ICON

Just when you thought there were enough compilations from this band...

While unexpected, this career summary delivers nothing new to Rush's discography and has nothing unique going for it. As part of Universal's new line of budget releases, this gives a pretty decent overview of the sort of material that this great band has covered up to the 'Hold Your Fire' record. The compilation's saving grace is that it delivers a pretty varied catalogue of songs. Radio friendly, familiar tracks like 'Closer To The Heart' share discspace with longer, more involving pieces such as 'The Necromancer,' a track I never thought would be seen on a budget compilation.

Unless you count the uninteresting packaging, 'Icon' delivers nothing new. The music here is great, and there does seem to be some sort of effort to provide a sense of flow to the tracks. As it stands however, unless someone is completely new to this band and looking for a cheap way to get into Rush, this is better to steer clear from.

The Rush brand is getting more and more sullied and watered out with pointless compilation albums. This one is a low price compilation album and it has one big asset: The Necromancer from the often neglected Caress Of Steel album. The rest of the songs are the usual suspects anyone can put together at their sleep. Actually, the collection of songs are pretty bad. The omission of some truly great songs from this album here are quite astonishing and that even within the framework of an album which only goes up to the Hold Your Fire album. It feels more like Rush is fielding their reserve team on this album.

The Necromancer is a welcome addition and a timely reminder that I should give Caress Of Steel more time. The rest of this compilation album is boring and uninspired, filled with songs I know forwards & backwards. The only saving grace is the low price and the possibility that someone may be turned into becoming Rush fans by it when they get this album as Christmas presents. For the rest of us; avoid.

2 stars

Okay, the burning question is why oh why do we need another compilation from Rush? Surely the market has been satiatiated enough with the Rush product. There is nothing unique or unreleased on offer and unless you have nothing from the band and want a budget CD as a gift, the Cd is obsolete. If I received it as a gift it would look nice in my collection but I would never need to play it. Rush are a brilliant powerhouse band but enough already with the compilations!

Surely a live album or at least some outtake tracks or demos would have been better than the same old tracks every true Rush fan would have. The packaging is nothing special though it has one thing going for it. The title! Rush are indeed worthy of the label "icon"! Rush newbies? Just go buy Farewell to Kings, 2112, Hemispheres, Moving Pictures, and Permanent Waves. Don't waste money on these budget comps.