RUSH

Ok, Ok, we all know that Neal Peart must be drumming for Rush to make a PROGRESSIVE masterpiece blah, blah, blah. I think people fail to realize that Rush's self-titled debut album was one of their best in terms of musical agreement. Rush was and should have stayed a harder, Zeppelin-styled group, as their first album shows that this kind of music is their strong point. "Finding My Way" starts off the album with a flurry of riffs and some very underrated drumming, and Geddy's voice is at it's peak on this whole album. Mostly every other song on this album is in the hard rock vein, which means Alex is slashing like a maniac the whole entire time, and producing some excellent results. "In The Mood" and "Need Some Love" are some of the most intriguing riffs to come out of the era.

Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a straight hard-rock album. "Here Again" and the beginning of "Before And After" feature some excellent progressive tones, but as expected, in the middle of "Before And After" a bomb drops and the rocking starts up again at some of its finest points. Geddy's bass lines might not be in the spotlight here, as Alex's playing was at the most exhilarating of his career, but they are still impeccable. "Working Man" is the album closer, and it is one of Rush's most accessible songs for progressive fans, because of its awesome ending. Plus, you cant beat Geddy's bass work at around 2- 3 minutes into the song. Every progger in the world may hate this fact, but I'm 100% sure they know that John Rutsey worked his butt off on this album and would have made some fine music with Rush had he stayed on board.

This album was a hard one to pick a rating for, because of it's peculiar song arrangement. Three hard rock songs are split up by a progressive song, and then two hard rock songs get split by a progressive opening and a hard rock ending. I would have much preferred to see "Working Man" and "Before And After" switched around. I feel that the starting and stopping breaks up the groove of the album, therefore I like to think of this not as a masterpiece of an album, but as a compilation of 8 individual masterpieces. It does not flow well enough to be a masterpiece, therefore it can only get 4 stars from me. Rush's best work!