Rank The Rush Albums 2016

[Red Dwarf]

MOVING PICTURES 10/10

HEMISPHERES 10/10

SIGNALS. 10/10

A FAREWELL TO KINGS. 9.5/10

PERMANENT WAVES. 9/10

2112. 8/10

POWER WINDOWS 7/10

COUNTERPARTS 7/10

CLOCKWORK ANGELS 6/10

CARESS OF STEEL 6/10

FLY BY NIGHT 6/10

SNAKES AND ARROWS 5.5/10

PRESTO 5/10

ROLL THE BONES 5/10

RUSH 5/10

TEST FOR ECHO. 4/10

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE. 4/10

HOLD YOUR FIRE. 3/10

VAPOR TRAILS 3/10

[JohnnyBlaze]

I might Rank them like this:

 

Rush (Captain)

Fly By Night (Captain)

Caress of Steel (Major)

2112 (Major)

A Farewell to Kings (Colonel)

Hemispheres (General)

Permanent Waves (Colonel)

Moving Pictures (Colonel)

Signals (Captain)

Grace Under Pressure (Lieutenant)

Power Windows (Lieutenant)

Hold Your Fire (Lieutenant)

Presto (Sergeant)

Roll the Bones (Corporal)

Counterparts (Sergeant)

Test for Echo (Corporal)

Vapor Trails (Private)

Snakes and Arrows (Sergeant)

Clockwork Angels (Lieutenant)

Dig the Stratego-esque system of ranking.

I'll go with a report card...

 

Rush (B)

Fly By Night (B)

Caress of Steel (B-)

2112 (A)

A Farewell to Kings (A)

Hemispheres (A+)

Permanent Waves (A+)

Moving Pictures (A+)

Signals (A-)

Grace Under Pressure (B)

Power Windows (B)

Hold Your Fire (B+)

Presto (B-)

Roll the Bones (D)

Counterparts (B-)

Test for Echo (C-)

Vapor Trails (C )

Snakes and Arrows (D)

Clockwork Angels (B-)

 

A few quality songs on Bones & Snakes saved them from failing the class. Hold Your Fire got extra credit points for its overall lyrical content.

Edited January 21, 2016 by JohnnyBlaze

[JARG]

1. Hemispheres

2. Permanent Waves

3. Moving Pictures

4. 2112

5. A Farewell to Kings

6. Caress of Steel

7. Fly By Night

8. Signals

9. Rush

10. Grace Under Pressure

11. Power Windows

12. Counterparts

13. Presto

14. Test for Echo

15. Hold Your Fire

16. Roll the Bones

17. Vapor Trails

18. Clockwork Angels

19. Snakes & Arrows

[pip65]

1. Hemispheres

2. Moving Pictures

3. Permanent Waves

4. A Farewell to kings

5. 2112

6. Hold Your Fire

7. Signals

8 Power Windows

9. Grace Under Pressure

10. Fly By Night

11. Caress of Steel

12. Clockwork Angels

13. Snakes and Arrows

14. Test For Echo

15. Roll the Bones

16.Presto

17. Vapor Trails

18. Counterparts

19. Rush

[Day of Light]

Okay, after listening to everything enough to start hating some of it, I finally have opinions and I'm ready to rate the albums. Here goes:

 

1. Signals: Big surprise. I acknowledge that it's perhaps not their technical best, nor their production best, nor their lyrical best, but it has emotional significance to me.

 

2. Grace Under Pressure: I dislike the way the synths and guitars sound on this album, but it's intense and I love it. A more exciting listen than Signals. I like Red Lenses, which from what I gather is supposed to be the low point of the album? I think it's quite catchy.

 

3. Moving Pictures: I can see why this is the Rush album. Beautiful sound, beautiful themes, just the right amount of songs and content, except that I kind of dislike listening to it because it's... boring? I like The Camera Eye and Vital Signs, but not enough to sit through them unless my intention is to listen to them... at which point I find them wonderful. And Geddy's vocals have a very particular sound on this album. It was the first one I heard and so I thought he sounded like this on every record--is there a reason he enunciates this particular way on this album?

 

4. Clockwork Angels: This would be higher because I love it on an emotional level but I find it makes me lethargic. The music is slower and Ged's voice is lower cause he's old. I love the themes, the riffs, the sound (although it's a little compressed? Might just be my version) and I like sitting through it, I just dislike that it seems like I have to sit through it.

