Malignant Narcissist

Like all the songs on this album so very difficult to eliminate so I went with the crowd because it's prob about right that Speed is one of the weaker ones...which I still like.

Poll was a bit boring to be honest so I thought I'd vote to eliminate the favourite just for fun. It's not going to lose in a month of Sundays. Yes, yes, it's better - Bravado's nice but a bit boring tbh imo.

I get that it's not 'Eavy in the 'Iron Man' sense (re: the chancey one) but surely Bravado's not exactly Raining Blood either! Battle of the wimpy ones it seems. Not that wimpy is necessarily bad. Hey, Rush left real hard rock around long before this and were never 'metal' in today's sense of the word.

Sorry, couldn't keep it to 30 :doh: Living Colour – Vivid ACDC - Powerage Alice in Chains - FaceLift Anita Baker - Rapture Black Sabbath - Mob Rules Bruce Cockburn - Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws Devin Townsend - Epicloud - Dream Theater - Awake Frank Zappa - Make a jazz noise here Genesis - Selling England by the pound Iron Maiden - Killers It Bites - Once around the world Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking Jeff Buckley - Grace Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick Joe Satriani - Flying in a blue dream King's X - Out of the Silent Planet Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley Live - The Distance Manic Street Preachers - Gold against the soul Mary My Hope - Museum Masters of Reality - Blue Garden Metallica - Master of Puppets Montrose - Montrose Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus Opeth - Blackwater park Pixies - Surfer Rosa Prince - Around the world in a day Queen - Jazz Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime Radiohead - The Bends Rainbow - Long live rock n roll Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Uplift Mofo Party Plan REM - Green Rush - Permenant Waves Savatage - Gutter Ballet Scorpions - Blackout Screaming Trees - Sweet Oblivion Soundgarden - Louder than love Status Quo - Blue for you Steely Dan - Aja Steve Winwood - Arc of a diver Suede - Suede Sword - Sweet Dreams Talking Heads - Remain in Light The Blue Aeroplanes The Tea Party - The Edge of Twilight Tom Petty - Full Moon fever UFO - Lights out Van Halen - 2 Whitesnake - Come n get it ZZ Top - Tejas

I think it's now the battle of everything-not-named-Dreamline.

Yeah, that song was on the 20th Anniversary box set, and I always liked it. Listening the actual album that came from those sessions was less joyous. I'm surprised there's so little love for Broadsword and the Beast; I've always rated that one, too. Maybe not top five, but top half. I really like Broadsword. But I like Jethro Tull and some albums had to be lower. Aside from A and Under Wraps, all the albums are good.And A is...ok. Broadsword was my 1st album introduction to Tull and I still love it. I'd only heard things like Living in the Past as far as I knew by then. I have a box set with 4 discs of various songs (20th Anniv box??) but I've only got a handful of albums - Crest of a Knave, Aqualung, Minstrel, Thick as a Brick, Songs from the Wood and A passion play. Maybe a couple of other new ones on tape that I haven't listened too. So without having heard the whole discography like some of you guys, I still enjoy Broadsword alongside ones like Thick and Aqua etc. All good although Passion plays a bit weird.

It is amazing how varied the member's preferences are. We really are all hearing things very differently. Good thing we all agree on Rush!

Do you think Ian A got a synth for his Birthday and then decided he'd make an album based around it for Under Wraps? I much prefer the No. 2 Under Wraps song done with acoustic guitar (if my memory serves me right).

They just rode the wave of 'they are the next best thing' with reasonably ok 1st 2 albums and kept the publicity going with the chav-y, laddish type attitude. Especially the 2 brothers, Noel and Liam, who were fighting amongst themselves, or rather, Liam was fighting everyone. They had a bit of a public feud with the other popular band at the time, Blur, who were a bit more of an arty, middle-class version of that UK-Britpop-rock kindofthing or whatever you want to call it. That also kept them in the public eye for a while. But Liam was slagging everyone off, and probably still does. I get the feeling he's a complete w**ker (or overwrite with relevant, colourful adjective that hits the spot in your part of the world) and Noel is the level-headed, reasonable one albeit a bit outspoken. Noel was the main songwriter and Liam was 'just' the leery frontman.

I actually like You Bet Your Life and Ghost of a Chance. Put 'em up, put 'em up! I love "You Bet You Life", but Ghost of a Chance is my least favorite on this album. In any event, this album was easy to predict. Neurotica last place, Dreamline first. I'd say let's just move to the next one, but we need to complete the process- maybe I'll be wrong. I disagree with the majority probably every step before we get to Dreamline, but I also think Dreamline is the best here. But where's the fun without all the bitching and petty squabbles? Isn't that the only purpose of these polls? Anyway (to prove my point), with the utmost respect (which one says when they're probably not being respectful ;) ) Dreamline is good but 2nd placed at best. You just haven't seen (heard???) the light about Ghost. Good solid music compared to the good-but-too-safe Dreamline. Give Rush fans some slightly soppy lyrics and they all start running (or hurling!). Typical nerds!! ;) ;) It can't be all Neil-astute-cleverness you know :P

Rank the Jethro Tull albums, we'll say from 1968 to 1982. Why stop there? Under Wraps is terrible, but a lot of the later releases are very good. Such as Crest of a Knave. Haven't heard the others in great detail. What's the ranking on these?

