diatribein

From the other thread. I prefer to have Natural Science appear twice (it is the length of two songs anyway) than double up on Witch Hunt & Vital Signs. Along with Tom Sawyer, Vital Signs is my favourite track on Moving Pictures. Witch Hunt is middle of the road for me, so I rather not pair them. If I was forced to, I guess the pair would beat Natural Science for me. Either way, it is an easy win for Permanent Waves. Tom Sawyer < The Spirit Of Radio Red Barchetta < Freewill YYZ > Jacobs Ladder Limelight ≤ Entre Nous The Camera Eye < Different Strings Witch Hunt < Natural Science Vital Signs > Natural Science

Honestly I like every single song on My Favourite Headache better than any song on Victor, but I am not one for instrumentals and I Mother Earth never did anything for me, in large part due to the vocals. Also, My Favourite Headache is in my Top 3 RUSH related albums of all time (that includes actual RUSH albums).

I felt inspired by the Permanent Waves vs. Moving Pictures thread so... Rules are simple. It is a song by song battle based on the track order on each album. You pick your favourite of the two on offer. Distant Early Warning < The Big Money Afterimage < Grand Designs Red Sector A < Manhattan Project The Enemy Within > Marathon The Body Electric ≥ Territories Kid Gloves > Middletown Dreams Red Lenses > Emotion Detector Between The Wheels < Mystic Rhythms WOAH!!! 4 - 4! The difficult battle for me is track #5 which has my favourite song from each of these albums against each other. I went with The Body Electric by a smidgen, but it could easily be Territories. For that reason I feel like Power Windows wins despite it being a tie.

I'll bite! Tom Sawyer < The Spirit of Radio Red Barchetta < Freewill YYZ > Jacobs Ladder Limelight ≤ Entre Nous The Camera Eye < Different Strings Witch Hunt < Natural Science Vital Signs > Natural Science Battle #4 was very difficult, hence the less than or equal to symbol. I really could go either way on that one. I guess it is a big win for Permanent Waves for me. 5 to 2!!!

Right, so with Presto & Roll The Bones it is a production issue that could only be corrected with a complete remix. Choices were made to give both of those albums a very high-end bias sound that resulted in a tinny and flat overall mix. The 24 bit 48 kHz versions of those two albums don't really make a significant difference. Counterparts & Test For Echo are not produced the same way and have a much fuller sound. Their problem is that 1993 is the start of the loudness war and mastering techniques changed to create the "wall of layered noise" you described. Due to the progressive nature of the loudness war, Test For Echo suffers more from that than Counterparts. The version mastered for the vinyl re-release and digital flac files corrects those mastering issues. I think you would be surprised at how different it sounds. I would say that the production itself is almost identical to Counterparts if comparing the better mastered versions of the 2 albums.

Get a Grip is in my Top 3 Aerosmith albums!!! C'mon man, Eat The Rich, Livin' On The Edge, Amazing, Get a Grip, Shut Up and Dance... Such great songs!!!

We are all entitled to our opinions, but that's a new one on me. Where is the unpopular opinion thread when you need it?!?!

Try the 96 kHz / 24 bit flac download that came with the 2015 200 Gram Vinyl release. It has a dynamic range that is comparable to anything released in the 70s/80s.

