We’re at the moment within the throes of fairly sudden Rushmania.
The Canadian group’s present Fifty One thing Tour is one thing few, if anyone, noticed coming after the 2020 passing of drummer Neil Peart appeared to place the band completely on ice.
And it is lifted off in a way we additionally could not have anticipated, with its altering set lists, the return of deep and uncommon alternatives, and full-album shows. And positively any skepticism about Anika Nilles’ means to fill the Peart void has been vanquished — though some Jeff Beck followers might have instructed us that may be the case earlier than the tour even began.
There is not any concrete speak of latest recording but, however there is definitely a considerable physique of labor Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are drawing from — 19 studio albums recorded over the course of 38 years, and a variety of approaches the trio utilized its explicit mix of exhausting rock, prog and metallic.
There’s the uncooked assault of 1974’s Rush, in fact (Its lone album with unique drummer John Rutsey) and the high-concept daring of the primary sides of 2112 and Hemispheres, the lean(er) ‘n’ imply(er) alchemy of Everlasting Waves and Transferring Photos and the plush orchestrations of Clockwork Angels. And lots of factors in-between, in fact.
All the catalog has confirmed to be honest sport for the present incarnation of Rush is drawing from all of them, save for 1975’s Caress of Metal, pointedly not a favourite of Lee’s.
In order that opens the dialogue of which amongst them is Rush’s Massive 4, the albums that greatest outline the band — normally by taking the music in daring new instructions.
Any true Rush fan will contend that they every have virtues, however we’re rolling the bones right here and saying these are the 4 that stand above all others:
Fly By Evening (1975)
Rush rocked in 1974, however the addition of Peart throughout July of that 12 months (on Lee’s twenty first birthday), in addition to longtime producer Terry Brown, marks Rush’s actual arrival and establishes the group’s bearings for the long run.
There’s nonetheless a little bit of discovering their method occurring on this sophomore set, however Peart brings a extra refined lyricism and musical sensibility that matched his bandmates’ ambitions. The Ayn Rand-influenced “Anthem” encompasses a guitar solo that also holds up as one in all Lifeson’s most interesting, and he demonstrates acumen on the slide throughout “Making Recollections.”
The showpiece “By-Tor and the Snow Canine” introduces a suite-like conceptual prowess the trio pursued all through the remainder of its time collectively, and there is crunchy rock in “Finest I Can,” the Zeppy “Beneath, between & Behind” and the title monitor. The perfect is but to return, in fact, however Fly By Evening holds up properly greater than 50 years later.
2112 (1976)
The title “monitor” from Rush’s fourth studio album just isn’t its first side-long epic, however it definitely makes Caress of Metal‘s “The Fountain of Lamneth” sound like follow.
Lee, Lifeson and Peart spend greater than 20 minutes telling a grand sci-fi story drawn from Rand philosophies, together with biblical references (“and the meek shall inherit the earth”) and even a quick little bit of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
The “Overture/The Temples of Syrinx” opening has been such a staple of Rush’s reside repertoire that it is generally straightforward to overlook how thrilling the remainder of the suite is — and the identical might be stated for Aspect Two, significantly “A Passage to Bangkok,” “The Twilight Zone” and “One thing For Nothing.”
It is Rush’s first platinum album within the U.S. (now triple-platinum) and its first High 5 entry on the Canadian charts. We also needs to observe that, given the present state of the world, what Peart described occurring in 2062 and 2112 — simply 36 and 76 years away — just isn’t out of the realm of chance.
A Farewell to Kings (1977)
There’s development throughout on this follow-up to 1976’s reside All of the World’s a Stage, which drew Rush’s first period to a sort of finish. The trio and producer Terry Brown headed abroad this time, to famed Rockfield Studios in Wales and expanded its sonic arsenal.
It is not the primary time Rush employed synthesizers, however Lee’s use of the Mini Moog is extra pronounced — from the get-go on the title monitor, the truth is — as are Lifeson’s acoustic touches, which embody classical guitars in spots.
And Peart clearly did somewhat procuring to additional bulk up his percussion set-up. A Farewell to Kings is important if just for the majestic “Xanadu,” at the moment the Fifty One thing Tour’s opener, however all the things else is uniformly excellent, and “Nearer to the Coronary heart” grew to become Rush’s largest “hit” to that time.
Then there’s “Cygnus X-1 Ebook 1: The Voyage,” the prelude to the following sci-fi epic that surfaces on Hemispheres 14 months later.
Transferring Photos (1981)
Rush and Brown established a recent, leaner-sounding template on 1980’s Everlasting Waves and make it even higher on Transferring Photos, its second go to to Le Studio in Quebec, the place the group would additionally report 1982’s Alerts and 1984’s Grace Underneath Stress.
“Tom Sawyer” opens the album as an announcement of intent, undeniably accessible whereas nonetheless flexing loads of chops — that center part particularly, with Peart’s livid drum fills.
It units a excessive bar that Rush definitely matches all through, from the equally hit-worthy “Limelight” (which truly landed 4 spots greater on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and 6 greater in Canada) to the instrumental fireworks of “YYZ,” the two-part “The Digital camera Eye” and the textural add-ons in “Witch Hunt” and “Very important Indicators.”
And “Purple Barchetta” makes Ferrari followers out of us all. At five-times platinum Transferring Photos remains to be Rush’s deserved best-seller, and it is so good to see it being performed front-to-back this 12 months.
Learn Extra: How ‘Transferring Photos’ Turned Rush’s Most Tune-Targeted Album
Rush Opening Evening 2026 Photograph Gallery
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson carried out their first present collectively in 11 years.
