Rush was a band I skipped by completely in the 80's. I dare say I never heard one song throughout that entire era. It wasn't until their 1993 album Counterparts that I took notice, and even then, it took me a couple tries to find the record.
I had heard a song on the radio, and while the DJ said it was from rush, they failed to mention the title. This lead to a trip to Waxie Maxie's (Who remembers that place?). Despite the clerk's attempts to help, he admitted he didn't know much from the band. He handed me Permanent Waves and said, "I know this has one of the most popular songs from them on it." I dropped my hard earned money, and it really was hard earned back in those days, and went home with the disc. It wasn't what I wanted, but man, was it great!
As more money came into my hands, I made a second and third trip to the store, eventually landing my hands on Counterparts, the album I was looking for, and the multi-disc Chronicles. The latter burst the world of Rush open to me. Soon came Moving Pictures, 2112, Roll The Bones, Test For Echo, Hemispheres and A Farewell To Kings. The last two jammed on the brakes for me in the Rush department. I didn't understand them, not knowing much about classic rock nor rock operas, and from there moved on.
Fast forward to many years later and I'm putting together what would become my current CD collection. Rush came back around on my radar and I felt if I was going to do it, I would do it right. I bought them all. So now, it's time to listen to them.
My first Rush Retro Spin was a cheat. I looked at their first entry into the 80's, Permanent Waves. I say it was a cheat because it was already a solid album for me. In follow up to that, I thought I would go to the other side of the spectrum and listen to their last entry in the decade, 1989's Presto.
Presto starts with Show Don't Tell, a track I was familiar with from Chronicles. It's also the only song I know from the entire album. While the next track didn't really stand out, The Pass was an instant like for me.
From there, I heard tracks which I won't say I hated. However, I won't say they necessarily stood out as good either. Decent all around is pretty much a fair assessment. A classic 80's Rush sound with skillful musicianship crafted into each track.
Scars was a groove driven track with a funky bass line, but unfortunately never really pulled out of the realm of just okay. This seemed to be the tone the remainder of Presto set. Nothing really stood out.
Presto isn't Rush's best album. Nor is it my favorite. But, it's okay. It was fun to hear songs I'd never heard before, regardless of my overall opinion of them. Comfort in familiarity I suppose.
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