"This Canadian power trio, which boasts a vocalist who sounds like a cross between Donald Duck and Robert Plant, reached its pinnacle of success the day it was discovered by
Circus magazine and turned into fanzine wall-decoration material. Rush is to the late Seventies what Grand Funk was to the early Seventies - the power boogie band for the
16 magazine graduating class.
Rush Archives, a reissue of the first LPs, is docked one star for pointlessness." (Alan Niester, 1979 RS Record Guide)
Devoting a whole side of your album to a seven-part suite about the dystopian future of year 2112 (and inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand, no less), was hardly a move likely to endear you to many rock critics in the 1970s, and indeed, Rush received a particularly antagonistic entry in the first edition of the record guide. (Up to this point, RS had not bothered to review any of Rush's albums in the magazine proper.) To be honest, I'm no Rush fanatic myself, and find a lot of what I've heard to be kind of silly (though "Spirit of the Radio"
is a great song). I also suspect that had I first heard them when I was fifteen instead of well into my thirties I might view Rush a little differently now. In any event, I hardly think my viewpoint is of much use to someone that is actually interested in this band. Alan Niester, who clearly despises Rush, makes no attempt to describe their music other than to say that they are a "power boogie band" in the tradition of Grand Funk Railroad - not a particularly helpful analogy. Frankly, it's hard to see how his record guide entry, quoted in its entirety above, was any more help than no review at all. The fact that he docked the band's box set one star for "pointlessness" - which results in a rating of "no stars" - speaks volumes.
Despite Alan Niester's contention that Rush's "pinnacle" occurred when the band was discovered by
Circus magazine, Rush was, in fact, on the cusp of its greatest commercial and critical success when the first edition of the record guide was coming to print.
Permanent Waves, released in 1980, and
Moving Pictures, which came out in 1981, both reached the Top 5 in the United States. By 1983, Rolling Stone had made a complete turnaround on Rush. John Swenson rated
2112 four stars in the second edition of the record guide, writing that "[t]he band's dogged determination to improve finally paid off when their sound and conception suddenly gelled on
2112, a science fiction concept album that stands up favorably against similar efforts by British counterparts."
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