1-0-0-1-0-0-1

Too soon? No, that was solid joke.

We had a mix-up with the domain registration and it took way too long for the site to come back up. All good now.

I have this one ranked a little higher. This song is way too fun to have outside the top-10. What would be your highest rated song from Hemispheres, and about where would you rank it?

I didn't like High Water much when HYF came out, but back then I wasn't liking HYF or Power Windows as albums outside of a few songs from each. I felt they were too much of a departure from the prog stuff. Presto didn't fare much better when I first heard it, and it still doesn't, but over the years PoW and HYF have grown on me (PoW more than HYF). Back when those albums came out I didn't think of where the songs would rank on a list. Either I liked a song or I didn't. I'm thinking about it now because we have people here ranking every Rush song and it made me want to do likewise, and that made me want to listen to songs that I haven't heard in a while. Some songs like High Water benefited from a revisit. Others like Anagram and Half the World sounded worse than ever.

I wonder if replacing a singer with AI is tougher than plain dialogue, because dialogue can be done pretty convincingly.

The video title gives it away -- "AI Rush cover." If I did a blind listen to this, I would think some fan or tribute band vocalist did this, one that sounded a little like Phil Collins.

I like it a lot. For years I had High Water ranked near the bottom, right next to Tai Shan (that's a death sentence for any Rush song!). I never gave it more than a few listens. I gave it a spin yesterday, for the first time in decades, and it's actually much better than I remembered. It's still not a top-100 song for me, but it's nowhere near Tai Shan anymore.

I don't have that song ranked quite that high, but it's not far behind this. It's a solid tune and not surprised to see it in someone's top-10.

Where does "Finding a Way" rank again?

I took statistics in college, and got an A. Reading this post of yours confirms how little I've retained from that course after all these years.

Agreed. Thanks to hi_water for getting this whole list thing started.

That calls for an expanded sneak preview: 163. 164. Half The World 165. Anagram (For Mongo) 166. Second Nature

Yeah, it's worse than a blockage. I've never experienced dysentery, but thanks to Second Nature and Anagram, I don't have to.

Of all the songs on VT, as far as the mixing in the original release, this song suffered the most. It sounded like a cacophonous brick wall with so many layers of loud guitars battling to be heard. But I still liked the song, and the remixed version has raised my level of appreciation for this underrated deep cut. I have this ranked much higher.

Yes. Musical dysentery.

After further analysis, after a refresher listen...holy shit, those two songs sound so much worse than I thought. To have a level of loathing and revulsion for a song actually grow with each listen is actually kind of impressive. Sneak preview of my list: 164. 165. Anagram 166. Second Nature Never have two songs been so firmly entrenched in the bowels of a rankings list.

I agree with that confidence vs concentration comparison, it's a great point. But that live version of Xanadu gets my "height of their powers" ranking not only because it's a great song, but also because of that concentration, mainly the multi-tasking. Alex and Geddy both playing doublenecks (and not just to show off -- all those necks are serving the song). Both are playing lots of notes on their Taurus pedals (check out 4:50 in the video below -- you don't see him, but Geddy is playing those synth melodies with his foot) Geddy at times is singing, playing bass and playing notes with his feet (6:10 below). Neil uses every piece of percussion in his arsenal, and again, all in service of the song. Watching Alex switch back and forth between guitar necks and making it sound seamless -- that takes a shitload of practice (7:50). It's impressive to hear the boys pull off Natural Science live -- it's a top-10 song for me -- but performance-wise I think Xanadu was on a different level.

Completely agree with you about the lyrics. But I tend to be music-first, so songs with good lyrics and boring music usually to fall away for me.

I finished my list a few weeks ago, but when I say "finished" I mean I had every song in a slot where I thought they should go, figuring I'd be moving some songs around later after further analysis, especially those that I hadn't listened to in a while. Or in the case of a few, listened to only once. Ever. My first listen of those few songs never led to a second one. One thing these lists that you guys have been posting has done is made me go back and listen to some of these forgotten songs, and yeah, a couple of them that were ranked very low got moved up a bit.

This is of course in my top 10 as well. A no-brainer.

Great job on the list. I know I didn't comment much but I was following the whole way.

For me, the height of their power was the ESL concert video version of Xanadu. As far as showcasing what they could do as a trio, it is perfection.

I still like P/G, not sure what a different producer could have done to improve it. I listened to DEW and Afterimage the other day and they still hold up.

Sbarro is pretty awful, for the record. It's shopping mall and airport terminal pizza. Very doughy and bland.

You should be able to fold a slice of pizza. As opposed to eating it out of a bowl with a spoon like in some cities.