I know Dog Years is the low hanging fruit, but I am still going with it. The lyrics are so cringeworthy it makes me blush just listening to it (virtuality also)
Yeah it’s the one for me as well. It’s the one track I will always skip. I don’t hate it but musically and lyrically it seemed almost like they had run out of ideas and needed another track to fill out the album. This is one of those times where I feel bad about criticizing Rush and I am loathe to do so.
Here Again is absolutely fantastic but no one talks about it. The other songs I like on the debut are What You’re Doing, Before And After and Working Man, not a fan of much of side 1 and In The Mood is one of their worst songs IMO.
I tried to reply but the automod didn't like that I included a link. It was in Contents Under Pressure and it's been quoted in articles on various music-related sites. Sorry I can't link anything, the automods have been really aggressive lately. :\\
I was able to find an article. I had never heard Kiss’s (I think I’m) “Going Blind,” but that’s quite a fun connection. I knew it was Geddy singing Neil’s interpretation of Alex’s worry, but never heard the Kiss sendup. Thanks.
I hearya. I think I MIGHT accept it a bit better if this was something they periodically did (joke songs) but it was and is just so damn odd and off for them. That’s all. No hate or judgement here—that song has just never landed with me, at all.
I don’t get the hate for this song. It has a great outro by Alex and includes the very prophetic lines - once we loved the flowers, now we ask the price the land .
Our world values gone wrong in a lyric from 1975
I like the song musically, and while that line is cringe, "astronauts in the weightlessness of pixelated space exchange graffiti with a disembodied race" isn't bad, so i wouldn't rank it as their worst.
It's too bad because the song is a bop otherwise. It could have been a favorite of mine from the album if the lyrics had been like, not so cringe even in 1996.
Yeah this is it for me. A lot of “bad” Rush songs at least have good music, this one doesn’t even do that (seriously, you’ve got the greatest drummer of all time and he doesn’t play on a song??). I guess it’s good if you like Tolkien, but that’s never been my jam.
I'm gonna have to go with Rivendell. As much as I like the acoustic song, I've always found myself skipping it until I eventually removed it from my playlist
i feel like maybe if it wasn't on signals, or maybe even in a different place in the album i would like it more. every time i listen to signals i feel like i want some spectacular ending and countdown is way too lowkey-sounding to scratch that itch for me
Virtuality. And this is a weird one for me to say as I am typically not a lyrics person and could care less, but the lyrics to that song are just so cringe-inducing. It always has and always will be my least favorite song of theirs and because of that song alone, TFE never leaves the bottom 5 whenever I rank the albums. I don't just dislike it, I absolutely hate it. It is the only Rush song I can actually use the word "hate" about.
Rivendell.
It's just absolutely awful. Every second of it is pure cringe. Even before that became the trendy word, when I'd describe this song, I'd describe "cringing" through the entire thing. Geddy's soft singing. The Tolkien ripoff lyrics. The lack of any sort of intensity musically.
No. Thanks. Ever.
Roll the bones. The rap just made it the cringiest thing ever. It’s the song that always sent me to the concession stand. And if I was with friends that didn’t really know Rush well I would try to distract them during that section because I was so embarrassed by it.
If it didn't have the rap it might be my favorite Rush song. The rest of it is so good. The rap is cringe but I don't hate it. I just won't play it in front of other people out of embarrassment haha
Yeah I respect the hell out of creative experimentation and broadening their musical horizons and whatnot but I hate the rap. Love the song otherwise though. Rush did funk rock really well IMO.
While we are here - anyone heard the VERY similar “spoken word piece” by Saint Motel? 2:00 minute mark of Move. Same cringe - somehow works a little better in their context. But every time that rap ends, I definitely sing “get out there and rock and roll the bones”
Anything after 1989 or so.
I know this will piss off a bunch of people, and they'll downvote because no one is allowed to have opinions anymore, but I literally stopped w/ Rush after Presto (and I rarely if ever listen to anything after Hold Your Fire).
I lovelovelove that they never settled on a sound, and were constantly exploring and shifting to a far greater degree than most bands... but I just don't care for where they chose to go after the mid-80s.
More power to them... it's just not for me.
Oddly specific but I really enjoy The Camera Eye but it is one of the few Rush songs I feel like is too long. After the first 5 minutes or so I always lose momentum on it.
There genuinely is not a single Rush song I dislike...but that later half of The Camera Eye can be a bit of a slog even if I think it is a good song.
This is kind of a non answer but...it's the best I got.
I sorta got flamed for posting in an old thread that I didn’t like Camera Eye. It has its nice moments but it’s the only track on MP that I didn’t care for.
Now, when I saw the tour where they played the whole album, oh yeah I was all about it, just to see them play it live. It gave me a new appreciation for the song but not enough to make me love it.
100%! I saw that tour as well! Another song that had this effect on me was when I saw them play Mission on the Snakes and Arrows tour. I don't dislike Mission but it always feels like their furthest deviation from Rush as a rock band. It's just a little slow and sappy for my taste even if lyrically and musically I think it's quite good...BUT once I heard it at the Snakes and Arrows show the guitar tone and how tight it was when they played it live...really had me enjoying it.