As someone who has been in the room with Mastering Engineers, you hear the constant refrain of "You have to be competitive..." or "It will be competitive..." in order to justify the use of digital peak limiters and dynamic compression. Competitive means that when you put in another CD from any other artist that has been mastered in the last 20 years it won't sound markedly lower in volume. If you have an original CD version of Hold Your Fire, A Show Of Hands, or any other CD manufactured prior to 1992 and you put it in your CD player without adjusting your volume, after a CD Mastered in the last 20 years, it will be much lower in volume. Things have gotten better since the peak of the loudness war (2001-2006), but not by much. The reason music, for the most part, has not returned to the good practice Mastering of the early 90's and before is mostly due to the people doing the Mastering wanting the music they are responsible for to be "competitive". The reason why Clockwork Angels and Snakes & Arrows are loud and compressed has very little to do with Nick Raskulinecz or the band, and is much more about Brian Gardner and his recommendations to the band and the production team. In fact, the 24-Bit 96kHz digital version of Snakes & Arrows made available for download with the 2016 vinyl re-release of Snakes & Arrows was Mastered beautifully and with as much dynamic range as anything released prior to 1992. The argument could be why didn't the band demand that the album not be Mastered to be competitive, but rather to maximize dynamic range. Sitting at home arguing this point is easy, but when you are in a band facing pressure from record companies, management, and other sources, it is difficult to go against the wave. I have been in that room. Mastering Engineers are highly educated and experienced people who know their craft. When the question is posed as sounding dated versus being competitive with the current sound it is very hard to argue for the former. Vapor Trails is a little bit of a different case. It was recorded at the height of the loudness war and suffered not only in the Mastering stage, but in the recording process. The individual tracks (say guitars, bass, vocals...) were recorded "hot". That means many of the parts were already clipped and compressed before even getting to the Mastering stage. This is why certain parts of the original mix of Vapor Trails actually distort. The final Master was one of the 25 loudest records ever released. So Vapor Trails suffered from compounding problems of a very loud mix coupled with an extremely loud Master. This is the primary reason Vapor Trails Remixed was released. What it did was correct as much as possible from the mixing stage, but it was Mastered with the exact same tolerance as Clockwork Angels. In stupid terms, Vapor Trails Remixed is still loud as ass, but at least it doesn't fart as much! In a way they did learn their lesson from Vapor Trails, because the 3 subsequent albums (Feedback, Snakes & Arrows, and Clockwork Angels) were recorded and mixed with good practices. All of the parts are well mixed without distortion or clipping prior to Mastering. For Feedback and Snakes & Arrows a properly Mastered version is available from 2016. The other albums released after Vapor Trails, including the remixed version, have been only made available with loud compressed Mastering. Whether or not that will change in the future is anybody's guess, but I would expect that Clockwork Angels is the release that is most likely to have a properly Mastered version be made available at some point in time. .

On the other hand, yourself being a toymaker, could construct a toy for the o.p. that would eliminate his need for a girlfriend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1g5dMYR3s

For the masses, especially in the USA, it is Moving Pictures. Both Limelight and Tom Sawyer are mainstays on radio stations that play what is known as Album Rock. At a bar just the other night I was at, there was Limelight along with a Pearl Jam song, an Alice In Chains song, a Neil Young song... You get the point. I would say that Spirit Of Radio might be close to those two songs in terms of radio play, but of the other songs on Permanent Waves only Freewill gets regular play and it is equal with the two other songs that receive occasional radio play from Moving Pictures, which are Red Barchetta & YYZ. Apart from those 6 songs I have not heard any others from either album in casual radio play for the general public. All that equates to Moving Pictures being better known by non-RUSH fans.

