Rush — Moving Pictures
The album features seven tracks in all and comes in at just over the forty minute mark. Included here are stone cold classics like “Tom Sawyer”, Red Barchetta" and “Limelight”, but really all of the seven tracks of classics in there own right. I wont go onto dissect and discuss each song on offer here as it’s been done 1000’s of times before by journalist, fans and music historians...and I don’t think I can really add much more to what’s already been written about the album. As I said in my opening paragraph it’s the near perfect album mixing together memorable & technical precise song craft with a considered & clever mixture of prog rock/ metal guitars, atmospheric & melodic synth textures, and of course Geddy Lee’s instantly recognizable wordy and high register vocals. The album flows perfect from one track to the next, and there’s a nice mix of pace of track too. The audio album has been digitally premastered, so it now possesses an nice urgent and detailed mix where ever element of the songs can heard clearly.
The second disc features a 5.1 surround mix of the album, a selection of band photographs from the time, and three videos from the time. First up we have the video for “Tom Sawyer” and it sees the band in a snow surround log cabin practice space. With Cheddy Lee jumping from doing just vocals, just playing the Bass, and just the keyboards- clever stuff!. “Limelights” sees a mixture of live stage footage and more shots from the snow bound practice space which features a nice three way split screen moment. And lastly we have the video for “Vital Signs” , which is shown here for the first time- it starts out with a pulsing blue medical screen keeping time with the tracks opening keyboard riff. As the track goes on we get footage of the band once more in the now darkness surrounded snow bound practice space, mixing desk footage, and more of the blue electro tinged medical screen footage.
Finishing off the set we have the thirty page booklet which features pictures of the band from the time, full lyrics, production listing and a five page piece by David Fricke discussing the album & the bands surprise at the time when it became such a big hit.
So a worthy if not really extras bulging reissue of this classic 80’s prog rock/ intelligent pop rock album. It’s certainly worth picking-up if you never heard any Rush before as this stands as one of their great albums, and it's a great starting point for newbie’s. If you already own this, but it’s a old worn vinyl or tape version then this is worth picking up too. But if you picked the 1997 remastered edition of this there’s not really much to attached you to this package as a collector beyond the three videos & the 5.1 surround mix.