FEEDBACK

30 years after releasing their first album, instead of releasing an overly expensive box set, Rush releases an inexpensive EP full of covers that were influences on their music that you could almost imagine them singing and playing in their pre album days. Rush doesn't try to make any of these songs progressive and don't try to upstage any of the songs either. But, they are presented quite hard which is what you would expect from Rush. What they ended up with is a nice collection of songs that the band shows their utmost respect for.

I was afraid when I first saw this album and thought surely Rush has not slipped to the same level as other mature bands that can only make it off of covers nowadays. But, thankfully that wasn't the case. Curiosity made me buy this one, but enjoyment of the covers made me keep it around. No there is not anything spectacular here, and that is quite okay because it is enough just to hear their treatment of these classics. The best covers here are "Summertime Blues" which actually gives the song the kick it always asked for, "Mr. Soul" which actually does make an old favorite of mine even better (and the riff is so much better pronounced in their cover), "Seven and Seven is" is so much better modernized in this version and of course "Crossroads" is made into a great Rush song and is probably the closest thing to Rush's debut album than anything they have done since.

Nope, there is no prog rock here. Just great covers of songs that have been given all the respect they deserve. I'm glad this on is only 27 minutes, it is the perfect time for a cover album of this type. No it's not essential, but it is a lot of fun anyway. 3 stars.