Rush — The Studio Albums 1989-2007
The first disc in the set is 1989’s Presto, and I must admit I have more than a little bit of a soft spot for this album, as it was the first Rush album I ever brought/ heard back in the day when it originally came out. The album offers up eleven tracks in all, and I guess it’s best to describe the album as intelligent AOR with prog sensibilities. The sound through-out the album is characterized by a fairly stripped & moody use of bass & guitar, with an atmospheric & often prevalent use of keyboard textures. Many of the songs here are very memorable, tuneful & approachable in their make-up, so at times they do move towards the more pop side of AOR. But due to the thoughtful & thought provoking lyrics, and the band creative musical compositions the album never becomes bland or throw away, meaning when your in the mood for tuneful yet still creative, & atmospheric & thought provoking music Presto fits perfectly. The pace is also fairly varied through-out too, so you get a nice & blanced album from start to finish.
Next is 1991’s Roll The Bones, and I guess you’d say this album saw the band pushing even further the more tuneful & approachable elements of their sound. The album features ten tracks in all, and once again they sonically present them selves as a mix of stripped & moody guitar ‘n’ bass elements, with a even more pronounced & melodic use of keyboard textures. This album is often quoted as been one of the most accessible Rush albums, and that certainly is the case- but once again it’s saved from been bland or sallow by thoughtful lyrical topics, and progressive tipped composition. Once more the tracks here are fairly varied in pace & type, but on the downside they are sometimes marred by rather dating elements like late 80’s showy 'n' up front bass guitar elements, and a truly cringe inducing ‘rap’ break down on the title track. For the most part it’s another enjoyable & consistent album of tuneful pop prog/ intelligent AOR.
Disc three is taken up by 1993’s Counterparts, and this album saw the band offering up a more guitar based sound. The album featured ten tracks in all, and I guess you’d describe tracks as been a mix of intellectual ‘n’ melodic rock, 1990’s alternative rock, with hints at more metal bound prog, dabs of tuneful AOR, pop prog & the odd strummed/ clear guitar parts. The albums first few tracks are relatively darker & heavy, but fairly soon things move more towards Rush’s more tuneful rock sound. The keyboards have all but been stripped back, or used very minimally & the songs are a lot more guitar & bass riff based. Yet the tracks still manage to remain memorable & moody too, keeping in place that distinctive Rush sound.
On disc four we have 1996’s Test For Echoes, and this saw the band entrench more in the guitar & bass sound of the last album. The album takes in eleven tracks, and really it feels like the band is often on autopilot. Many of the tracks follow predictable Rush compositional patterns, also most of the tracks seem to lack really memorable melodies, and worse of all a few tracks seem to re-hash melody lines & riffs from past Rush tracks. Sadly the whole album just really lacks spark, charm, spirit, and at times it even drifts over into bland FM rock territory.
Onto disc five, and we have 2002’s Vapor Trails, and this I guess is the most problematic of all the albums here. When it was originally released there was great criticism from fans, music writers, and even the band themselves for the overloaded & loud sound of the album. This new version of the album sees the album get remixed, and remastered- but sadly for me this album is still fairly disappointing & lacklustre. It takes in thirteen tracks, and once again it’s very a guitar based album. And it follows the trend of Test For Echoes, with a selection of often energetic but rather bland rock craft, but things are made even worse here by the band even losing their own distinctive edge and at times sounding just like any other predictable & clichéd slightly prog sounding modern rock band with some more metal edges. Yes, the albums mix sounds better & more balanced now, but the album’s tracks themselves still remain rather uninspired & unmemorable.
Disc number six is taken up by 2004’s Feedback, and this offered up a selection of cover songs. The album takes in eight tracks in all, and these are all fairly no- nonsense covers of 1960’s & 1970’s rock & blues/ rock songs. And while none of the covers here are particular earth shakily different from the originals, Rush have put their own turn on the tracks; and also the band seems to have re-found the passion & looseness of their youth. As cover albums go this isn’t bad, with the band choosing a good selection of memorable & fairly varied covers taking in the work of Eddie Cochran, The Yardbirds, Buffalo Springfield, The Who & Love.
Lastly on disc seven we have 2007’s Snakes & Arrows, and really this finally sees the band returning to good & consistent form through-out. The albums thirteen tracks were once again fairly set in a guitar & bass sound, but each track here is both memorable, lined with clever lyrics, and alive with punchy spirit & rewarding compositional twists ‘n’ turns. Sound wise I guess all of the tracks here are a mixture of intellectual ‘n’ melodic rock, pop prog, with the hints odd of metal & alternative rock edges. But most importantly it sounds like Rush, and their firing on all four cylinders too
The seven discs come in a substantial cardboard flip-top box, and this features on it’s front cover a fairly minimal design with the word Rush in grey text over a white background, and underneath this is a line of the album covers reproduced in a rather miniature manner. Flipping over to the back cover and we get a fairly compact mix of the seven covers artwork, and each discs content (there are no extra or bonus tracks here). Each of the albums come in it’s own cardboard slip case which take in each of the albums original back & front cover artwork. Also included is a 40 page booklet, which takes in just the lyrics from each of the seven albums.
As box sets go this is rather lacking in both unreleased tracks, and new written material about the band & the period of time covered on the boxset- with the only extra being the remix of “Vapor Trails”
So to sum-up this box set- it really all depends on where you stand with Rush, if you are a newbie or have had a past passing interest in the bands work, then with a UK retail price of around £20.00 this a great way to pick-up a large clunk of Rush’s back catalogue. But if you more of a hard-core Rush fan, or you enjoy more elaborate & informative box sets you may find the whole thing rather sparse & lacking.