I suspect this may be very unpopular, especially with fans who prefer the 70's output by the band, but here it goes... As with every single band I like, I create a set of playlists divided by era. If the band has few albums or what I consider weaker output they get fewer playlists. It can be just 1 for the whole career. I have a few rules when making playlists: 1. Eras should make sense, meaning that there should be an attempt for some level of semblance in terms of years or number of albums included in each playlist and good dividers are marked style changes. 2. Playlists for one band must have the same number of tracks per divided playlists. 3. Preference is given to singles and non-album b-sides (latter not relevant to RUSH) when choosing songs on the bubble. 4. Playlists must be 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 tracks long with preference for 25 or 30 when feasible. I've done 50 and it tends to get muddled. I only use 20 for single playlists because I would go to 40 before splitting to 2 or two 30 song playlists over three 20s. 5. Singles and fan favourites I like should be located in peek positions (2-10 & 2nd to last & last). 6. The last song should sound like an end song and the first should have some sort of interesting intro. The last thing I do is cycle bubble songs in and out as well as refresh the running order to vary up the playlists every few years. Typically this happens when a new album is released, but I do it for dormant bands like RUSH & Queen as well. For me RUSH exists as FOUR 30 track playlists. Part I: 1973 to 1981 (Not Fade Away through Moving Pictures) PartI II: 1982 to 1988 (Signals through Hold Your Fire) Part III: 1989 to 1998 (Presto through Test For Echo) Part IV: 2000 to 2014 (My Favourite Headache through Clockwork Angels/Vapor Trails Remixed) I realize that the inclusion of Geddy's album My Favourite Headache may be sacrilege for many, but I love that album as much as any RUSH album. If Geddy would release another album of equal quality, I would move those songs off RUSH Part IV and make a Geddy 20 song playlist. Part IV would then be reorganized. Part I also presented a problem for me that I have not encountered with other bands, the epic whole record side songs. If I counted those as one track it would skew Part I in terms of length. I decided that if I use any epic with definitive breaks (silence between parts), those pauses would be used to separate the song to individual tracks. You will see this on Part I. My current RUSH Playlists: Part I 01. The Spirit Of Radio 02. Tom Sawyer 03. Entre Nous 04. Limelight 05. Circumstances 06. Closer To The Heart 07. Vital Signs 08. Fly By Night 09. Lakeside Park 10. Freewill 11. Cinderella Man 12. A Passage To Bangkok 13. In The Mood 14. By-Tor And The Snow Dog 15. Witch Hunt 16. Different Strings 17. Garden Road (live) 18. Bastille Day 19. Beneath, Between & Behind 20. Not Fade Away 21. Red Barchetta 22. Something For Nothing 23. A Farewell To Kings 24. The Trees 25. Natural Science 26. 2112: I.Overture, II.The Temples of Syrinx 27. 2112: III.Discovery, IV.Presentation 28. 2112: V.Oracle: The Dream 29. 2112: VI.Soliloquy, VII.Grand Finale 30. Working Man Bubble songs left off: Making Memories, YYZ (was on previous iteration). It was also the only instrumental I've ever put on a playlist. Part II 01. Force Ten 02. The Big Money 03. New World Man 04. Red Sector A 05. Prime Mover 06. Grand Designs 07. The Body Electric 08. Time Stand Still 09. Territories 10. The Enemy Within 11. The Weapon 12. Second Nature 13. Between The Wheels 14. Losing It 15. Mission 16. Distant Early Warning 17. Manhattan Project 18. Turn The Page 19. Digital Man 20. Red Lenses 21. Open Secrets 22. Middletown Dreams 23. Kid Gloves 24. The Analog Kid 25. High Water 26. Marathon 27. Afterimage 28. Lock And Key 29. Mystic Rhythms 30. Subdivisions Bubble songs left off: Witch Hunt (live) from A Show Of Hands - This would be done to have the Fear trilogy all on one playlist and remove the studio version from Part I. Part III 01. Dreamline 02. Presto 03. Nobody's Hero 04. Test For Echo 05. Roll The Bones 06. Show Don't Tell 07. Half The World 08. Stick It Out 09. Ghost Of A Chance 10. The Pass 11. Alien Shore 12. Face Up 13. The Color Of Right 14. Cold Fire 15. Hand Over Fist 16. Totem 17. Neurotica 18. Animate 19. Driven 20. Superconductor 21. You Bet Your Life 22. Resist 23. Red Tide 24. Everyday Glory 25. Virtuality 26. Bravado 27. War Paint 28. Carve Away The Stone 29. Between Sun & Moon 30. Chain Lightning Bubble songs left off: Double Agent (love the chorus/hate the spoken verses), Time and Motion (was on previous iteration). Part IV 01. Caravan 02. Far Cry 03. Runaway Train 04. The Wreckers 05. Secret Touch* 06. Workin' Them Angels 07. Working At Perfekt 08. Ghost Rider* 09. The Anarchist 10. The Way The Wind Blows 11. Still 12. The Stars Look Down* 13. Headlong Flight 14. Home On The Strange 15. Ceiling Unlimited* 16. The Present Tense 17. Bravest Face 18. Window To The World 19. How It Is* 20. The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum) 21. My Favourite Headache 22. One Little Victory (Remix) 23. BU2B 24. Moving To Bohemia 25. We Hold On 26. Grace To Grace 27. The Garden 28. Faithless 29. Slipping 30. Nocturne* Bubble songs left off: The Angels' Share (was on previous iteration), Vapor Trail, Mr. Soul, Spindrift, Armor and Sword, Wish Them Well (was on previous iteration), Halo Effect. * - From Vapor Trails Remixed. I guess I should mention that these are encoded to flac (sourced by this guide) and edited if needed (2112 for example) with software. Each album/song is married to artwork that prioritizes single artwork when available above album. Single versions are used when available for those too; for example the versions of Far Cry & Workin' Them Angels from their respective promo singles are a couple of seconds longer than the album counterparts because the sustaining end bit is not cut off by the next song on the album. The playlists are then uploaded to my SONY Walkman Music player that I use for listening on the go and in the car. I will sometimes even hook it up to the home stereo since I prefer the playlists to albums.

