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Ged's 2 Least Favorite Rush Albums


Weatherman
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I was surprised to read that he doesn't care much for Hold Your Fire and Presto.

It was a 2016 interview that I can't find right now. He said that he thought they needed to change their sound after those two albums, because of the keyboards.

The reason I'm surprised: Those two albums feature Geddy's strongest vocal performances.

Yes, the keys are annoying on HYF. But isolate the vocals for Time Stand Still, Lock and Key, The Pass, Presto, Available Light, etc. It's the best singing of his career -- melodic, controlled, even catchy.

Do you agree that those albums are the most disposable?

Edited by Weatherman
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I think Ged looks back on those albums as their least good pretty much solely because of the lack of balance between keys and guitar (though I think Presto actually doesn't have that many keys, but this is about what Ged thinks, not what I think). Alex is one of his best friends, and I think looking back he probably feels bad about getting so keyboard heavy that it pushed Alex's parts to the fringes of songs. So for Ged it's probably not about how good the songwriting is or how well he sang (I agree he has some particularly excellent vocals on those two records), but about how much he enjoyed playing those songs with Alex and Neil, and I get the feeling aside from like, Time Stand Still, he didn't really enjoy dominating the sound with keys that much, or at least not in hindsight.
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HYF is better than the turgid, preachy slog that is Snakes, so there's that. Edited by laughedatbytime
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I was surprised to read that he doesn't care much for Hold Your Fire and Presto.

It was a 2016 interview that I can't find right now. He said that he thought they needed to change their sound after those two albums, because of the keyboards.

The reason I'm surprised: Those two albums feature Geddy's strongest vocal performances.

Yes, the keys are annoying on HYF. But isolate the vocals for Time Stand Still, Lock and Key, The Pass, Presto, Available Light, etc. It's the best singing of his career -- melodic, controlled, even catchy.

Do you agree that those albums are the most disposable?

These two albums are the bottom two on my Rush album rankings so ... way to go Geddy!!

Glad to see we have at least one thing in common!

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I was surprised to read that he doesn't care much for Hold Your Fire and Presto.

It was a 2016 interview that I can't find right now. He said that he thought they needed to change their sound after those two albums, because of the keyboards.

 

 

The History Of Rush by Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson: Moving Pictures and the 1980s

 

This is mentioned in the 1982-85 section of the interview.

 

Geddy Lee: My love of keyboards – I guess you could call it an obsession – reached its peak on Power Windows.

 

Alex Lifeson: Keyboards were the new thing, so there was this attitude: ‘Let’s just push them up, they sound big and they sound cool.’

 

Geddy Lee: We would get caught up in the making of an album, and then maybe after it was done Alex would hear it with fresh ears, he’d be like, ‘Hmm, maybe that was too much keyboards.’ Every so often it would come up in conversation between us.

 

Alex Lifeson: I did see the bigger picture: I knew we were going in a new direction and this was part of it. I don’t have anything against keyboards.

 

Geddy Lee: Power Windows was very much an album that was out of that whole Trevor Horn school. We brought in this synthesiser guy, Andy Richards, who really brought it up a notch in terms of quality and technology. This was very attractive to me, because it was new and fresh and exciting.

 

Alex Lifeson: For me, that record was a challenge. But I thought: go with it and it will all work out in the end. So I did that. I just saw that there was a shift in my role.

 

Geddy Lee: When you’re using that many keyboards, you’re taking up so much space on the record. Then the guitar has to fit around that. With a lot of the songs on Power Windows – songs like Grand Designs and Marathon – we had so many parts already done on keyboards that on previous records the guitar would have filled. So Alex had to figure out a way in. That’s really what it required of him.

 

Alex Lifeson: The guitar suffered in a lot of the mixes. That’s what bothered me more than anything. The bottom line was, I just thought that we needed to preserve the core of what the band is. It’s a three-piece.

 

Geddy Lee: Alex did play some great stuff on that record. Like on Mystic Rhythms. Without the guitar riff, that song doesn’t work. And I really like the sound of that album. I thought it was a really strong production. There are some great songs on that record. I like Middletown Dreams a lot – you know, every once in a while we write a good melody! Overall, I thought Power Windows was a great accomplishment for us. But maybe not so much on the couple of albums after that – Hold Your Fire and Presto. On those records the keyboards were still present, but not in so positive a way. That was making the case, once again, for realigning the sound…

Edited by RushFanForever
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I was surprised to read that he doesn't care much for Hold Your Fire and Presto.

It was a 2016 interview that I can't find right now. He said that he thought they needed to change their sound after those two albums, because of the keyboards.

The reason I'm surprised: Those two albums feature Geddy's strongest vocal performances.

Yes, the keys are annoying on HYF. But isolate the vocals for Time Stand Still, Lock and Key, The Pass, Presto, Available Light, etc. It's the best singing of his career -- melodic, controlled, even catchy.

Do you agree that those albums are the most disposable?

These two albums are the bottom two on my Rush album rankings so ... way to go Geddy!!

Glad to see we have at least one thing in common!

 

Ditto

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I was surprised to read that he doesn't care much for Hold Your Fire and Presto.

It was a 2016 interview that I can't find right now. He said that he thought they needed to change their sound after those two albums, because of the keyboards.

The reason I'm surprised: Those two albums feature Geddy's strongest vocal performances.

Yes, the keys are annoying on HYF. But isolate the vocals for Time Stand Still, Lock and Key, The Pass, Presto, Available Light, etc. It's the best singing of his career -- melodic, controlled, even catchy.

Do you agree that those albums are the most disposable?

 

Agree that HYF and Presto are probably Geddy's best vocal performances.

But I think that singing is somewhat of an unnecessary evil. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that Geddy became the singer because no one else wanted to do it and they didn't want to have just a singer in the band. I think their main focus is the tunes and song structures with vocals being an afterthought. So while the singing was top notch for Rush standards, the music itself needed 'more balls' and thus considered a low point.

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Hold Your Fire I think gets a bad rap in a lot of ways. It runs out of steam by the end (Tai Shan is awful) but the first 7 or 8 songs are all really solid. Presto is much more hit or miss to me. Agree that it's some of Geddy's best vocal work but also agree with Geddy's overall point that the keyboard thing had run its course by then.
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Presto an album that, when i think about it yeah it falls a bit short of the very best but, when i actually listen to it i think is brilliant :)

 

No such issues with HYF, I dont think either would be in my bottom two, in fact the only album that gets in it is clockwork angels (or half of it anyway)

 

Glad COS didnt get in Ged's bottom two i know the band had issues with it being a bit quirky but heck thats a great album, could easily be my fav

 

 

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Hold Your Fire I think gets a bad rap in a lot of ways. It runs out of steam by the end (Tai Shan is awful) but the first 7 or 8 songs are all really solid. Presto is much more hit or miss to me. Agree that it's some of Geddy's best vocal work but also agree with Geddy's overall point that the keyboard thing had run its course by then.

 

I think that, other than the huge amount of keyboards on HYF, the two albums are remarkably similar.

Both are essentially "pop" records -- pop structures, strong vocal melodies, no big guitars.

Both feature a mostly restrained Neil.

Both feature Geddy singing in chest voice.

Both have a couple of stinkers (Tai Shan, Superconductor) but otherwise really strong conventional songwriting.

To me, neither is disposable, and both rate in my top 5. But you can't listen to them with the same ears that you listen to Hemispheres with.

Edited by Weatherman
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Geddy Lee: Alex did play some great stuff on that record. Like on Mystic Rhythms. Without the guitar riff, that song doesn’t work. And I really like the sound of that album. I thought it was a really strong production. There are some great songs on that record. I like Middletown Dreams a lot – you know, every once in a while we write a good melody! Overall, I thought Power Windows was a great accomplishment for us. But maybe not so much on the couple of albums after that – Hold Your Fire and Presto. On those records the keyboards were still present, but not in so positive a way. That was making the case, once again, for realigning the sound…

 

Alex's Mystic Rhythms riff (and Neil's pattern) is the only reason to listen to that album. It's bottom three for me, particularly for the keys. I can't believe Ged thinks it's really that great an accomplishment.

Whereas HYF and Presto are far more listenable for me.

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Presto an album that, when i think about it yeah it falls a bit short of the very best but, when i actually listen to it i think is brilliant :)

 

No such issues with HYF, I dont think either would be in my bottom two, in fact the only album that gets in it is clockwork angels (or half of it anyway)

 

Glad COS didnt get in Ged's bottom two i know the band had issues with it being a bit quirky but heck thats a great album, could easily be my fav

 

Yeah, I generally don't listen to any recordings before 2112 or after Counterparts.

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I rarely agree with artist's own assessment of their work, but HYF is among my least favorite Rush records. Presto is another matter. I like that record a lot. Artists are too close to the work - they are not to be trusted reviewing their own stuff. Ian Anderson scrapped the Chateau D'isaster tapes and gave us War Child, sheesh!!!
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I rarely agree with artist's own assessment of their work, but HYF is among my least favorite Rush records. Presto is another matter. I like that record a lot. Artists are too close to the work - they are not to be trusted reviewing their own stuff. Ian Anderson scrapped the Chateau D'isaster tapes and gave us War Child, sheesh!!!

:lol:

 

Like you, I appreciate both Presto and the Chateau D'isaster. I love both, as a matter of fact.

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There are a few incredible songs on Presto (Show Don't Tell, The Pass, title track, Available Light) but most of it is filler to me. Like I'm never going to put "Hand Over Fist" or "Chain Lightning" on a list of the best Rush songs even though they're far from bad.

interestingly the four tracks you placed at the top are near the bottom for me, while Chain Lightning is the best track on that album.

 

But what do I know, I love the widely loathed Anagram

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And what's with the dislike for War Child?

 

Sealion and Two Fingers are among my favorite Tull tracks.

 

Although I like much of the d'isaster as well

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Yeah, I generally don't listen to any recordings before 2112..

 

I honestly can't even fathom this. FBN and CoS are two of their best, IMHO. FBN being the quintessential display of a hard rock three piece album. There's nothing else like it in their - or anyone else's - catalog. Again, jmo, and everybody's got their own.

Edited by SeñorPieuPieuPieu
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FBN being the quintessential display of a hard rock three piece album. There's nothing else like it in their - or anyone else's - catalog.

I think you misspelled "2112".

:sundog: :notworthy:

Edited by Weatherman
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There are a few incredible songs on Presto (Show Don't Tell, The Pass, title track, Available Light) but most of it is filler to me. Like I'm never going to put "Hand Over Fist" or "Chain Lightning" on a list of the best Rush songs even though they're far from bad.

interestingly the four tracks you placed at the top are near the bottom for me, while Chain Lightning is the best track on that album.

 

But what do I know, I love the widely loathed Anagram

Anagram is really good. I don't know why it's loathed by fanboys. Neil's lyrics are really intricate. I was singing that song for years before it dawned on me just how many goddamn anagrams he put in those lyrics. "Miracles will have their claimers/More will bow to Rome/he and she are in the house/but there's only me at home". It's wickedly clever wordplay, and the chorus is catchy.

It also takes me right back to a certain earlier time in my life. I can even feel the cold on the tip of my nose...

Edited by Weatherman
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