Rush back to the main Rush page....... ooo that was clever Blush Overall Album Score: 8.0 out of 10 John Rutsey was the original drummer for Rush, and that's probably the reason the band started out as a strictly heavy metal group (with no major hints of the progressive rock that they would do). After all, wasn't Neil Peart the dork who reads all those fantasy novels? Also, Peart has much more ability with the drumming (probably even more ability than Genesis' Phil Collins, a stellar drummer though a crappy pop star), which made prog-rock a reasonable direction for them to take. But let us talk about this album! Hey, this is good heavy metal!!!! They don't have an original idea in their beings, but sometimes that doesn't matter if they prove they know what to do with it. In this case, they borrow riffs and ideas from the metal bands that came before them. Led Zeppelin is the obvious comparison, because lead singer Geddy Lee sounds so much like Robert Plant (or he tries to at least). But they have a wide array of influences from Black Sabbath, the Blue Oyster Cult and Deep Purple. Much of these songs are enjoyable! "Finding My Way," the most obvious take on Led Zeppelin, is easily my favorite song. It's a rollicking imitation, and it's easy to enjoy. Another song where they riff from Zep is "What You're Doing," which turns out to be another one of my favorites of the album. Their Blue Oyster Cult song, "In the Mood" is another enjoyable one, and so is the guitar crunchin' "Need Some Love." The album closer, "Working Man" might be flawed, but it seems to be where everything comes together in one massive, seven-minute explosion. So, this is a solid album! It doesn't come with its fair share of pitfalls, however. "Here Again" is nothing more than a seven-minute snooze-fest. This is a song that easily could have been compressed in two minutes and, even then, it would probably still be boring. And Geddy's vocal performance there would still be crazy-annoying. The intro to "Before and After" is utterly dull until they finally get some heavy metal in after the two-minute mark. "Take a Friend" is an OK mid-tempoed rocker, but it's totally uninspired. Overall, if you're inclined to heavy metal and Rush, I'd surely check this one out. So what if it doesn't have Neil Peart on drums? Who cares?? Overall Album Score: 8.0 out of 10 (Pre-Peart Rush wasn't bad at all. There's some good heavy metal on this thing.) Average Song Score: 7.9 (The beginnings of Rush is not great but ... not bad, either.) Album Tilt: 8.0 (It's a good album. There are a few missteps, but it's enjoyable enough for fans of hard rock.) Artist Rating: 8.0 (It's not nearly as pretentious as their later albums. I can't see any reason to complain about it.) Track Reviews Finding My Way 9/10 They start off sounding exactly like Led Zeppelin with "Finding My Way" Geddy's vocals and all. But at least they're good Led Zeppelin immitations who do everything right. The vocals do sound like Robert Plant, but they're good enough to make Rush worthy disciples of that group. The guitar playing is also highly solid! Most importantly, though, they have a good catchy riff, which makes this a joy to listen to. Need Some Love 8/10 This one isn't as catchy nor as thunderous. Thank goodness it's only two and a half minutes! There's a lot of guitar crunching in here, which will make this enjoyable to anyone who can't get enough of that heavy metal music. They do a solid enough job to make this a good listen. Nonetheless, this is merely a good, above average song. Take a Friend 7.5/10 Oh, I could care less about "Take a Friend." They slow things up to a moderate tempo here, which makes it kind of boring to me. The melody isn't that catchy, so the only thing you can like here is the guitar work. Well, the guitar work is great, but that's not enough to make a song great! Here Again 6.5/10 Here's a bit of a pit-fall; the 7-minute mid-tempoed rocker "Here Again" with a frankly annoying vocal performance from Geddy. Otherwise, the melody is OK! This song makes the switch they'll undergo to progressive rock a little more predictable, but this sure is boring. ... The song trudges along for the entire time on the same pace and take too long to chang things up. Sure, there's sections where Geddy is singing and Alex plays a very boring solo, but ... heck, are they trying to put me to sleep? No wonder they went prog! What You're Doing 8.5/10 It has a good riff though it's clearly stolen from someplace else. (It must be Led Zeppelin! But it sounds kinda like Black Sabbath, too!) Well, they at least use this riff well to make an enjoyable heavy metal song. This is a typical hard rocker and it even features an excellent electric guitar solo to keep things spicey. ... OK, it's not original, and I'm being sure to count off some points for that, but I like it. In the Mood 8/10 More cowbell!!!! I guess the Blue Oyster Cult must have been the proxy writers of "In the Mood," which is actually a pretty good song. It's upbeat, and they come up with some good riffage here. This doesn't strike me as being hackery, because it's done so solidly! Say what you want about Rush, but they usually sound like they know what they're doing. Again, there's excellent electric guitar work! Before and After 7/10 Stick with the hard rock, guys! The first two minutes of "Before and After" is a soft rock ballad that's too easy to tune out. It's not memorable, so why does it exist. Fortunately, after two minutes of that, they suddenly change things up to another Black Sabbath-esque song. ... Indeed, stick with heavy metal. ... Or get a new drummer and start doing prog-rock. Whichever. Working Man 8.5/10 This is another seven-minute song, but this is actually a pretty good one. They keep the pace of it pretty tight and they import some interesting things in their instrumentals. Again, they steal a lot of stuff from their predecessors, but they make enjoyable music out of it. This song actually reminds me a bit more of Queen's heavy metal than Led Zeppelin, which also might give you an idea of how relatively accessible this song is. The guitar solo in the middle of this is particularly rollicking! I like the melody of this song, too. So, this is a good album closer! Blah blah blah comments here.

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. I like stuff.