Rush Albums in Order of Awesomeness

[garbo]

2112 gets no love?! For shame.

 

I don't know, Hemispheres is my favorite. Every time I listen to it it's like my brain explodes.

[PariahDog]

Moving Pictures

Permanent Waves

Hemispheres

Signals

2112

A Farewell to Kings

Fly By Night

Power Windows

Grace Under Pressure

Caress of Steel

Counterparts

Hold Your Fire

Snakes & Arrows

Presto

Rush

Vapor Trails

Roll the Bones

Test for Echo

 

All the Terry Brown albums (except the debut) need to be in the top ten, or you're not a "real" Rush fan.

 

 

 

[Good,bad,andrush]

1. Hemispheres (i wish the title track lasted forever...but i also wish La Villa Strangiato lasted forever, the part beginning at around three minutes)

2. Moving Pictures (mainly for Vital Signs...it blows my mind every time)

3. Vapor Trails (seriously, very underrated, and Sweet Miracle and Vapor Trail are really moving to me)

4. Roll The Bones (because Bravado is my favorite song of all time)

5. A Farewell To Kings (because Hemispheres wouldn't exist without it, and I love Madrigal)

6. Caress Of Steel (Fountain. Need I say more?)

7. Grace Under Pressure (amazing synths, and really eye-opening lyrics)

8. 2112 (first epic I've ever heard, and it got me into Rush. Something For Nothing is also awesome)

9. Hold Your Fire (prime mover and time stand still, which has my favorite chorus of all time)

10. Signals (Losing It really gets to me)

11. Permanent Waves (gotta love Jacob's Ladder, Different Strings, and Natural Science)

12. Test For Echo (title track has amazing guitar riffs, and Resist takes me to another world)

13. Snakes And Arrows (i keep discovering awesome things about it, and i love Faithless and Hope)

14. Counterparts (Everyday Glory, Nobody's Hero, Leave That Thing Alone, and Cold Fire are some of my favorites)

15. Presto (Available Light...and THE PASS, a song i owe a lot to)

16. Power Windows (i love territories and emotion detector)

17. Fly By Night (Neil's debut, and Anthem is awesome)

18. Rush (a great rock album, but it wasn't 1/8 as deep as any other Rush albums)

 

 

[Mr. Not]

1. Grace Under Pressure

2. Signals

3. Moving Pictures

4. A Farewell to Kings

5. Presto

6. Hemispheres

7. Power Windows

8. Hold Your Fire

9. Permanent Waves

10. Fly By Night

(Clockwork Angels here if the album is Caravan status)

11. Caress of Steel

12. Snakes & Arrows

13. Counterparts

14. 2112

15. Test for Echo

16. Vapor Trails

(Clockwork Angels here if the album is BU2B status)

17. Roll the Bones

18. Rush

 

1-5 Great

6-12 Good

13 - 16 OK..

17 - 18 (including the CA insert) Crap.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Kenneth

[Todem]

1 - Permanent Waves - part of the holy trinity of rush albums Waves is perfection

 

2 - Hemispheres - another perfect Rush album Hemi is by far their best in showing off their insane chops

 

3 - Moving Pictures - sonically delicious, side one is legendary and again the top 3 Rush albums are all interchangable with me

 

4 - Signals - I love Signals more now than 20 years ago, more now than 10 years ago...this album just ages so well

 

5 - Power Windows - Windows was a truly unique and ambitious album for Rush, it still blows me away they made an album like this

 

6 - Grace Under Pressure - Grace Under Pressure is by far their darkest record and it has a ice cold quality to it. It would also mark the last time they recorded an album with live performance first and foremost dictating how they approach the album

 

7 - 2112 - The coming out party, this album marked Rush's arrival and to this day still screams out of the speakers we are doing things our way m***** F****ers

 

 

8 - A Farewell To Kings - Xanadu alone makes this album #8 for me

 

9 - Hold Your Fire - brilliance. Another album I could not believe that Rush pulled off. Listen to Fly By Night then listen to this....wow what a progressive band. I know it turned off a lot of old school fans but for me it just solidified why I love Rush so much, they were never afraid to try new things and stretch themselves.

 

10 Snakes and Arrows - Their best album in 20 years.

 

11 Counterparts - A great return to guitar driven Rush.

 

12 Roll the Bones - A fantastic collection of pop prog. The first 3 songs are classics and Ghost of a Chance and Heresy are outstanding songs as well.

 

13 Test for Echo - I like Test for Echo, I liked it a lot more when it came out, but I still return to it for some outstanding songs like Totem, Driven and the title track. Also Time and Motion has that classic Rush signature and I love Dog years....yep I said it!

 

14 Fly By Night - I just rediscovered FBN. The best of the first three records by far.

 

15 Presto - Something about Presto was always missing for me. I like the album and they have some amazing songs on here. Available Light may be one of their most dramatic and brilliant organic songs I have ever heard (man I just love the piano and Geddy's vocal approach on this track) Show Don't Tell, Chain Lighting and The Pass round out the good stuff. The rest feels like half realized ideas.

