RUSH PRORESSIVE ROCK SUBDUED BY TIME AND MOTION

RUSH in technical terms are a brilliant progressive rock band but the canadian pioneering trio were always a bit too elemental and clinical for my more blues and roots orientated tastes, not that i dont admire some of the greats of progressive rock - like DAVID GILMOUR from PINK FLOYD, MIKE RUTHERFORD from GENESIS and ROBIN TROWER, not forgetting guitarist ALEX LIFESON from RUSH, but it's just that too often than not progressive rock bands got mired in self indulgency and experimentation when they would have been a lot better off recording an album of VAN HALEN covers and having some fun instead.

RUSH to me never sounded better to me than what they did on their debut self titled album 39 years ago, the only album not to feature the lyricist mastermind of the band, NEIL PEART, who replaced the first album drummer JOHN RUTSEY, who amicably parted ways with Lifeson and bassist GEDDY LEE because of his diabetes condition.

The band recorded some great progressive rock tracks during the late 70's and early 80's, the albums SPIRIT OF RADIO and SUBDIVISIONS in the early 80's being two of the band's more commercially assessible albums, but it wasn't until the 1996 album TEST FOR ECHO when RUSH managed to re-capture that power rock thud of yesteryear which they whipped on albums like the debut and CARESS OF STEEL in 1975. Here is my favourite track off TEST FOR ECHO which is actually one of the more atmospheric and less rock heavy ones - it's called TIME AND MOTION.