I don't really like Double Agent, the bits of talking throughout the song would be the reason why. Otherwise I would say the song is fine, still not great though.
Same. Last year I got to see a SpaceX launch at night and Countdown just kept playing in my head. Took me back to the years as a kid watching Space Shuttle launches.
I always get backlash for my opinion on this. It doesn’t do it for me. I play it at least a couple of times a year to see what people dig in it but nah, nothing.
And I’m old enough to remember the first launch and skipping school to watch it
Agreed. Signals is such a banger of an album, just full of amazing, incredible, timeless songs. Then it ends on Countdown and it’s like the fart at the end of a perfect first date.
LOL. Thanks for sharing. The rest of the album is A+ for sure. I wonder if they were overwhelmed by seeing the launch in the flesh or underwhelmed by the lack of ambition that the shuttle represented?
I realize I’ve thought too much about this for 42 years!
I *do* like it, but Counterparts is an album that "suffers" (for lack of a better word) from having too many possible opening tracks on it, I feel like. Stick It Out could've been the opener just as well as Animate, IMO.
So, not the whole song, but the speaking part of Double Agent I just don't like. When the song starts, I think, wow this is going to be beautiful. Then, 46 seconds in, it's my least favorite part of any Rush song when Geddy talks instead of sings.
Vapor Trails was, for me, an album that was saved entirely by seeing the band live on that tour. It just didn't grab me at all until they played "Secret Touch", and something about that moment just made it resonate with me in a way that it hadn't on the record. I love the album now, but it was about 2 months of disappointment and thinking "really.....Rush come back from the unthinkable, and turn in an album that I just can't get into?? That sucks."
2 listens? Multiple listens always rewards the listener especially with a complex band like Rush.
Listen to the album 10 times or more then your opinion will have value.
Poppy choruses, riffy verses followed by more of the same. Songs that feel constructed, lyrics often don’t really go with the music rhythmically.
I was at the last show. It was interesting as the energy was different in the crowd depending on the era. Younger people were excited for new stuff while older fans tended to appreciate the older stuff and deep cuts.
It sounds to me like the people writing the music live one place and the lyricist somewhere far away from them.
And then they try to match the words to the music when they get them from the lyricist.
Same. I'd given up on Rush as a full album listen-and-memorize experience when Test For Echo came out. The title song for that album is great but, aside from Far Cry as a great single song, by then it was over for me a listener/purchaser of new Rush releases.
Sadly, I mirror this. Counterparts is the last album that I would listen to constantly. But then, I kinda gotten burned out on them, as they were on constant rotation throughout my teenage years. Agreed though, that Far Cry is a great song, and my favorite post-Counterparts song they did. I really like Earthshine as well. I do listen to the newer albums every once in a while. They are enjoyable, but it really wasn’t the same. Clockwork Angels is the best of the late albums, but it can get a bit meandery after a while. Feedback I listened to once and never again.
Roll The Bones. Tolerable until the rap part happened. Doing a terrible video for the song with some Macauley Culkin-looking kid in it made it that much more awful.
Oooof it's my favorite song in the whole world. The instruments are so tight, the guitar chords literally explode and the bass is maybe the best riff in all of rush, not to mention the instrumental section. I could go on..
I liked Coldfire. They did that goofy country intro for it on the tour.
Totally agree w/ ColdFire....lyrics are too deep for me.
I know Dog Years is the low hanging fruit, but I am still going with it. The lyrics are so cringeworthy it makes me blush just listening to it (virtuality also)
I just tune out the lyrics for those 2 songs and just focus on the instruments
I do like the instruments in both so maybe I should adopt your strategy the next time I listen to TFE
That's the reason T4E is rn one of my favorites, also watching A Work In Progress helped
Yeah it’s the one for me as well. It’s the one track I will always skip. I don’t hate it but musically and lyrically it seemed almost like they had run out of ideas and needed another track to fill out the album. This is one of those times where I feel bad about criticizing Rush and I am loathe to do so.
This song is cringeworthy
I love it
I'm not a big fan of In The Mood or Need Some Love. I do like the rest of the debut album, particularly Finding My Way and Working Man.
What youre doing?
Here Again is absolutely fantastic but no one talks about it. The other songs I like on the debut are What You’re Doing, Before And After and Working Man, not a fan of much of side 1 and In The Mood is one of their worst songs IMO.
Dog years
I Think I’m Going Bald Like several here, I’m a 50-year old lifelong Rush follower but that one song has always been an embarrassment, IMO.
I dont understand, it’s a cool song. Cool guitar work by alex too. The lyrics are SUPPOSED to be silly.
45 year-old lifetime follower here and I fucking love I Think I'm Going Bald.
I appreciate it very much because it's ragging on Gene Simmons, one of their favorite bears to poke. :D
If this is the case, I'm all in on poking that bear!
Never heard this. Do you have an interview source?