 

16 Vapor Trails - Some brilliant songs, some turds and a sonic trainwreck keeps this near the bottom for me. Vapor Trail is one of my all time fav's along with Earthshine.

 

17 Caress of Steel - The Necromancer, Lakeside Park and Bastille Day are the heavyweights. The Fountain of Lamneth is the most overrated Rush song among Rush fans. It's just not that good. No One At The Bridge is bloody brilliant the rest? You can have it. They have done so much better.

 

18 Rush - Nice debut, a great rocking album some great Led Zep inspired rock here.

 

 

 

So there you my top 18.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Todem

[ILSnwdog]

QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Nov 4 2010, 08:36 AM)

1. Hold Your Fire 2. Signals 3. Fly By Night 4. Moving Pictures 5. A Farewell to Kings 6. Presto 7. Vapor Trails 8. Power Windows 9. Grace Under Pressure 10. Roll the Bones 11.Permanent Waves 12. Rush 13. Caress of Steel 14. Hemispheres 15. 2112 16. Snakes and Arrows 17. Counterparts bottom of the heap: test for echo

Kelly, did you vote in this poll four times.

[tkdryan]

Im surprised, as of today 2112 does not have a vote

[Silas Lang]

QUOTE (tkdryan @ Nov 5 2010, 11:53 PM)

Im surprised, as of today 2112 does not have a vote

Yea what's up with that? My #'s 3 through 7 (2112, Grace, Caress, the debut, AFTK) have 5 votes between them.

[Life is Just the Candle]

QUOTE (GeddPratLerxst @ Nov 3 2010, 08:52 PM)

Ok I just completed my list of albums in order of greatness. Now agree or disagree with me, I'm interested in what ya'll's order would be. It's kinda hard isn't it? My choices: 1.Moving Pictures (To me it's the obvious top. Not that its my favorite album but it's pretty much THE album...) 2.2112 (With the arguably their best epic and Passage to Bangkok its a good #2) 3.Hemispheres (The Trees, Circumstances, La Villa Strangiato, Cygnus X-1: Book II. Epic.) 4.Caress of Steel (Obviously underrated when it was released, I think we can look back now and see that it was a GREAT album.) 5.Permanent Waves (First album ever released in the eighties, it doesn't have a bad track.) 6.Fly By Night (First album with Neil... Really starts to become more progy. And also listen to Rivendell. It's certainly one of my all time favorites.) 7.A Farewell to Kings (It's okay. Not that its bad at all thats why it #7.) 8.Rush (It's their first album so its cool, but to mainstream for me. Yeah of course Working Man is a classic.) 9.Signals (Best 80's album by far. Countdown= great song.) 10.Grace Under Pressure (Red Sector A, Kid Gloves, The Enemy Within.) 11.Counterparts (To me personally this is a good album. Maybe ya'll disagree? Still you have to admit, there are some great tracks on this album.) 12.Presto (THE PASS.) 13.Snakes and Arrows (To me, completely underrated.) 14.Roll the Bones (I actually love the rap. Plus Bravado!) 15.Test For Echo (Driven, Half the World, Resist pretty good, but get a little heavy.) 16.Hold Your Fire (Hard to put this all the way down here because I think Mission and actually Time Stand Still are decent songs but God, Lock and Key is a bad song. For Rush.) 17.Power Windows (Grand Designs is probably the only song I really like off of PW. The synth part is pretty cool.) 18. Vapor Trails (TOO HEAVY!)

I pretty much have to agree with your list except I would put Permanent Waves 2nd and A Farewell to Kings 4th. Then Counterparts and GUP switched up, and TFE and RtB switched. It's too difficult to really decide what the CORRECT order is.

[nightcruiser]

Its usually the first cut thats the deepest. I first heard Anthem and the rest of FBN in 75, What a wake up call that was. Been a fan ever since. Early Rush can be played on the ol guitar,(when no one else is listening) so its more in the long term memory banks and therefor the more up the top of the list for the mature "Rushian".

 

I love the entire work of art and my play list changes each day. I find the beauty in each track, so all yall are right,

 

Good fun though.

 

NC...

[New World Kid]

Vapor Trails

Counterparts

Grace Under Pressure

Moving Pictures

Presto

Permanent Waves

Snakes and Arrows

Hold Your Fire

Power Windows

A Farewell to Kings

Roll the Bones

Hemispheres

2112

Test for Echo

Fly By Night

Caress of Steel

Rush

[Babycat]

QUOTE (garbo @ Nov 5 2010, 11:31 AM)

2112 gets no love?!  For shame.  I don't know, Hemispheres is my favorite.  Every time I listen to it it's like my brain explodes.

I love every single one of them - 2112 is just incredible!

