What are your top 5 Rush albums.

[armybass]

I have been a fan since 82 but I am building my iTunes library and have most of the new stuff but am going back for the pre Moving Pictures stuff that I am not as familiar with.


Anyway..... I am asking the serious Rush fans what are your top 5 Rush albums in order. If you are a serious, serious Rush fan....please feel free to list your top 10!

[Darth Handsome]

I like FBN, 2112, Caress of Steel & Hemispheres equally.

[grinx]

2112
Grace Under Pressure
Subdivisions
Hemispheres
Fly By Night

[plankspanker13]

Chronological order, not order of personal favor, with the emphasis being on the pre-Moving Pictures era:

Caress of Steel
All the World's a Stage
A Farewell to Kings
Hemispheres
Permanent Waves

Notice what's missing, in my list, above. 2112 is considered a holy grail to many. I much prefer the truncated version of the epic, found on ATWAS, and don't particularly care for the rest of the album's tracks that much, in comparison to the rest of the band's late 70's catalog. Similarly, all of the tracks that I enjoy the most from Fly By Night are on ATWAS, and "By-Tor" in particular is a ferocious performance (despite the apparent overdubs of the "battle groans," which were done on a P-bass, in the studio recording).

Let's face it; "Moving Pictures" will always be considered the band's most definitive album; even Neil has written that it was the album that they had always been wanting to make. Sure, subsequent works have had moments that equal, or even surpass "Pictures," but not over an entire album. IMHO, "Snakes and Arrows" came the closest to being MP-like, in terms of being a consistent, hermetic piece of work.

[tk4207]

1. Power Windows
2. Grace Under Pressure
3. Snakes & Arrows
4. Counterparts
5. Moving Pictures

[ghunter]

They come in "threes" so a top five is a little difficult. You'll end up buying all of them, let's face it

(With that said, I really don't care for the the first three albums)

[Definitely]

HEMISPHERES first and foremost!
2112
Fly By Night
AFTK

After that it's basically a tie for Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Signals, and P/G. I don't have much experience with Caress of Steel so I can't offer much input, but other than that I am a die hard Rush fan....except I hate almost everything after 1985.... I find the epics and more raw 70's material to be the best, that's why Hemispheres is my favourite. Cygnus Book II and La Villa are just brilliant.

[LowEndMan2112]

1. A Farewell to Kings (biased as this was my intro to Rush)
2. 2112
3. Hemispheres
4. Moving Pictures
5. Snakes and Arrows

I'm a sucker for the period where Rush were the kings of concept albums, long songs and the epic lyrics Neil penned.

[EagleMoon]

Hemispheres, A Farewell To Kings, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Snakes And Arrows, 2112, Fly By Night, Signals, Roll The Bones, Counterparts

I also for a long time couldn't get into the post-Signals stuff. When Geddy changed his playing style I think the music suffered. I listen to it now though and really like a lot of it. So much of it was such a departure from their progressive rock roots. I've always thought of Rush being a bass/drums focused group with a bit of guitar/keyboards thrown in.

[Nev375]

This is impossible for me to answer. I like them all in one way or another and my preference between songs and albums is ever evolving.

I'm not really sure what the point of determining the best X of anything is. Maybe if I did, I could formulate a more definitive answer, but I doubt it.

[lijazz]

1. Hemispheres
2. Counterparts
3. Power Windows
4. Permanenent Waves
5. Exit Stage Left

...and then all the rest!!

[electracoyote]

RUSH (S/T)
Fly By Night
2112
Farewell
Moving Pictures

[handofseven]

My choices are chronological, over the period their music had the greatest impact on me. I enjoy listening to all these albums, front to back, without skipping tracks:

Hemispheres
Permanent Waves
Moving Pictures
Signals
Grace Under Pressure

[Belar2001]

Hemispheres, Exit Stage Left (Live), Rush in RIO (Live), Roll the Bones, Caress of Steel.

[Duke21]

2112
Moving pictures
Grace under pressure
Farewell to kings
Hold your fire

[Thundar]

Kudos to Ms. Moon for throwing Roll The Bones in there!

Here are mine:

Grace Under Pressure
2112
Moving Pictures
Fly By Night
Signals

[stratovani]

I like all Rush albums, so choosing just five is a very difficult thing for me to do. I'll go by which albums I've listened to a lot recently. They are:

1. Presto
2. Hold Your Fire
3. Signals
4. Grace Under Pressure
5. Counterparts

I like their 80s and 90s music. It's not that I don't like their 70s music, but their 80s music seems more texturally dense to me.

Tomorrow I'll have a completely different list!

[Webtroll]

(skipping live albums as they are best of collections)

Permanent Waves
Moving Pictures
Counterparts
Fly By Night
Grace Under Pressure

[armybass]

OK, I forgot to mention that my absolute favorite is Presto...... I do not think I have seen anyone ever emtnion that as a favorite Rush album or even Top 10.

I started listening to Rush when MP came out. I have had MP and several other albums after MP and am a huge fan of Snakes and Arrows....but my knowledge of anything pre MP is very limited.

I am really surprised but not shocked to see how many die hard Rush fans pick Hemispheres over MP.

I think the next three I will get will be

2112, AFTK and Hemispheres

[armybass]

Originally Posted by stratovani

I like all Rush albums, so choosing just five is a very difficult thing for me to do. I'll go by which albums I've listened to a lot recently. They are:

1. Presto
2. Hold Your Fire
3. Signals
4. Grace Under Pressure
5. Counterparts

I like their 80s and 90s music. It's not that I don't like their 70s music, but their 80s music seems more texturally dense to me.

Tomorrow I'll have a completely different list!

I stand corrected....LOL