RUSH

The debut album by my all-time favorite band in the world. This album is the only Rush album to not have Neil Peart on drums, but John Rutsey does an admirable job in the drum seat. As the story goes, when a Cleveland, Ohio radio station first played Working Man, the radio station and local records stores were inundated for requests for the new Led Zeppelin song and record. Which is quite a compliment given the greatness of Led Zeppelin. My initial feelings on this CD were that it was quite different from the Rush that I had gotten to know and love. It is more straight ahead rock and roll or hard rock in the vein of classic bands such as Cream and Led Zeppelin. Funny enough it didn't really grow on me until years later when they dusted off tracks like Working Man and played them live. I pretty much enjoy all of the songs on the album with my favorites being Finding My Way, In The Mood, What You're Doing, and Working Man. Tracks such as Before and After start off with a nice instrumental which foreshadows a direction that Rush would head towards musically in the future. And even with this debut you can see that Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson knew how to play their bass guitar and lead guitar with skill.

Being that Rush are my favorite band, I have listened to this debut album far more often than a non-fan or casual listener might want to listen to it. With all of these listens I have developed a familiarity and comfort with all of these songs and they are somewhat special to me as they are the beginnings of the greatness that is Rush.

Read my review as you will, and take it with a grain of salt knowing that it comes from a Rush fanboy. This album could rate anywhere from 2 to 4 stars depending on your point of view. For most, it probably is only a 2 star album that only Rush fans would like. Quite frankly, it also could be a 4 star album, as I feel that it is an essential addition to my collection and to any Rush fans collection. But this review is for what I think of as the traditional prog rock fan and for that I think this album is better than a fan only release. Therefore, I am giving it 3 stars because I find it to be quite good, but for the traditional prog fan, it isn't essential.