jnoble

The drop-off in quality between the best songs on Roll The Bones and the other half of mediocrity is pretty astounding. Of course Robert Hines wimpy production didn't help any of it. Face up could have been such a kick-ass song if it were recorded during Counterparts instead

Somebody recently started a "Why this song is terrible" channel which is pretty funny

Snakes. It's garish and an ugly blend of colors

If Turn The Page was the last song on HYF as it should've been instead of the weak sauce Tai Shan / High Water, it would have been a perfect way to reference the coming change in sound & direction on their next record

It's OK. Lyrically similar to Tom Sawyer. Like everything else off of Signals still sounds kind of dreary to me

All three albums are heavily flawed IMHO. So I would have liked to combine the positive from these albums into one awesome album: The emotion passion and energy of Vapor Trails with the much better mix of Snakes in a concept story line format of Clockwork

Snakes was the first Rush album where a bunch of the tracks sounded too similar to each other. On previous albums even if it was a song I didn't care for I could still tell them all apart. With Snakes you listen to a song and think to yourself "Didn't I just hear this?" I've respected Rush's willingness to dip into different styles but making an entire album of mid tempo folk/rock fusion was a bad idea.

Presto has more cohesive memorable songs with better lyrics, SnA has a better more modern sound & mix. I was bitterly disappointed when I first heard Snakes because aside from Far Cry & Malignant Narcissism, none of the other songs really sounded like classic Rush. Like they weren't putting forth any effort into writing compelling exciting music. Three or four of the songs start off with almost exactly the same guitar riff in the same key and Neil wasn't writing lyrics so much anymore as long rambling rants about theology that just could not be made into a good rock songs. Plus he was just repeating the same territory they covered on Vapor Trails only without any passion or energy

I like only half the album. I don't remember my initial overall reaction when I first got it. If it had a better mix and three or four of the weaker songs were left off because it's definitely over-long I would enjoy it better. How It Is is one of my favs

ESL had such a murky dark grainy look to it and then with Grace Under Pressure a few years later that was a complete opposite almost too well lit and TOO bright in many spots. I hardly ever watch anything past R30 because Ged's voice got worse and worse with each release. Time Machine Tour is almost unwatchable because of that for me and I never bothered to pick up R40 for the same reason

Is the bluray going to have any kind of visuals to go along with the song audio like Hemispheres did?

Just my 2 cents but I've always been of the opinion that the debut album should not be included in any of these rankings specifically because Neil was not with the band yet

I feel the same way Geddy does. I appreciate metal in general and respect Metallica and own their first two albums but I can only take them in small measured doses. After two or three songs that all starts to sound the same to me. And in general I could never listen on a consistent basis to a band whose only themes in their music are death pain war misery and anger. It's too depressing

Boooooring....

If CA was produced by Terry Brown and sung by 1976 Geddy, the results would have been much better

Nick R and Rupert Hine were polar opposites producing Rush. Hine seemed to hold them back in a bland safe zone hence Presto and RTB which had some great songs but at the same time were very restrained especially vocally on RTB while on the other end of the spectrum, fanboy Nick R pushed them hard to be heavier then they were capable of by that point.

If I recall Victor didn't sell all that well to start with so why would they want to spend money re-releasing it

It's kind of odd that the band's most famous album out of all of them didn't get the anniversary treatment but every album ahead of it did with the exclusion of the first three

PW used to be one of my least favorite Rush album for a long time because it sounded so sterile processed and cold compared to previous albums and the ones after. Especially the heavy reverb on Geddy's voice that makes it sound like he's singing from inside a manhole cover on 5th Avenue.

I appreciated their return to an epic album with a storyline concept but the final results render it unlistenable for me. The songs are too long, too dense, the mix sucks, Geddy's voice is weak plus I can't even make out most of what he's singing. If someone were to remix the album into pure instrumentals using the riffs from the heavier songs that would actually probably be pretty cool. If anything, Ged and Alex were always good at coming up with riffs and parts even if they didn't result in a coherent memorable song.

TMMB goes on far longer than it should. It wears out its welcome for me after 4 minutes. It's too repetitive and like someone else just said it's not particularly interesting or exciting. At least Malignant Narcissism had a couple of good "classic Rush" style bass and drum solo breaks in it

I never understood the love some have for Armor and Sword. The song is such a lethargic dirge. I still don't understand why they made so many mid-tempo songs on that record that were lacking energy and pizazz

As far as GBYBR goes Jamaica Jerk Off and Dirty Little Girl are the two weak songs that could've easily been left off what would still be a great album.

Just my 2 cents, but Halo Effect BU2B2 & Wish Them Well could have all been left on the studio floor and no fan would have missed them.

It doesn't make any sense anyway that they would perform TFOL at only one gig instead of at least a few before dropping it. I'm fairly certain they never performed any of it ever.