All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

[Bill Walker]

I remember this album. I think I bought it, or a mate did.
Anyway I never really got into Rush.
I liked bands like Yes and Gentle Giant. But Rush didn't have that English prog feel somehow.
Yes had the superb Rick Wakeman of course and the jazz/ragtime influenced guitarist Steve Howe.
These guys embodied a subtlety of influence in their playing that Rush simply didn't have.
They also didn't have Jon Anderson of course, I think they were tremendously influenced by Yes but not a clone band like Starcastle.
I'm afraid this is an album I would never play.
3/10

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I remember this album. I think I bought it, or a mate did.
Anyway I never really got into Rush.
I liked bands like Yes and Gentle Giant. But Rush didn't have that English prog feel somehow.
Yes had the superb Rick Wakeman of course and the jazz/ragtime influenced guitarist Steve Howe.
These guys embodied a subtlety of influence in their playing that Rush simply didn't have.
They also didn't have Jon Anderson of course, I think they were tremendously influenced by Yes but not a clone band like Starcastle.
I'm afraid this is an album I would never play.
3/10

Rush is maybe one of the least subtle bands that ever existed. ELP and Styx are up there too.

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Yep looking back I remember now. I've nowt against any music, but just wondered what the timespan of the list is? Maybe should of just asked instead of being a knob lol

Always my moto - act like a knob first, ask / beg for forgiveness later.......... ;-)

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Oooh a Rush album.

I've never been into Rush, but I like most music, so I've given this a proper listen all evening whilst the missus was watching the first series of Ted Lasso in a 5 hour binge.

In 1980 I was listening to AC/DC, The Police, Gary Numan, OMD, Adam and the Ants, Iron Maiden...a weird hybrid mix of rock and the new electronic stuff that was coming through. Sure I branched out onto other plains, Squeeze, The Cure, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel etc etc but I never went near Rush.

And after two listens I can confirm why.

It's fucking dreary. Sounds like it was aimed at virgins who dress up as wizards at weekends.

I get the fact that they were prog rock. I also get the fact that bands are supposed to progress. Sometimes for the better, hello Depeche Mode, sometimes to the detriment of their music, yes OMD I'm looking at you. But this is neither. It's a piss poor halfway house, still dreary prog and also dreary mid Atlantic rock.

And I fucking hate dreary mid Atlantic rock. it's as though they are saying...

"YES, we can play, oh we can play, we can also write lyrics, oh yes, meaningful lyrics, but let's make it completely devoid of anything interesting. No one will notice and it will sell by the shit load."

Punk had hit, electronic music had hit. Angry pop/rock had hit. Middle of the road rock acts and prog rock acts suddenly felt like they had to adapt. Join in. Be more exciting. And this is the abortion that was the result. And it is an abortion. A fucking cut it out and smack it into a wall to make sure it's dead abortion.

Music for stoners, dullards and virgin wizards.

Oh God, you want a score...

Let's be honest here, Spirit of Radio is ok, but everything else is very samey. Very, very samey. I have no idea how to score it. It washed over me without leaving an imprint. It felt like I hadn't listened to any music at all and I had to put another album on, Talk Talk's seminal offering The Colour Of Spring if you were wondering, just to confirm my ears/ brain were working. This also confirmed that bands can and do evolve in the right direction with beautiful results.

This whole sorry affair has also made me feel a little let down by a couple of posters on here who seemed to know what they were talking about music wise. Rush were shoved on a pedestal and lauded so much that my ears couldn't fail to enjoy the offering.

How wrong they were.

3/10

Not sure I agree but a fucking brilliant write up all the same..........

Edit: With special mention for the line 'sounds like it was aimed at virgins who dress up as wizards at weekends'

 

[BimboBob]

I don't think my view and your view are incompatible. I love many of the bands you mention ( I LOVE OMD's stuff, even the later poppy stuff, but especially A&M and Dazzle Ships), and Rush are absolutely NOT critical darlings. Punk, post-punk and new wave (sort of) evolved as anti-Rush, anti-prog, anti-big-stage-rock art movements. I think it's perfectly fine to like both. Do I still listen to Rush today? Not really -- I outgrew them, and after Power Windows in 1985 I really never listened to them again, and what I heard I didn't like much.

But now I'm in my 50s, I miss my youth -- whether that youth was me as an 11 year-old playing soccer, a geeky 15 year old with thick glasses, as a partying college senior at 21 interested in Dickens, graduation, drinking and sex, or as a newly-married 27 year-old working a job 12 hours a day. So any and all music from those times still rings my chimes.

