RUSH Discography: Part Two

14. 2112 ( 3.0 )

13. Counterparts ( 3.5 )

12. Power Windows ( 3.5 )

11. RUSH ( 3.5 )

10. Fly By Night ( 3.5 )

     I'm not a strong proponent of rating albums. My personal policy is when rating a discography I rate the albums against the other releases in the band's catalog. When I look at my scores for these RUSH albums, they seem harsh. I love this band. Why are these ratings so low? I'm trying to rank them by the standards of the band. It's possible these scores could be higher if they were compared to other releases from the same year. For the purposes of this exercise, I will have to live with these ratings.

     I posted about 2112 back in the day. I'm that guy who loves the Side One 2112 epic and dislikes all of Side Two. Nothing has changed there. However, Side One was RUSH's greatest achievement to that point in their career. It is a masterpiece and bought the band its artistic freedom from the label. It's arguably the most important record in their catalog. I personally own multiple formats of 2112. I still can't stand Side Two. 

     The only time I've ever gone to a midnight release was to buy Counterparts. The midnight release was actually for Pearl Jam's Vs., but Counterparts also came out the same day. At this point, RUSH was trying to Grunge their sound up, so I guess that was appropriate. I rarely listen to Counterparts, but it's my favorite of the 90's era. "Between Sun and Moon" is one of the best deep cuts in their discography. Musically, it's a strong album, but the songwriting isn't stellar. 

     The most difficult RUSH album to assess is Power Windows. I remember being disappointed when it came out. The lead single was "Big Money". It's a good track, but still too keyboard heavy. My favorite track is another deep cut, "Middletown Dreams". While I've warmed to Power Windows over the years, it was a divisive period for the band. They took almost as much in-coming for the mullets and skinny ties as they did for the kimonos. I'm solidly on Team Lifeson when it comes to the place of guitars and keyboards in RUSH. However, Geddy Lee is an immensely talented musical visionary and who am I to begrudge him exploring synths. After all, it was 1985 and keyboards ruled music. Even Eddie Van Halen was seduced. 

     I struggled with numbers 10 and 11. Part of me likes the Led Zeppelin influence on the debut more than Fly By Night's prog rock beginnings. In the end (pun intended), I couldn't rank the album that didn't have Neil Peart on it over the first album he appeared on. It seems blasphemous. So I didn't. That's not very objective, but music is a subjective topic. Peace.