 

5. Power Windows: This is a joy although it took me a while to warm up to. The lyrics are wonderful, and I think it sounds very similar to Signals. I just sort of dislike the bass sound, and I think some songs can be a tad too long and uniform.

 

6. Hold Your Fire: I went from despising this album to loving a lot of the songs on it. I think the lyrical content is weak on a lot of songs, but this album sounds better (production-wise) than P/G and PoW, and the songs I love are very well loved. But then there are some songs that are meh. Oh well, I guess "meh" is better than active hatred.

 

7. Presto: I misjudged this album. I think the first 6 songs are excellent (although I sometimes skip War Paint for some reason), lyrically really solid, Geddy's voice is sexy, and I don't know enough about playing music to have my enjoyment of it destroyed because it's simpler than the other ones. It just takes a very steep, hard, nosedive with Superconductor and never really recovers until Available Light.

 

8. Hemispheres: I love it when I listen to it and I understand why a lot of people think it's their best, cause it's really intricate, La Villa Strangiato is godlike, Hemispheres is a long track that I actually like, The Trees is clever and the bait I used to get my boyfriend into listening to Rush, but I mostly play this album for Circumstances.

 

9. Snakes and Arrows: I like it a lot but it suffers from the same problems I complained of for Clockwork Angels. Tedious at times. I'm so happy the guitar sounds full and healthy on this album, because if it had the same sound as Vapor Trails, it'd suck.

 

10. Permanent Waves: I don't often listen to this album, but I enjoy it. The highlight of it is the duo of Spirit of Radio and Freewill; I enjoy the other songs but, and I must be forgiven for this, I'm impatient by nature, so I skip them to replay a shorter song, or another song I enjoy instead.

 

11. 2112: I love everything about side 2, but am completely meh about the title track.

 

12. Vapor Trails: I like the lyrics, and I understand the whole "angry" sound thing, but it just sounds like it needs to be louder and faster, and that it lacks a bit of bite while simultaneously lacking finesse, which is an unfortunate side effect of producing a uniformly loud album. lol

 

13. A Farewell to Kings: I, uh, I like this album. I like the themes. I think this album features young Geddy's best vocals, and I mean, it has f***ing Xanadu. But Cygnus X-1... Meh. Does nothing for me.

 

14. Counterparts: I really hate this album, but I also really like it. It's hard to explain.

 

15. Roll the Bones: I feel personally offended by this album because its production quality is significantly better than Presto's but Presto's infinitely more deserving of a fuller, dynamic sound. I like Dreamline but its momentum gets broken so many times in the song that I dislike it at the same time. I also think the lyrics suck. Roll the Bones sounds pleasant but so inoffensive it's anger-inducing. I don't relate to anything even if I can appreciate some of the musical sound.

 

16. Test for Echo: This kills me, because it has Counterparts syndrome. I really hate it, but I like some of it.

 

17. Rush: I don't even consider this Rush, but it's pretty good for non-Rush.

 

18. Fly By Night: I find this album hard to classify. I think it sounds good but I don't like it. I don't find it enjoyable to listen to. I don't like By-tor and the Snow Dog.

 

19. Caress of Steel: This album could disappear overnight and I wouldn't notice.

[Tombstone Mountain]

hmmmmm not having listened to them in ages......let's see

 

1. Hold Your Fire

2. Power Windows

3. Hemispheres

4. Signals

5. Permanent Waves

6. Caress of Steel

7. Presto

8. Moving Pictures

9. Snakes

10. 2112

11. A farewell to Kings- Up this high just for Xanadu

12. Counterparts

13. Roll the Bones

14. Fly by Night

15. Clockwork Angels

16. Rush

17. Test For Echo

18. Grace Under Pressure

19. Vapor Trails

 

Mick

 

Hey, Clockwork Angels isn't dead last! :D

 

no it's got 3 classics

 

to bad the rest isn't up to that standard, lol

 

Mick

 

What are the songs you like on it?

 

Clockwork Angels

The Anarchist

Headlong Flight.

 

All 3 are up to the level of any Classic Rush.

 

Mick

My man!

 

Seven Cities of Gold should be on there...but with these songs you can't lose!