RUSH

Rush

Heavy Prog

2.95 | 1236 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

The end of a wonderful friendship!

The above is intended to relate primarily to drummer John Rutsey's brief time with the band which, in album terms, is covered by this their debut release. It also however refers to the fact that I will be turning my attention to some of the albums of Rush in my forthcoming reviews!

"Rush" is first and foremost a hard rocking, blues driven album. There is little here which could by any stretch of imagination be called complex or challenging. What there is however is a collection of high quality performances and the sound of a band playing well within themselves.

Geddy Lee's vocals are something of an acquired taste, the high pitched John Anderson range keys making the band sound like Led Zeppelin on helium. Indeed, we may as well get those Zep similarities out of the way now, as there is no doubt about their presence here. To be fair, they are more apparent on some tracks such as "What you're doing" (which reminds me of "Heartbreaker" from LZ's second album) than others. Alex Lifeson's guitar riffs can be very reminiscent of those of Jimmy Page, as can his lead guitar solos.

Each side has a 7 minute feature track. "Here again" is a slower reflective number, the guitar inflections and melancholy vocal emphasising the blues side of the band. "Working man" also starts out as a slower piece of heavy rock before Lifeson lifts the pace with a storming guitar solo reminiscent of one of Alvin Lee's finer (Woodstock) moments. Those who enjoy unadulterated, straightforward guitar soloing should give this one a try.

As debut albums go, "Rush" has a lot going for it. OK, it's not exactly prog, but it is a high quality heavy rock album.

Easy Livin | 3/5 | 2007-5-22

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