RUSH

Humble beginnings for a band that would go on to progress at a staggering rate. 'Rush' is the culmination of the band's years as a club act in their Canadian homeland, mirroring their influences quite clearly. 8 songs with a distinct Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer and Cream flavor, emphasis on the Zeppelin! If you judge it against the band's future output, it won't hold up. If you judge it as an early '70s hard rock album, which is exactly what it is, it still comes up as somewhat average. It is certainly toppled by prime albums from Dust, Bang, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Sir Lord Baltimore and others of that ilk.

"What You're Doing" and "Working Man" kick huge amounts of ass, while "Here Again" and "Before And After" foreshadow the more textured elements the band would use more of in the future. "Take A Friend" is just a really nice song with great momentum that I find hard to dislike. "In The Mood" is the only glaringly bad spot, there's just no reason for boogiefied bar-rock like this to exist.

'Rush' was the world's introduction to Geddy Lee's otherworldly screech and Alex Lifeson's expert guitar work, and with some pretty big grooves on offer, it provides some good listening occasionally.