Best Rush Album: Non-Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures edition

In the shopping malls ...

This is prompting me to finally listen to all the other live Rush albums that I've been ignoring over the years. Maybe a poll on that is in order as well. I'm having trouble getting past my familiarity bias with Exit Stage Left...

Rush live album poll would be cool. Pretty sure I'd vote for Different Stages.

Backtracking a bit:

My main beef with the electronic drums is that he trots out this big set on every tour but only uses it during the drum solo. I'd like to hear them more in actual songs.

Really tough for me to break the tie between Signals and Grace Under Pressure... The former has higher highs ("Subdivisions", the earth-swallowing riff of "Jacob's Ladder"), but I think the latter is more consistent, more dynamic, and sounds better.

My main beef with the electronic drums is that he trots out this big set on every tour but only uses it during the drum solo. I'd like to hear them more in actual songs.

Sort of my point. The tech has become so good that he's got triggers all over his set. The electronic side of the rotating kit he mostly saves for the drum solo.

Oh snap, "Jacob's Ladder" is on Permanent Waves, duh... Well, that makes it an even easier choice!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Bet I'm the only vote for Snakes & Arrows lol.

I voted for Grace Under Pressure.

i will never not be voting for 2112

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I own PW. I guess I should buy GUP, no?

Should've voted for Roll the Bones

i don't remember what i voted for -- probably 'farewell to kings'? -- but presto deserved better imo

Wow! Grace took it! That surprises me, even though it was my pick... Do love me some Presto, though

Kinda bummed nobody voted for Counterparts. I think that's the best of their '90s albums.

grace, that's just goofy

"Grace" is great. Easily the band's darkest album.

surprising answer! for a long time i thought Grace was the weakest record of their 80s run, but i haven't listened to it in ages, will maybe have to re-evaluate it now. i feel like side A is good but side B is just okay - "the body electric" and "kid gloves" are kind of just late-period-Rush-by-numbers.

The fact that ILM voted for Grace Under Pressure is not surprising considering it's love for by far the weakest Rush era. I should be shocked but I'm not. It's almost cool around here to like synth-driven pop, gated drum wimpiness.

I voted 2112.

"Distant Early Warning" is definitely one of their better singles, but I never got into the rest of the record. Voted Hemispheres.

You guys really need to go listen to "Red Sector A" again. Like Josh said, Grace is the band's darkest album, lyrically, by a long stretch, and the music matches that darkness.

My fave deep cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I06T6M6R0Cc

Band is so tight here. I didn't have the heart to post the official video.

Really liked the R30 "Red Sector A:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txQ-J0x4SZY

Something nice about live clips of these songs is they work well as a response to those convinced there is no Alex. Like Andy Summers, he's shading and accenting all over the place.

yeah didn't he top a guitar player list for best shading and accenting in the late 70s too? oh no wait

I think the lack of too much weedle-weedle is actually what (among other thigns) sets him and the band apart from Berklee type flash like Dream Theatre.

I'm not into shading and accenting. Give me By-Tor and the Snow Dog or Working Man any day.

I never really thought of Grace as a great album, even compared to Signals. Despite the dated Cold War concerns, I like "Distant Early Warning" and "Red Sector A" but I think "Subdivisions" is a much more classic single for this period. As mentioned above, some of the tracks just feel a little generic to me. "Losing It" is beautiful imo; nothing on Grace comes close.

I don't have an issue with the 'shading and accenting' approach in itself though. They had already done many good albums with a more classic approach. It was probably more brave and challenging for Lifeson to try something new and to do it so well.

It was probably more brave and challenging for Lifeson to try something new and to do it so well.

^he hated it

He totally hated it! But I think it helped the band survive the '80s, in the long-run, and was good for him as a player. Adapt and evolve, etc.

I think Lifeson's guitar work is way more prominent on Grace Under Pressure than just providing shading and accenting.

He totally hated it!

Ha, I didn't know that he hated it at the time, although I knew he was happy to move back to a harder rock style in the 00s! I really thought he was a fan of Summers and the Edge. Is there an interview where he comments on this? Was it just a commercial move then? Was Geddy listening to a lot of new wave and bullying him??

he was exceptionally great at crafting that style for a guy that "hated it"

he said something in the documentary that he felt the did get too far into synths at at point and wanted to do more guitar stuff but i didn't interpret that as he "hated" that period of the band at all.....and they continue to do some of their most synth material live to this day

I think it is an extreme exaggeration to say that he hated the music he made for many years.

It's almost cool around here to like synth-driven pop, gated drum wimpiness.

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill)

nothing "almost" about it. but i think the word you're looking for is "awesomeness".

still, grace is a weird, challopsy, even half-lousy winner here. "the enemy within", for instance, is p terrible. signals would have made a lot more sense.

Cant speak for Lifeson: I will say one thing though: I fucking HATED it. It blows.

I think you have to put your balls in escrow to actually sit through any Rush offering from the 80's after Moving Pictures.

i put my balls in an adjustable rate IRA

And based on your posts on this thread they have shrunk about as badly as most investment vehicles have lately.

i'm talking to my CPA to see if i can roll them over

sick investment vehicle shrinkage burn

I agree, it was pretty good. Thanks.

He totally hated it! But I think it helped the band survive the '80s, in the long-run, and was good for him as a player. Adapt and evolve, etc.

Wasn't it more that they recorded all the keys before the guitars went down, and he wasn't left any sonic space to do anything other than textural stuff?

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that much about their compositional process. I think I just kind of assumed that they jammed everything out and figured it out together.

Yeah, as the band moved into synths and especially sequencing, often the songs and synths had to be worked out so far in advance that there wasn't always a lot of room for Alex. That said, I love the guitar on their '80s stuff, since it sure as hell isn't all shading. In fact, I think some of his best guitar solos are on "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire." The balance he strikes between Summers-y stuff and cool leads (which Summers rarely got to do, despite being one of the most technically masterful guitarists of the past 40 years) is impressive.

Like the "Big Money" solo.

The guitar around the three minute mark of this track is pretty cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RnEK6GvM0o

I guess Lifeson is a big fan of Alan Holdsworth.