Re: Rush: Rush (1974)
Nowhere near the guy's best album, to me no real sense of musical identity yet, not a clue that they would go in the direction that they did by the time they got to 2112, but that's down to the fact Peart hadn't arrived and showed them how to write great songs. Peart was the missing piece in the puzzle, if I didn't know and love them like I do and I just heard this album cold, I'd say 3rd rate Led Zep rip-off, go find your own sound guys!! Which of course they did pretty quickly as soon as they recorded stuff like 'By Tor' and and 'Fountains of Lamneth' and 'Necromacer' on their next two albums. I'd rate it maybe a 5/10, but then that goes up to a 9/10 by the time they got to Caress of Steel, and for me hasn't dipped from that much in the next 30 years. My favourite band ever probably, it hurts to rate anything they did so low, but this is a rookie record, and as such it's fine, but I hardly ever play it.