THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1989-2007

The title here is a bit of a misnomer - the packaging says this boxed set collects seven albums, but really it's six albums plus an EP (Feedback). In any event, it's a one-stop pick to collect all the studio output of the band from their Atlantic Records era. The clamshell box is solid, the albums come in card sleeves (not as nice as the mini LP replicas from the Sector 1, Sector 2, and Sector 3 boxed sets collecting their Mercury Records period, but these albums were from the era of CDs so lavish LP packaging wasn't really part of the order of the day anyway), and a booklet with the lyrics for all the songs bar the cover versions on Feedback.

Of the material collected here, Counterparts, Feedback, and Snakes and Arrows are pretty solid albums, though none of them are classics on the level of Farewell to Kings or Moving Pictures, and whilst Presto, Roll the Bones, and Test For Echo don't quite match the same standard but all have some nice moments to recommend them.

Fortunately, the balance of the collection skews more towards "good" than "OK with some good moments" thanks to the inclusion of the remixed version of Vapor Trails. (Indeed, this box came out at around the same time the remix was also made available separately.) It's often been said that the mix on the original release of Vapor Trails did the album no favours, and the remix proves that to devastating effect, turning a murky album into a pretty damn good one.

Getting seven albums for the price of about two, in a compact space-saving format, is a pretty decent deal. None of the albums here consist of Rush's A-material - but their B-material's still very, very good, and their C-material has enough interesting about it to make me glad to have it. Unless you are a hardliner for whom Rush ends with Hold the Bones (or Grace Under Pressure, or Signals, or Moving Pictures, or...), I would say most Rush listeners could do a lot worse than this set: it's not like many people are going to be clamouring for a super deluxe multi-disc reissue of Presto or something, and this package manages to be cost-effective without feeling outright cheap.