songs, which are really good conceptually, but just not executed in a way that dounds right (is the disembodied NASA voice in Countdown the same one that so ominously warned me of the danger of the Necromancer and the triumph of the Solar Federation??? Is that my niece's Sony fun machine doing the dee do dee do keyboard solo before the anti-climactic playout?? I can only wonder). It would have been interesting if they could have done Losing It on tour as they might have finally done it justice.

Not a musician but I knows whats I likes. Alex -- Hemispheres (though Permanent Waves a very close second) Geddy -- Moving Pictures for vocals. For bass, despite my preference for old Rush, maybe Clockwork Angels Neil -- Moving Pictures for lyrics (again, Permanent Waves a close second), A Farewell to Kings for drums

RTB came after almost a decade of decreasing album sales...HYF and Presto were the only two albums not to go platinum since Caress of Steel. RTB reversed that trend. And while it is true that people buy less albums nowadays, if you buy the digital version of the entire album, I believe it still counts as an album sale. Also, they changed what it takes to get into the top for a release, and Rush, as is typical of cult bands, sells a shitload the first weak and then sales trickle. That is a measure of the hardcore, not the measure of the casuals. Those sales are measured in the coming weeks as word of mouth, radio, or internet induce more people to buy. That's how RTB went platinum, and that's why S&A will never go gold. And the band did release singles from those albums, it's just that no one liked them. RTB had 4 singles in the top 15, and Signals had 3 in the top 20. Despite releasing 7 singles from VT and S&A, only 4 charted and only one was top 20. And radio is different nowadays. It is much easier to chart in the US Main category now as there is so much less competition as the format and genre becomes decreasingly popular as music continues to fragment into more and more niches. The position that casual fans like VT and S&A more than the band's 1982-96 output is very, very unlikely to be true as it just isn't supported by much evidence. Well, I'll admit that RtB is probably the turd in the puchbowl that is my argument. Can't figure out the appeal myself (sounds like Rush doing Kajagoogoo to me), but to each one's own. At any rate, peace. Rush, Led Zep, and Aerosmith were my Holy Trinity as a kid in the late '70's. Led Zep is still among my favorites (and still appreciate those early Aerosmith albums), so we're probably not that far apart on most things music. Frankly, after the first listenings to VT or S&A, I never imagined I'd be defending them. I remember earlier wishing the Rush in Rio songlist would have just skipped the VT songs altogether, but over time they grew on me some. Nothing compares to their early stuff though. Like radiohead in '96/'97 with Bends and OK Computer (and related b-sides), Rush was the best band in the world in '80/'81 with PW and MP. Having grown up as a hockey-playing, SCTV-watching kid in N. Dakota, I was so proud of them. ;)

LedRush wrote: Well, RTB obviously reached many more people, and ditto for Signals. And seeing as you picked the first two albums by Rush to NOT go Gold, I somehow doubt that your opinion is close to being accurate. I suppose I should have said any non-Rush devotee with tastes remotely like mine or others I know. I have several friends who don't like Rush in general, but they think VT and S&A is at least ok, while they can't stomach the late '80's and '90's stuff; I remember a couple of them laughing at Roll the Bones' rap. But comparing album sales b/t the age of download and pre-download isn't really valid, is it? How about this: acc to Wikipedia's Rush Discography page, VT and S&A went to #3 in Canada, and #6 and #3 in the U.S. respectively. Compare that to Signals (#1 CAN and #10 US) and RtB (#11 and #3). So I'd say comparing apples to apples (sales strength relative to the market), VT/S&A arguably did better than Signals/RtB. In fact, only Moving Pictures at 1 and 3 and CA at 1 and 2 did better than VT/S&A. So not only is my opinion close to being accurate, I think it arguably is accurate, unlike yours.

So you actually like S&A? You meet all kinds... Indeed. In fact, I like it more than anything they've done after Moving Pictures, in spite of Neil Peart's emerging journal-entry-as-song-lyric style of wiriting. A Larger Bowl is one of their best songs, I think, aside from Richard Dawkins-channeled refrain ("the world's so badly arranged" -- yeah, our world really sucks compared to other worlds). Several other strong tracks incl three really excellent instrumentals. I think VT and S&A were the first albums since Moving Pictures that a non-Rush-specific music fan can easily appreciate. Just my opinion, obviously.

One more for Vapor Trails. Not at all close for me. But then, outside a few tracks, I don't care for what they made between GUP and VT, so though I happen to really like VT, for me almost anything would have been improvement over what they'd been doing the previous decade plus. I'm one of those who grew up on Terry Brown Rush and never warmed up to stuff that followed (except for GUP), until their recent albums -- VT and S&A especially - and middle-age nostalgia brought me back to the fold. New to the forum. Greetings fellow Trekkies :cheers: