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Top and bottom 5 Rush album covers...


Timbale
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Hey - thought it might be fun to pick 5 sleeve designs that you like and 5 that you don't!

 

Here are mine.

 

Top 5

 

Signals - A very simple, strong, striking image.  Love the hand drawn "font" of the name.  The spacing on it, the framing around the photo...it's just a perfect piece of design.  It's, like, Pink Floyd level good (and for me, the only one that reaches that height.)

 

Exit...Stage Left - I feel like the idea is just really really clever, and it's pulled off very well.  I also really like the typeface design for the band's name.

 

Presto - I'm not sure why, but for some reason the black and white image, the shape of the hill...I don't know, it just works well for me, despite not REALLY knowing why that's the image for the record.  I only ever owned Presto on CD, so maybe I would feel different holding the lp in my hand...but that image with the red RUSH (and another good font) is striking in a positive way to me.

 

Grace Under Pressure - The cover of p/g really captures the feel of the album to me, which makes it a success.  It's actually kinda busy and maybe not in a good way...but it really says something metaphorically about the contents of the songs themselves, that cold, brooding and pessimistic 80s thing.  I also am always a fan of artwork breaking the rules of a form it set up (like the burn mark at the edge of the "frame" on Wish You Were Here), and the false framing becoming the water drips is a cool touch.

 

Rush - I actually find it hard to pick a fifth that I really like...but the debut is very immediate and striking... and you can't deny that "Rush" script is pretty perfect, as their long term use of it has shown.  It is not in my top 5 records by them...but I think the cover is very simple and strong.

 

Bottom 5

 

Rush In Rio - f**k off with that garbage.  What am I, an 8-year old?!  God awful.

 

Snakes & Arrows - busy in a bad way.  All of a sudden, we're going literal, with snakes and arrows on the cover?  It's ugly and really forgettable. 

 

Test For Echo - it is a simple and clear image..but I just loathe that kind of digital art.  The lean into realism makes it look more fake to me.  It's like seeing a movie with CGI from the late 90s.

 

A Show Of Hands - Ugh.  The colour palette is SO of its time, of course...and I just don't know why these are the image representations of the band.  I just find it childish and ugly.  The typeface is terrible, too.  (I always thought it would have been funny - like maybe, not as the cover but as an inner sleeve design - to use the ESL art, but do a Monty Python - Gilliam-style thing where the other characters from the next 4 albums had been cut out and sort of badly added to the original image...)  

 

Clockwork Angels - again, it's a little too literal for me..although, I don't hate the idea of a clock being incorporated.  But I do find it to be ugly...I guess it's the digital thing...and that red is off-putting to me.  Maybe if it had been a photo of an actual clock with the indices digitally altered to be sort of melting into the steampunk icons, I don't know.  The thing is it's NOT an image of a clock...it's a digitally created set of hands/indices superimposed over clouds.  So it's representational...but not (to me) very artful.  I wish someone had told Syme to either get Dimo Safari on the blower and tell him to bring his camera over...or get your damn paint brushes out and make something that actually reflects steampunk aesthetics better.

 

 

So those are mine...the rest of the record covers fall in the middle for me.  Most of them are "fine".  I was going to put Moving Pictures in the top 5...but I think it's just too much of a Rush icon for me to be objective about.  I'm not sure if it's great...or just the cover of a really great record.  A few others, Permanent Waves and Power Windows are similar for me, I like them a lot, but I don't know if that makes them "good". 

 

Top 5 Bottom 5 - go!

 

  

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Worst:  Hemispheres

 

Tolerable:  the others

Edited by laughedatbytime
Power Windows is kind of creepy too
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Best:

  • Power Windows - I love the concept, I love the execution.  It's creepy and surrealist, and it perfectly encapsulates the music inside.  It's one of the few album covers I would have hanging on my wall as art.
  • Roll the Bones - Again, great concept, great execution.  I love the dice descending into chaos in the background and the juxtaposition of the seriousness of mortality signified by the skull with the irreverence signified by the kid giving it a kick.
  • Test for Echo - I've spent a lot of time in the Arctic and the scene speaks to me.  I love the idea of an inuksuk as a "test for echo" - who else is out there?
  • Permanent Waves - I'm a sucker for wordplay in these covers, and I love the triple entendre of the tidal wave, the permanent wave, and the man waving.  It's classic Hugh at his best.
  • Vapor Trails - I love the raw, aggressive colours and the abstract imagery, it perfectly sums up the chaos of that album's music.

Worst:

  • Clockwork Angels is an abomination.  It would make a perfectly fine centre label on a record, but it's a horrendous choice for an album cover.  The concept is dull and obvious, and the painfully digital-looking execution hurts my eyes.  It looks like a cheap dollar store knockoff of a Rush album.
  • Snakes & Arrows - Another one where Neil should have listened to Hugh.  It's too obvious and one-dimensional, with none of the characteristic Rush wit and creativity.
  • Counterparts - It's not bad as much as it is boring.  I don't mind minimalism (I quite like Hold Your Fire, in fact) but this doesn't really have much to recommend it.  Counterparts - a nut and a bolt.  I get it.  Haha?
  • Rush in Rio - Yeah... what @Timbale said.  Childish and tacky.
  • Feedback - More tacky digital artwork.
Edited by Rush Didact
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Hm, I really like the Clockwork Angels cover, especially the vinyl version with the rippling background instead of cloudy.

