Rush Album Ranking Discussion Part 4 - "Final" Rush Album Rankings

Part 4 of our look at the Rush discography has Brent, Brian, Josh, and honorary Underlord John sharing their overall, final rankings of the Rush albums. After three previous episodes where they divided the Rush catalog into eras, they aggregated their data from their rankings for an average for each album, and created a master ranking of the Rush catalog. This process produced some real surprises!
1:33 Trends and surprises in the Rush catalog using our system
9:54 Individual rankings of the Rush albums
18:44 Follow-up discussion
25:48 Aggregated Rush master ranking
30:03 Final discussion
Rush Album Ranking Discussion Part 1 - Rush through Hemispheres
• Rush Album Ranking Dis...
Rush Album Ranking Discussion Part 2 - Permanent Waves through Hold Your Fire
• Rush Album Ranking Dis...
Rush Album Ranking Discussion Part 3 - Presto through Clockwork Angels
• Rush Album Ranking Dis...
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[@NadirJones71]

Oh boy! This is gonna be hard!!!
19--Test For Echo
18--Presto
17--Roll The Bones
16--Clockwork Angels
15--Snakes And Arrows
14--Counterparts
13--Hold Your Fire
12--Rush
11--Vapor Trails
10--Permanent Waves
9--Fly By Night
8--Signals
7--Grace Under Pressure
6--A Farewell To Kings
5--Hemispheres
4--Caress Of Steel
3--Moving Pictures
2--Power Windows
1--2112
0--More Or Less
Thank you so much Underlords for your wonderful ranking and also taking the time to explain your system and also the tantalising mention from Brian about your former system that takes into consideration track timings.....which takes way too much time! I bet it does! Someone needs to invent an app for that.
It was great to see Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows so high on your list. Quite a surprise to see 2112 outside the top 10 but like John said....it only has 6 songs and one or two poor rankings can tank an album. 2112 comes out top for me. I didn't apply your system but the 'big four', Kings to Pictures all have sketchy patches for me. Kings--big songs better than small songs. Hemispheres--title track loses its way. Permanent Waves--I admire it but for some reason can't love it. Moving Pictures--peak Rush but last 2 songs less so. 2112 is just so consistently good for me. It's full of magic and wonder and atmosphere and damned good songs! Side one AND two. Also nice to see Caress Of Steel's ongoing upward reappraisal!
Also chaps I'm right there with you with Alex-love! I wasn't really aware that he was less respected than the others. He's always been one of my favourite guitarists. Just extremely tasteful. I love how he's playing 80's chords in the mid 70's. A very fresh approach. There's this weird narrative in that big documentary that Geddy fucks up Rush in the 80's with synths and the hero Alex swoops in with his guitars in the 90's and saves them. I don't but it but hey, documentary makers like a good story....as if they haven't already got one! No the Rush story is more interesting than that. It's the story of three friends creating something way bigger than their individual (considerable) talents and constantly pushing forward and if you take any element away it simply wont work. Josh rightly points out that the synths made Alex find a new way to write/play and what a job he does.
And these rankings have also made me think that Rush are a band of great moments. Like the end of the Red Barchetta solo that Brian points out....or Josh pointed out to him. That upwards run! Wow! The majestic twin pealing guitars under By-Tor fighting the Snow Dog from 2.55-3.05...spine tingling! The much heavier twin guitars that pummel you into submission just before the triumphant return of the prince on the next album. That amazing synth eruption that just disintegrates near the beginning of Territories and just who is that exclaiming in an English accent 'it's true!' in Red Lenses?.....there are thousands of 'moments' all over Rush. We all have our own treasured Rush moments. They had the formula. They new how to do it.
Yeah, this has been a real joy. I enjoyed going on the journey with you fellows. It's been emotional! Thank you all.

[@TroyChurch313]

What an interesting way to rank albums - with a few surprises. Keep doing cool things!

[@underlordsuniverse7823]

We noticed that most channels that rate or rank albums never really employ a system to quantify that which is inherently qualitative. So we came up with a rubric for rating albums. We should probably explain it more thoroughly, but we also figure nobody really cares about the method, so we just sort of mention it in passing.

[@badvinyl4531]

Waiting for the live Rush album rankings now!!

[@underlordsuniverse7823]

We're working on a system to apply to live albums! What's your favorite live Rush album? I think I might say Snakes and Arrows Live is mine, but... is it?

[@badvinyl4531]

Always enjoyed the Rush in Rio and Exit Stage Left. 2 live albums I rate high as some of my fave live albums of all time.

[@underlordsuniverse7823]

@@badvinyl4531 I always loved side 3 of Exit ... Stage Left. Broon's Bane, The Trees and Xanadu all running together in that sequence is magic.

[@underlordsuniverse7823]

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