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I completely disagree.

If we par this album down to 9 songs and leave out "tai shan" is would rate for me as their second best album behind the only flawless record i've ever heard, Power Windows.

I absolutely love Open Secrets, Second Nature, Mission, Prime Mover and Lock and Key.

Again, the only song that isn't outstanding is Tai Shan. The rest are amazing and show Rush at the top of their game.

That brings another interesting point to the discussion, what was Rush's game?

During Hold Your Fire, the band was focused on being great producers (the band has co-produced every album) and for me they really achieved that. It was a stark contrast between their earlier periods when they were more focused on being great musicians. They moved on and used those tools to creatre great sounding songs. Later they would focus more on songwriting than performance or production. As a producer myself and engineer, Ilike this period most. I believe even the most overproduced sounds aren't produced enough, so when they slimmed down the emphasis on sounds in favor of being more lean and mean, I thought they suffered for it.

I have to agree with you on all points. Despite big production I've always felt that this was Rush's strongest and most genuine material (if that makes any sense). IMO it captures them at their artistic zenith. This is the only Rush CD that I never tire of from start to finish.
This came out when I was working in a music store. Everyone was so incredibly impressed with it and I really can't remember anyone who didn't like it at the time.

Crazy. Second-best album?! In front of 2112, Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves? Couldn't care less about an album's production, personally, as long as it fits the music, and I suppose you're right that the album's production fits the music here; vapid 80s nonsense with too many keyboards and not enough guitar.

And Power Windows is not a flawless album. My god.

I can't remember how I placed the albums, but here's what I think from a year ago, lst time I rated this sort of thing:

Power Windows - 100
Permanent Waves - 97
Grace Under Pressure - 94
Presto - 94
Hold Your Fire - 93 (without tai shan - somewhere between 95-97)
Moving Pictures - 93
Hemispheres - 90
2112 - 90
Geddy Lee's My Favorite Headache - 88
Signals - 88
Counterparts - 87
Roll The Bones - 87
A Farewell To Kings - 86
Fly By Night - 86
Rush - 85
Snakes and Arrows - 83
Test For Echo - 83
Caress Of Steel - 82
Vapor Trails - 80

I also agree with Adveser, Power windows is my fav Rush album and this one comes second, i even like Tai Shan though you have to be addicted to cheese to enjoy that one (but hey, if you can digest "The Trees" you can also digest this).

What i like about these albums is that they reflect a period were Rush's songwriting is much more polished and thought out, no boring Lifeson atempting to shred, no Geddy Lee's anoying 70's pitchy screams, no 10 min tracks for the sake of sucking up to the progheads, amazing clean sounding bass lines, everything is about the songs and sucking up to a mainstream audience ... wich is good cause i like it!

As for this album, the highlights are the great opener Force Ten, Open Secrets (because of all those amazing synth chords) ... and then Prime Mover and Lock and Key are the high points (Geddy really shines on bass here), the two songs that for me are so-so are Turn the page and High Waters.

But a huge thanx to you Zadok for all the work reviewing all these Rush albums! Hope to see a review for Roll the Bones soon.

Cheers, hopefully it'll be done for the next update. As y'all have probably gleaned, I'm looking at Rush as a proghead fan of the 70s period primarily, y'know, 'shredding', etc... I do try and be fair, though. It comes down to whether I like the songs or not, as ever. Still not sure how Power Windows is better than, even Grace Under Pressure, but then I've heard all about you crazy Rush fans...

I tend to agree with the scores on this period. I do like 80s pop having grown up in that decade .. but I always enjoyed the catchier stuff like Honeymoon Suite. Rush's take on it by this point was, for the most part, well, boring.

I totally agree with both you guys.
Hold Your Fire is second only to Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures in my book and Power Windows is a close follower.

This review is just WRONG!

My RUSH list

01 - Moving Pictures 99/100
02 - Permanent Waves 98/100
03 - Hold Your Fire 97/100
04 - Hemispheres 96/100
05 - Power Windows 95/100
06 - A Farewell To Kings 92/100
07 - Rush 88/100
08 - 2112 86/100
09 - Carress Of Steel 82/100
10 - Fly By Night 80/100
11 - Roll The Bones 75/100
12 - Grace Under Pressure 72/100
13 - Counterparts 70/100
14 - Presto 68/100
15 - Snakes And Arrows 62/100
16 - Test For Echo 55/100
17 - Vaport Trails 49/100
18 - Signals 47/100

Power Windows above A Farewell To Kings?! Caress Of Steel above Snakes And Arrows?! Rush above 2112?! Sheer madness, sir.

Taste... It's all about taste dear reviewer...

I'd be curious to see your list btw.

http://www.metalreviews.com/reviews/artist.php3?id=770



I'd give A Farewell To Kings classic (100) and Hemispheres 90-something. Snakes And Arrows gets 89 and Vapor Trails 87.

I like that list. Where are you guys getting these numbers though? I average the song ratings to get mine so the window is pretty narrow.

Example:

1 album has a score of 100
about 20 albums have scores between 90-99
around 400 albums have scores between 65-90
around 5 albums scored below a 65
no albums have scored below a 60

I use a more algebraic scale than the linear scale MR prefers. For example, you guys give an album a 20/100 if its 20% good and 80% mediocre. I'd give that album around a 60-70

I don't think any album deserves a perfect score as no album is perfect... So 99 is as good as it gets. Then I let the feelings speak.

Power Windows is perfect. Other than that...no