If I were listening to this for the first time today, would I like it as much? Probably not. But I'm not. I can't remove it from its time and how much I loved it.

My feeling is: if you're going to splurge on dessert, don't have low-fat frozen yogurt, for fuck's sake -- have something decadent. Something totally indulgent. You know -- like Rush.

It's not indugent though is it. The voice whines through song after song. I could be in a lift with the music. It's that dreary.

I also think you big up Rush too much. Didn't really make a dent over here until the 80's chart wise. The new wave, punk etc was a reaction to prog rock in general and tweeness like The Dooleys and not a specific band.

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

I don't think my view and your view are incompatible. I love many of the bands you mention ( I LOVE OMD's stuff, even the later poppy stuff, but especially A&M and Dazzle Ships), and Rush are absolutely NOT critical darlings. Punk, post-punk and new wave (sort of) evolved as anti-Rush, anti-prog, anti-big-stage-rock art movements. I think it's perfectly fine to like both. Do I still listen to Rush today? Not really -- I outgrew them, and after Power Windows in 1985 I really never listened to them again, and what I heard I didn't like much.

But now I'm in my 50s, I miss my youth -- whether that youth was me as an 11 year-old playing soccer, a geeky 15 year old with thick glasses, as a partying college senior at 21 interested in Dickens, graduation, drinking and sex, or as a newly-married 27 year-old working a job 12 hours a day. So any and all music from those times still rings my chimes.

If I were listening to this for the first time today, would I like it as much? Probably not. But I'm not. I can't remove it from its time and how much I loved it.

My feeling is: if you're going to splurge on dessert, don't have low-fat frozen yogurt, for fuck's sake -- have something decadent. Something totally indulgent. You know -- like Rush.

I agree - very difficult to separate 'music of your life' on terms of likeability (if that makes sense?)..........

 

[Out on blue 6]

Will give this a spin over the weekend to give it a chance but suspect I'm going to wish I'd listened to 80's Power ballad warbler Jennifer Rush instead.

 

[RobMCFC]

Funny how I brought Rush into the conversation a few pages ago and it's them up next. As noted in my previous comment, Rush are a band I really like - they probably rank somewhere between 8 and 12 on my all-time favourite artists list, yet I don't think any of their albums would be in my top 40 or 50.

I wasn't there from the start and my favourite is album is probably Hold Your Fire - it's no coincidence that this was the first album they released after I got into music. I suspect that those who have been there from the start would pick 2112 or A Farewell To Kings, both of which are fine albums.

In 2007, I was on a flight to Gran Canaria and read an interview with the producer of Snakes & Arrows, which prompted me to buy the album and the Spirit of Radio Greatest Hits 1974-1987 - it's from this point that I have explored and enjoyed their back catalogue and buying some on CD.

Permanent Waves contains a contender for their best song ("The Spirit of Radio") and on this re-listen, "Entre Nous" and "Different Strings" really stood out as well. I love the fact that Neil Pearts lyrics try to do something different and their odd time signatures makes for a good listen. Yet this album is a good example of what I was trying to say in my original comment: for most parts a whole Rush album contains some gems and some tracks that you wouldn't be bothered if you never heard them again.

So, all things considered, it's an 8/10 from me.

Favourite songs:-

1. Spirit of Radio
2. Time Stand Still
3. Tom Sawyer
4. Seven Cities of Gold
5. Closer To The Heart
6. Presto

Favourite Albums:-

1. Hold Your Fire
2. Clockwork Angels
3. 2112
4. Moving Pictures

 

[BimboBob]

I agree - very difficult to separate 'music of your life' on terms of likeability (if that makes sense?)..........

Of course it is. I'm listening to never Trust a Stranger by Kim Wilde at the mo...why? Because it's on a compilation "music of your life" tape. I would never try to justify it to anyone else though as in reality it's a bit shite.

Rush appear to be fantastic musicians. And maybe that's their problem. They don't really have to try. And they don't.

 

[blueparrot]

It's not indugent though is it. The voice whines through song after song. I could be in a lift with the music. It's that dreary.

I also think you big up Rush too much. Didn't really make a dent over here until the 80's chart wise. The new wave, punk etc was a reaction to prog rock in general and tweeness like The Dooleys and not a specific band.

You can like it or hate it we are all different, but punk was great but it came and went in a flash while the bands like Rush they were supposed to wipe out carried selling bucket loads arenas and influencing new bands 40 years later.