Wouldnt Tai Shan be the encore?

Might join you for Bowie although I'll need to acquire some of his stuff I don't have. How about Zappa? His stuff's a bit diverse but would keep you going for a while!

A decent assessment. A think a lot of the songs on here have higher highs and lower lows e.g. You bet your life starts off wells then plumbs the depths. Actually I think all of the songs have highs (sort of) and lows without being consistent in quality - apart from Dreamline, Bravado and Ghost of a Chance which, to me, seem consistent in what their trying to do, whether you like them or not. Ghost is my personal fave with the 'another-high-energy-opener-Rush-can-do-in-their-sleep'-Dreamline 2nd. Don't get the blasting Neurotica gets - it's not the worst on offer here.

Good Omens

Chain lightning does not resonate with me. The Pass is my preference from the rest which are all ok but not outstanding (to me).

Actually like both but don't know what the Lamb sounds like even though I have the LP! I only played parts of it many years ago. I love Songs from the wood so I have to vote for that by default! Both have produced iconic stuff over the years but Genesis, in comparison, went far too mainstream so lose 'points' for that. Tull still rocked a bit in later years although I'm not sure about the last album or 2. Certainly ones like Crest of a Knave were fine albums. Tull also have the honour of beating Metallica to a 'Heavy Metal' award, even though it was a bit of joke. Unless Gabriel has got serious flute-chops that I don't know about then surely Ian A wins by a landslide. So Tull for the most part even though I like both bands but also because Martin Barre hails from nearby King's Heath in Brum. I'm not a native of Birmingham but been here a reasonable amount of time now. Plus it was fun hearing them playing some heavy rock stuff at the nearby Mosely folk festival a decade or so ago frightening all the folk traditionalists which I think the band got a bit of a kick out of.

I have this theory that you guys n gals may or may not shoot down that the change in style at this point and maybe from Power Windows onwards was down to Geddy concentrating more on 'crafting' songs rather than making songs around riffs that he and Alex maybe came up with from jamming together or separately. So I theorise that Alex's influence was more around how to bring some guitar parts to Ged's songs rather than the other way around. I might be completely off of course. But I think that it makes for more songs that are well-crafted pop-rock or whatever you want to call it rather than hard-rocking or prog-type riff stuff that probably came from Alex's (and Ged's?) noodling in the past. Neil stated in The Lighted Stage doc that they tried to play to their strengths and Alex's strength was suggested to be jamming around on his guitar and they'd record it all to pick out the nuggets that they'd use later. I'm sure he brought more to the table than that but I think it was suggested that Geddy was the one who was a bit more disciplined with song creation. So my back-of-a-fagpacket theory is that that's why this era and this album became a bit 'meh' for some who longed for more hard-rocking or riff-based stuff. I've got Alex's solo album and it is very guitar-riff based but I haven't heard Geddy's '..headache..' album although I've caught a bit of it occasionally and my 1st thoughts were that it was reminiscent of this era. So those who keep saying 'meh' to this stuff, blame Geddy for learning how to write songs (properly?). I'm (obviously) joking there but one could argue that maybe he was composing more on keyboards rather than trying to 'craft' songs (on paper?).

Julie and Julia Seven PsychoPaths Fast and Furious 6

It's not 1st time members have a diff opinion about tracks and it won't be the last. That's part of the fun of these polls isn't it? I also don't get why some don't like this song. Maybe it's the stop-start nature of the riff, maybe it's just something else. We all hear things a little differently. At least we agree on liking a certain band from Toronto. ;) I’ve never quite understood the extra hate for this one either, but I think it has something to do with either the corny repeating deep vocal on the hook, or.... the Xanaconductor debacle. I'm intrigued. What is the Xanaconductor debacle? Should I be ashamed that I don't know that as a Rush fan? See, I barely pay attention to the deep vocal but I'm focused on the riff and driving nature of the song. Prob various reasons why people don't like this or certain songs though I'm guessing.

It's not 1st time members have a diff opinion about tracks and it won't be the last. That's part of the fun of these polls isn't it? I also don't get why some don't like this song. Maybe it's the stop-start nature of the riff, maybe it's just something else. We all hear things a little differently. At least we agree on liking a certain band from Toronto. ;)

And I'm sorry that you're missing out on one of their best songs ever. Well, not their best ever but still a good 'ol rocker compared to the average POP stuff on display here.

To my mind these sound ok but kind of similar. Both arpeggio-driven-style tracks (unless my memory's gone) that sound alike...apart from the 'boys and girls together...' stuff near the end of War Paint. But what do I know (yet again apparently).

You'd think the most rocking tracks, Superconductor and Red tide, would hold more sway amongst fans of a prog rock band but I guess you lot like the 'poppier' stuff. I know Superconductor is a bit of marmite track but for me, it's head and shoulders above everything. But what do I know? And I like marmite!! :chickendance:

You should listen to Red Tide again like I did recently. It may be suffering from late-in-the-track-listing syndrome. It's one of the best on this album in my opinion. (Which means it will probably still get voted out by everyone else!).