 

I'm not sure exactly what top and bottom 5 would be, but I really love these:

 

Moving Pictures

Signals

Grace Under Pressure

A Farewell To Kings

Hemispheres

 

 

and these aren't my favorites:

 

Presto

Roll The Bones

Snakes And Arrows

Test For Echo

 

I actually can't think of a 5th one I'm not too keen on. I really do love most of them a lot.

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Top Five:

 

A Farewell to Kings

Grace Under Pressure

Permanent Waves

Moving Pictures

Vapor Trails

 

Least Good:

 

Caress of Steel

Clockwork Angels

Hold Your Fire

Snakes and Arrows

A Show of Hands tied with Different Stages tied with Working Man Live tied with Snakes and Arrows Live tied with Rush in Rio (I'm not sure what happened with the live albums there for a bit . . . although I liked R40 Live and R30 Live)

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Permanent Waves to Moving Pics to Signals to Grace to Power Windows is an fantastic run that makes my top five.    If they'd have used the inner HYF art as the cover it would make the list.  As it is, the red HYF is my bottom cover, along with Snakes, Clockwork, Counterparts and Presto

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1 minute ago, goose said:

Permanent Waves to Moving Pics to Signals to Grace to Power Windows is an fantastic run that makes my top five.    If they'd have used the inner HYF art as the cover it would make the list.  As it is, the red HYF is my bottom cover, along with Snakes, Clockwork, Counterparts and Presto

 

I'm fine with the minimalist cover for HYF, but I wish that album had been a gatefold.  The art on the inner sleeve really deserved a more prominent place, and having it in between the stark red front and back covers would have made the album feel like a book, with lots of cool things inside.

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Funny takes here! I'll do top/bottom 3:

 

TOP:

1. Roll the Bones -- I like the shading, and the water along the bottom

2. Moving Pictures -- a great visual pun

3. Vapor Trails -- the cover is far and away the best thing about the album, beautiful abstract expressionism

 

BOTTOM:

1. Hemispheres -- Naked guy on a brain? Wasn't one naked guy enough? It's completely hideous

2. Signals -- It doesn't say a damn thing to me about anything, certainly not the concept of signals. Total misfire. I said what I said.

3./4. SnA/CA -- the final two albums had covers that were just too busy and muddled, much like the music

 

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On 10/12/2022 at 12:13 PM, NoahLutz said:

Best:

 

Fly By Night

2112

Power Windows

Roll The Bones

Test For Echo

 

Worst:

Hold Your Fire

Snakes & Arrows

Rush

Counterparts

Grace Under Pressure

Grace Under Pressure in the worst category???

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My Top 5

 

Moving Pictures

Permanent Waves

Grace Under Pressure

Roll The Bones
2112

 

 

My Bottom 5

 

Caress of Steel

Rush 

Hold Your Fire

Presto

Counterparts

 

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Top

 

Hemisrears..

Yeah, it's the naked dude... but he looking at the well dressed business man. Battle of the heart and the mind upon the hemispheres.

 

Fly by night. 

Farewell to kings

Permanent waves

Moving pictures 

 

Perhaps rush and Hugh Syme were peaking at the same time?

 

Bottom

?

 

Honorable mention to All the world's a stage. Simple but indicative of its contents...

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Top

 

1. A Farewell to Kings

2. Hemispheres

3. Moving Pictures

4. Permanent Waves

5. 2112

6. Caress of Steel

7. Fly By Night

8. Signals

9. Power Windows

10. Hold Your Fire

11. Clockwork Angels

12. Vapor Trails

13. Grace Under Pressure

14. Counterparts

15. RUSH

16. Roll the Bones

17. Snakes & Arrows

18. Test For Echo

19. Presto

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Ok, album COVERS!

 

1. Fly By Night

2. 2112

3. Moving Pictures

4. A Farewell to Kings

5. Permanent Waves

 

Bottom (worst first)

 

1. Presto

2. Counterparts

3. Clockwork Angels

4. Roll the Bones

5. Grace Under Pressure

 

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Top 5:

 

1.   2112

2.   FBN

3.   Presto

4.   HYF

5.   T4E

6.   Grace Under pressure

 

Bottom 5:

 

Not certain about the order but it would likely include CoS, Hemispheres, CA, Signals, AFTK.

 

Honestly, Rush's cover art has never thrilled me with the exception of the top 3 albums I mentioned. 

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On 12/2/2022 at 4:06 PM, Rush Didact said:

 

It's just a photo of an empty stage... :huh:

Yes. But it has atmosphere... and a sense of anticipation attached to it. 

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On 10/12/2022 at 8:42 AM, goose said:

Permanent Waves to Moving Pics to Signals to Grace to Power Windows is an fantastic run that makes my top five.    If they'd have used the inner HYF art as the cover it would make the list.  As it is, the red HYF is my bottom cover, along with Snakes, Clockwork, Counterparts and Presto

I do like this image from Presto, though

 

presto-1.jpg

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