[Variant]

Big Rush fan here... 'Hold Your Fire' was one of the first albums I ever purchased. 'Counterparts' is amongst their best works, IMHO. Strangely enough though, my favorite "Rush" foray is Lifeson's 'Victor' solo album. Wonderfully diverse, with some brilliant and creative stuff on there. I often wonder why he didn't follow it up with anything.

[BCrowell]

What I like most about RUSH, is each album has a different flavor. Each of the instruments has come in and out of the forefront over the years. Sometimes Alex is prominent, other times lost within the keyboards.

My favorite album at any given time, is usually dependent on my curren palete. When I'm heavy into keys, "Hold Your Fire". When I feel like good fun rock'n'roll then it's classic RUSH, then "Fly by Night", "2112", "Snakes & Arrows".

When I want a nice mix it's been the 90s stuff: "Roll the bones", "Counterparts", and "Test for Echo".

When I TRUELY wanted to determine which album is truely my favorite, I went to my iPOD....it's 4GB so only my 5star ratings sync on it. Thus whichever album I had the most tunes is my fav...and YES I do have at least 1 song from EVERY album... and the winner is...

#1 - COUNTERPARTS! HOLY CRAP! I didn't even realize! Well there ya have it, I obviously 100% agree with this thread! Wins at 7 songs! I thought it would be "Roll the bones", but it fell below

#2 Tie between - "Hold Your Fire" & "Roll the Bones" @6 songs each
#3 Tie between - "Test for Echo" & "Signals" @4 songs each

I agree Lerxst's Victor, and Geddy's "My favorite Headache" are also good albums!

[F1Filter]

Originally Posted by Variant

Strangely enough though, my favorite "Rush" foray is Lifeson's 'Victor' solo album. Wonderfully diverse, with some brilliant and creative stuff on there. I often wonder why he didn't follow it up with anything.

A big +1 on this. Victor is such an underrated and often overlooked album. Even by some diehard Rush fans I know. I think part of the reason is because of it's diversity. Tracks on there like "Shut Up Shuttin Up" and the title track probably left a more than a few listeners scratching their heads.

Both "Mr. X" and "Strip And Go Naked" are amazing instrumentals.

[YYZ2112]

Originally Posted by jacksonplayer

You don't like the new one?

At first I really tought I liked it, but as time has passed my feelings on the new one have become less and less. I think I almost had to force myself to like it and I think I even posted a thread on here saying how much I liked it. I don't know.... Rush just isn't Rush anymore IMO.
I love the fact that every three or so albums they change things up a little, but I just feel the last couple albums have been missing something. I think it's great that Rush can still sell out arenas and be a world wide touring band after 30 years, I just wish the new stuff had some of that magic from the 70's and 80's.

Yet they're still my favorite band ever.

[Lee]

I think the new one still has the unbelievable creativity of anything Rush touches, and their new one just seems to be a continuation of that. When I saw them in Charlotte this year, I was astounded how seamlessly they could pull off the various sounds of their new album, like Alex switching between a 12 string acoustic and his Les Paul mid-song. They've still got it, and then some, in my opinion.

[MerlinTKD]

Counterparts is my 2nd favorite Rush album, after Moving Pictures. According to Neal, they really focused on groove over technicality with this release, and that's something I dearly love. Also, the drums were recorded a lot "hotter" than in the past, more signal and more 'air' around it... which is also something I dearly love.

I have every Rush release, and IMO Counterparts was the best Rush since Moving Pictures, and the best until Snakes & Arrows.

[jacksonplayer]

Originally Posted by YYZ2112

At first I really tought I liked it, but as time has passed my feelings on the new one have become less and less. I think I almost had to force myself to like it and I think I even posted a thread on here saying how much I liked it. I don't know.... Rush just isn't Rush anymore IMO.

It took me awhile to warm up to Snakes & Arrows, but then somehow everything clicked. I used to listen to nothing but Rush many years ago and kinda burned out on them, so it took awhile to get back into that mode.

I never did warm up to Vapor Trails.

[BCrowell]

Originally Posted by jacksonplayer

It took me awhile to warm up to Snakes & Arrows, but then somehow everything clicked.

I never did warm up to Vapor Trails.

+1 on both comments... I really like S&A now, and I agree that tour this year was MFA! They were clickin' like I haven't seen in YEARS!

Vapor still hasn't grown on me...I think "Ghost Rider" is the only track I really like allot...maybe one other one that I can't recal the name of.