s e a n

This album should serve as an inspiration to all of us. No matter how inauspicious your debut, you can still accomplish great things. This is the only album Rush made without the present lineup, as Neil Peart didn't arrive until Fly By Night; instead, "drumming" is supplied by John Rutsey. Much of the music is second-rate Zep clone material, with ugly, ugly lyrics. Lifeson and Lee have the musical ability, but not the direction. They get some nice riffage going here and there, though, such as with "What You're Doing", "Finding my Way" and "Working Man". Unfortunately the rampant mediocrity of the drumming and the tendency to let ideas overstay their welcome hampers their effectiveness. All in all there is a lot more to cringe about than be happy about here. Interestingly enough, this album attracted virtually no interest in Canada. Were it not for midwest DJs taking to "Working Man", this may have been the last we saw of Rush. Luckily they stuck around, got a better direction, and made much more interesting music. Not here, though. review by Sean McFee — 8-16-00 —

m a t t

Rush's debut album is the kind of generic hard rock power trio exercise that most likely would have gone permanently out of print ages ago had the band not become popular for their subsequent work. This is the Rush album that came out before Neil Peart joined the band, and the Lee/Lifeson/Rutsey version of Rush doesn't seem to have been interested in doing much more than trying to sound like Led Zeppelin. In my opinion, this album isn't as abysmal as is sometimes reported (truly bad albums offend, and I don't detect anything at all pretentious or revolting about this album) nor is it the hidden treasure that plenty of Rush fans claim it to be. I just think it's a pretty boring, unimaginative hard rock record that, except for a few moments here and there, is generally unsatisfactory. Not that I have anything against hard rock; I like plenty of that stuff, especially from the 1970s. But Rush's debut sounds to me like the work of a group that hadn't yet found themselves and was content to pound out a high-decibel, second-rate version of yeoman boogie that better bands had long since perfected. Thus, while "In the Mood," "What You're Doing" "Working Man" and "Finding My Way" aren't bad songs, I find them to be redundant and, considering that they're scattered among even weaker material, I think that this album is somewhat of a chore to sit through. There is, however, a certain morbid fascination to be had from experiencing Geddy Lee's voice at its most piercingly shrill. For that reason alone, the first Rush album is certainly worth a spin. review by Matt P. — 7-19-06 —

g a r y v

At any given time, somewhere on the Net, a debate is raging, vainly struggling to answer the unanswerable: "Is Rush prog?" Whatever one's opinion on that question, Rush warrants inclusion on Ground and Sky by serving as kind of a "gateway drug" into progressive rock for a good number of us. But it should be emphasized upfront that if you're looking for anything remotely proggy in this eponymous debut, you'll come up empty. Rush began life as a pedestrian Led Zeppelin clone, with shades of early Blue Öyster Cult in the rhythm guitar work. Though these eight songs give no hint of the directions in which Rush would eventually move, this material is nothing more than average classic rock fare. In fact, "Working Man" was quite a hit in that market and still garners airplay to this day. Lyrics on Rush are completely banal, mostly concerning partying and seeking out women. Thankfully, this is the sole album of the extensive Rush canon where you'll hear Lee warble the likes of "Ooh, you drive me crazy/Baby, you're the one/I just wanna rock and roll ya, woman/'Til the night is gone." But then again, Neil Peart hadn't yet joined the band: some would find the above easier to swallow than the sort of lyrics Peart would later unleash on fans (gleaming alloy air cars, anyone?). This is often panned as the band's worst album, but I disagree. For just plain ol' rock and roll, it's really not a bad album at all, though many simply cannot bear Lee's unique "Robert Plant on helium" voice on this or any other early Rush release. I'll even go so far as to say that Rush might be a better product in some ways than its two inconsistent successors, Fly By Night and Caress of Steel (both of which harbor a few of the trio's worst-ever songs) though I suspect it might be a minority opinion. review by Gary Varney — undated —