What Rush CD should I buy?!
Question: That's an impossible question since Rush have been doing their thing for something like 35 years and peoples favourites will come from different eras, be it the late 70's that included some epic sci fi themed stuff, the 80s keyboard based albums, or the latter era guitar based rock.
Personally I don't strongly like any of their albums outside of the 1976-1980 period. My recommendation for a studio album would be 1980's Permanent Waves. I just can't fault that album. Hemispheres and 2112 are the other two must have albums from that period.
I'm also a fan of live albums in general, and Rush have a great triple live CD which is basically a fantastic career overview. It's called Different Stages. Two of the discs are a concert recorded in the late 90's but is a great overview of their music from 1976 onward. The third disc is live in 1978 and has a further 11 tracks.
I've yet to see a compliation album from Rush that properly covers their greatest stuff - I speak from my own preference for the late 70's stuff, as the epic tracks like the full version of 2112, Cygnus parts 1 & 2, and Natural Science get left out. If long sci fi based songs aren't your cup of tea then you could go for a compilation like Retrospective (which is across two separately purchased discs as I recall, unless there is a standalone single disc version as well).
If you do go for a compilation, try and get as many of these tracks on it as possible (all from 1980 and before - more or less in order of importance):
Freewill
Spirit Of Radio
The Trees
By-Tor & The Snow Dog
Something For Nothing
Working Man
Anthem
Bastille Day
Finding My Way
(Rush nuts will notice I didn't list anything from A Farewell To Kings... that album never did much for me except Cygnus XI)
Hope something there helps...
Answers: That's an impossible question since Rush have been doing their thing for something like 35 years and peoples favourites will come from different eras, be it the late 70's that included some epic sci fi themed stuff, the 80s keyboard based albums, or the latter era guitar based rock.
Personally I don't strongly like any of their albums outside of the 1976-1980 period. My recommendation for a studio album would be 1980's Permanent Waves. I just can't fault that album. Hemispheres and 2112 are the other two must have albums from that period.
I'm also a fan of live albums in general, and Rush have a great triple live CD which is basically a fantastic career overview. It's called Different Stages. Two of the discs are a concert recorded in the late 90's but is a great overview of their music from 1976 onward. The third disc is live in 1978 and has a further 11 tracks.
I've yet to see a compliation album from Rush that properly covers their greatest stuff - I speak from my own preference for the late 70's stuff, as the epic tracks like the full version of 2112, Cygnus parts 1 & 2, and Natural Science get left out. If long sci fi based songs aren't your cup of tea then you could go for a compilation like Retrospective (which is across two separately purchased discs as I recall, unless there is a standalone single disc version as well).
If you do go for a compilation, try and get as many of these tracks on it as possible (all from 1980 and before - more or less in order of importance):
Freewill
Spirit Of Radio
The Trees
By-Tor & The Snow Dog
Something For Nothing
Working Man
Anthem
Bastille Day
Finding My Way
(Rush nuts will notice I didn't list anything from A Farewell To Kings... that album never did much for me except Cygnus XI)
Hope something there helps...
a greatest hits compilation
ALL OF THEM.
The live album (1976?) that includes them playing 2112 and Working Man with the GREAT drum solo. ("Ladies and gentlemen, the Professor on the drum kit.")
Gold is a compilation album by Canadian rock band Rush, released April 25, 2006.
Here is the track listing:
Disc 1:
The Spirit of Radio
The Trees
Freewill
Xanadu
Bastille Day
By-Tor & The Snow Dog
Anthem
Closer to the Heart
2112: Overture
2112: The Temples of Syrinx
La Villa Strangiato
Fly By Night
Finding My Way
Working Man
Disc 2:
The Big Money
Red Barchetta
Subdivisions
Time Stand Still
Mystic Rhythms
The Analog Kid
Distant Early Warning
Marathon
The Body Electric
Mission
Limelight
Red Sector A
New World Man
Tom Sawyer
Force Ten
Exit Stage Left would be an excellent introduction to Rush
honestly...all of them
Start off with "2112" and "Signals." Those give you a good sampling of their 70s prog rock days and their slightly more synthesized 80s fare. Avoid 1996's "Test for Echo" and "Vapor Trails" from a few years back.