Thanks! It means a lot to me to give back to the community and this is the best way I know how.

It means second song in the suite on the vinyl record. Making Memories is from 1975 and it's the A side of that single. Oddly enough, this single was released in 1977 when Anthem was born. And this is why it appears between All The World's A Stage & A Farewell To Kings on my list, because that is when it was released. The only thing I really put out of place was ABC 1974, because the recording belongs between the 1st Album & Fly By Night. The actual release is quite recent. It is essentially a grey market bootleg, so the official release date is meaningless.

I would have preferred their career end on the brilliant and engaging Snakes & Arrows, but I like Clockwork Angels enough to rank it: 01. Caravan (Single Version) 02. The Garden 03. The Wreckers 04. BU2B (Single Version) 05. The Anarchist 06. Wish Them Well ---------------------------------------------------------- Songs below this line I feel are sub par ----------------------------------------------------------------- 07. Halo Effect 08. Carnies 09. Headlong Flight ---------------------------------------------------------- Songs below this line I actively dislike ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. BU2B2 11. Clockwork Angels 12. Seven Cities Of Gold .

Gold: Power Windows, Grace Under Pressure, Permanent Waves, Snakes & Arrows, Roll The Bones Silver: Moving Pictures, Test For Echo, Hold Your Fire, Signals, Presto Bronze: Counterparts, Vapor Trails, A Farewell To Kings, Clockwork Angels, 2112 Bold = borderline category above. Fly By Night = borderline bronze.

1. Power Windows 2. Grace Under Pressure 3. Permanent Waves I vacillate between 1 & 2 because although I love all 8 songs on P/G while disliking Emotion Detector on Power Windows, I consider the Top 5 songs on Power Windows much better than the Top 5 on P/G. What do you think is more important, loving every song or how much more you love the songs on an album where you feel a track or two is sub par? I went with Power Windows today. I could go with P/G tomorrow.

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.

But it is what I do! If we are using that parlance then: Username checks out!

Moving Pictures and Roll The Bones are 5 & 6 on my personal RUSH album Top 10! If Roll The Bones is less good it is not by a lot!