[JPRushHed]

1.) Moving Pictures

2.) Permanent Waves

3.) Vapor Trails

4.) Power Windows

5.) Grace Under Pressure

6.) Hemispheres

7.) Signals

8.) Hold Your Fire

9.) Test For Echo

10.) Counterparts

11.) Snakes And Arrows

12.) 2112

13.) Presto

14.) Roll The Bones

15.) A Farewell To Kings

16.) Fly By Night

17.) Caress Of Steel

18.) Rush

[GeddyLeeRoth]

1. Moving Pictures

2. Hemispheres

3. 2112

4. Permanent Waves

5. A Farewell To Kings

6. Grace Under Pressure

7. Power Windows

8. Fly By Night

9. Signals

10. Vapor Trails

11. Counterparts

12. Rush

13. Caress Of Steel

14. Snakes & Arrows

15. Presto

16. Hold Your Fire

17. Test For Echo

18. Roll The Bones

[Pause Rewind Replay]

Out of the 18 studio albums, there's only 1 that I actively dislike the majority of... everything else I consider at least a decent album and the top 12 set one hell of a standard. Numbers 3-7 are all separated by a hair, and would likely swap around on a daily basis.

 

1. Moving Pictures (only weakness is that I've played the damn thing to death)

2. Presto (my first Rush album, played even more than MP)

3. Counterparts (revived and clinched my Rush fanhood after relative disappointment of RTB)

4. Signals (Subdivisions, AK, Weapon... )

5. Vapor Trails (aka "we're back, motherfu**ers!" )

6. 2112 (blame Tears for this not being in the top 5)

7. S&A

8. Grace Under Pressure

9. Power Windows (no personal top 10 faves, no clankers... welcome to the middle)

10 Hold Your Fire (would have the #9 spot if not for Tai Shan)

11. AFTK

12. Permanent Waves (go ahead and kill me. I love Freewill, TSOR, and NatSci, but the other 3 songs just lay there to me.

.

.

13. RTB

14. Rush

15. Hemispheres (I can't explain it myself... the title epic and the studio version of LVS just don't "connect" with me The Trees is a fave.)

16. Test For Echo (T4E, Driven, Resist are high points... but the rest goes by like background noise)

17. Fly By Night (In The End and Rivendell drag it down).

.

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.

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18. Caress Of Steel. 1 classic (Bastille Day) 1 good (Lakeside Park), everything else

Edited November 7, 2010 by Pause Rewind Replay

[losingit2k]

Here goes:

 

Hemispheres

Moving Pictures

Permanent Waves

Grace Under Pressure

Signals (holds my favorite song Losing it!)

Snakes & Arrows

A Farewell to Kings

2112

Hold Your Fire

Power Windows

Roll the Bones

Counterparts

Test For Echo

Presto

Fly By Night

Rush

Vapor Trails (VT may move up if it were remixed and remastered)

Caress of Steel

 

There you have it!

 

Edited November 8, 2010 by losingit2k

[rushgoober]

QUOTE (losingit2k @ Nov 8 2010, 10:13 AM)

Signals (holds my favorite song Losing it!)

That's your favorite song? Really? I never would have guessed that one.

[Rush!]

1. Hemispheres

2. Signals

3. Moving Pictures

4. Permanent Waves

5. Vapor Trails

6. Grace Under Pressure

7. A Farewell to Kings

8. Power Windows

9. Snakes and Arrows

10. 2112

11. Fly By Night

12. Hold Your Fire

13. Counterparts

14. Caress of Steel

15. Presto

16. Roll the Bones

17. Test for Echo

18. Rush

[Saiph]

Edited November 8, 2010 by Saiph

[Verena]

Well, here's my list:

 

1. Permanent Waves

2. Hemispheres

3. Signals

4. Moving Pictures

5. Hold Your Fire

6. Vapor Trails

7. Snakes & Arrows

8. 2112

9. Grace Under Pressure

10. Counterparts

11. Power Windows

12. A Farewell to Kings

13. Caress of Steel

14. Presto

15. Test for Echo

16. Roll The Bones

17. Fly By Night

18. Rush

[BanksPDaniels]

I forgot that i was going to post in this thread.

 

1. Hemispheres

2. 2112

3. Moving Pictures

4. A Farewell to Kings

5. Caress Of Steel

6. Permanent Waves

7. Rush

8. Fly By Night

9. Power Windows

10. Signals

11. Presto

12. Hold Your Fire

13. Counterparts

14. Test For Echo

15. Grace Under Pressure

16. Snakes & Arrows

17. Vapor Trails

 

(a lot of space)

 

18. Roll The Bones

[furie]

no one picked 2112? i wonder if that's because no one views it as their best work or if it's not the hip choice?

[CMWriter]

I don't know every song on every album (gasp! for shame!) so I can't fairly rank them.

I finally picked "Signals" as my numero uno, because I love every song on there. "Hold Your Fire" would come in second, since I love every song on there, too.

 

I like "Hemispheres" and "Moving Pictures", too, but the latter I think is a little bit.. overrated. In my opinion. I always hear songs from there on the radio and I get a little sick of it. Maybe I've just listened to it too many times. xP