Wrong. This is the first Rush album I bought. And I'm not alone. So that means you can't speak for the folks who bought 2112 in 1976 and wondered what the hell they were listening to in 82 This attitude a little exemplifies what I don't understand about many of the opinions I hear voiced on this board. There are 11 (12 if you count Feedback) RUSH albums from 1982 onward and only 8 albums before. The two other albums released in the 80s could be considered transitional, since songs like Vital Signs and Spirit Of Radio musically would feel at home on Signals or Grace Under Pressure. So let's take your statement as fact, for a segment of the fan base that joined in the 1970s: Signals left fans perplexed at what they were listening to and presumably did not like the album or the subsequent releases. So why stick around? Especially why still call yourself a fan after 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 consecutive albums you dislike??? I mean, if you hate Roll The Bones and the 5 albums that came before it, why would you call this band a favourite? There are bands in my collection that I loved their first few albums, but didn't like subsequent albums. I do not consider those bands favourites. I would never bother patronizing a fan board or devoting so much energy to a band that spent the majority of its time creating music I dislike. What a fantastic waste of energy and life that would be! The bands I consider favourites are characterized by having an album I loved when I discovered them, followed by subsequent albums that I enjoyed equally or greater. A poor album here or there is fine as long as the vast majority (like 75%) of the albums the band releases after the point I join in are awesome by my standards. I judge albums released prior to my join point a little differently: Depending on how long the band continues after my personal join in point, prior albums decrease in importance as far as needing them to be awesome. For example, I dislike most of Caress Of Steel, Hemispheres, The 1st Album, and even feel nonplussed about 2112 & Fly By Night, but the fact that I love Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and almost all of the subsequent albums means that not only do I love the majority of the RUSH catalogue, but the band has generally been on an upward trajectory in my opinion. Why would I be interested in a band that I feel is just getting worse all the time, especially if that point came 9 albums into a 19 album career!!! I see this opinion voiced often here (Rush albums have gotten progressively worse since Hemispheres with few exceptions). I postulate to you that if Signals was your breaking point and that you like little that the band has released since, then you don't actually like RUSH. You like specific albums in a short time period that RUSH released before they happened upon the sound they ultimately preferred and spent the rest of their career perfecting. Loving Hemispheres above all other albums by all bands doesn't make you a huge RUSH fan. It makes you a huge fan of that album. Even if those 8 albums prior to Signals are your 8 favourite albums of all time, but hate 9 through 19, you are still not really a RUSH fan as much as a fan of a sound that for all intents and purposes is dated. It is dated to the point that the band themselves never completely revisited it and only ever came close to reproducing on their final album. I'm not trying to start a fight. I am legitimately confused as to why someone would call themselves a RUSH fan if they dislike everything they've released after Moving Pictures. I certainly would not.

The first album I bought was Grace Under Pressure. For me the RUSH I know and love begins in January of 1980. Nothing they did from that point drove me away, it made me into a fan. .

First, there is NO WAY I would see them if the project is going to be called The JohnnyBlaze Band. I am definitely boycotting that! As for the rest of your question: Set List: 01. New Song 02. New Song 03. The Present Tense 04. Moving to Bohemia 05. New Song 06. Working at Perfekt 07. Still 08. Shut Up Shuttin’ Up 09. New Song 10. New Song 11. Runaway Train 12. Home on the Strange 13. The Angels' Share 14. New Song 15. Slipping 16. Window to the World 17. New Song 18. Grace to Grace Encores 19. My Favourite Headache 20. New Song Geddy is the lead vocalist on all songs except Shut Up Shuttin’ Up, which obviously has Alex's spoken word lead. I would have them perform as a four-piece, possibly with Ben Mink playing guitar and other string instruments as well as some synthesizer along with Geddy. I also think your rules aren't quite right. They would definitely play a few RUSH songs even if the project isn't called RUSH. If they do play a few RUSH tunes,I would take out Geddy solo songs, not because I don't love them, but because this set list is too bias to his solo stuff as constructed. .

I dispute the assertion that this story is funny. I did not laugh.

1970s: Permanent Waves* 1980s: Power Windows 1990s: Roll The Bones 2000s: Snakes & Arrows 2010s: Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland * - I am definitely NOT in the camp that calls Permanent Waves a 70's album, but for the purposes of this poll I will since the competition is too stiff in the 80s and I don't really love any of the albums that came out in the actual 1970s. Edit: You know what, since this is a deserted island scenario, I'm taking Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland with me. That's waaaaay better than Clockwork Angels or Vapor Trails Remixed!