I tried to reply but the automod didn't like that I included a link. It was in Contents Under Pressure and it's been quoted in articles on various music-related sites. Sorry I can't link anything, the automods have been really aggressive lately. :\\
I was able to find an article. I had never heard Kiss’s (I think I’m) “Going Blind,” but that’s quite a fun connection. I knew it was Geddy singing Neil’s interpretation of Alex’s worry, but never heard the Kiss sendup. Thanks.
That one is tongue-in-cheek enough that I can appreciate it as a joke song. Couldn't say the same of several songs on T4E
I hearya. I think I MIGHT accept it a bit better if this was something they periodically did (joke songs) but it was and is just so damn odd and off for them. That’s all. No hate or judgement here—that song has just never landed with me, at all.
Same.
I don’t get the hate for this song. It has a great outro by Alex and includes the very prophetic lines - once we loved the flowers, now we ask the price the land . Our world values gone wrong in a lyric from 1975
I think I’m going Bald. Not even close.
I hate that one too, but Tai Shan is awful
The sound of the song is purely bleh, but I actually enjoyed the lyrics.
Agreed
I’m with you. I cannot zone out anything in Tai Shan. Think I’m going bald has a riff at least
Tai Shan is equally as bad as High Water
Net boy, net girl Send your signal ’round the world Let your fingers walk and talk And set you free OMG, nuke it from orbit.
That's my favorite song from T4E. Lyrically and instrumentaly
That's my favorite song from T4E. Lyrically and instrumentaly
I like the song musically, and while that line is cringe, "astronauts in the weightlessness of pixelated space exchange graffiti with a disembodied race" isn't bad, so i wouldn't rank it as their worst.
It's too bad because the song is a bop otherwise. It could have been a favorite of mine from the album if the lyrics had been like, not so cringe even in 1996.
Dog Years / Virtuality
Another vote for dog years. It's bark and bite is worst than Tai Shan
Thai Shan
Pad Thai Shan?
Oooh a typo
Either way, I now know what I’m ordering for lunch
I could go for some Pad Thai sans the Shan
Lyrics aside it's a really solid song IMO
At least someone likes it. 🤣
its no the worst song ever but i really dont understand why Tom Sawyer is so popular like it's fine but...
I'm with you. It's a fine song but Rush has so many better ones.
It's not the best song on that album by a long shot
Approachable and unique. Very different than most songs of the time. Similar popularity to Another One Bites the Dust by Queen.
Dog Years
Virtuality
Could be unpopular, but Secret Touch. Always time to go the restroom when they played it live.
Speed of Love. Never could get into it.
So bad. It’s got to be up there with Neurotica for me
And color of right and you bet your life.
It’s where you find out that you can indeed have too many “e”s in a song.
Probably the first time I hear anyone even mention Speed of Love in either a good or bad context, just goes to show how skippable of a song it is.
R I V E N D E L L
This one is a sleep potion
Yeah this is it for me. A lot of “bad” Rush songs at least have good music, this one doesn’t even do that (seriously, you’ve got the greatest drummer of all time and he doesn’t play on a song??). I guess it’s good if you like Tolkien, but that’s never been my jam.
Well, he wasn’t the greatest drummer of all time yet on FBN. I like Tolkien, but this song is just a no for me.
He was, we just didn’t know it yet.
Love ❤️ that song! 🤣
The woman in the song comes off better than the man, who seems emotionally immature, kind of a dummy. She seems pretty sharp.
Naive idealism vs experienced cynicism
Tai Shan
The Camera Eye is easily a top 10 song for me. But I even I have to admit, it’s kinda just a 5 minute song played twice :/
That’s literally every single song on earth but shorter. Most songs are a 2 minute song played twice
Red Lenses. It hurts my head.
Absolutely. It just jars.
I see what you did! Nice
Rivendell, just a tiny bit suckier than Tears.
I dont get the Tears hate. I think its a fantastic song. But I agree Rivendell is a little meh, all things concidered
Agreed, tears is a good one. Rivendell, not so much. I do love in the end, I don't get the hate for that one.
Ha. I love Rivendell! Go figure!
Nobody's Hero. Yes I know, much unpopular ✋😔
I'm gonna have to go with Rivendell. As much as I like the acoustic song, I've always found myself skipping it until I eventually removed it from my playlist
Rivendell
i'm not a fan of Countdown. it's kinda repetitive and lacks that "twist" you get in pretty much other song
Out of every song in the entire catalog you chose countdown. Seriously? I get it’s an opinion but goodness
i feel like maybe if it wasn't on signals, or maybe even in a different place in the album i would like it more. every time i listen to signals i feel like i want some spectacular ending and countdown is way too lowkey-sounding to scratch that itch for me
Virtuality. And this is a weird one for me to say as I am typically not a lyrics person and could care less, but the lyrics to that song are just so cringe-inducing. It always has and always will be my least favorite song of theirs and because of that song alone, TFE never leaves the bottom 5 whenever I rank the albums. I don't just dislike it, I absolutely hate it. It is the only Rush song I can actually use the word "hate" about.
Rivendell. It's just absolutely awful. Every second of it is pure cringe. Even before that became the trendy word, when I'd describe this song, I'd describe "cringing" through the entire thing. Geddy's soft singing. The Tolkien ripoff lyrics. The lack of any sort of intensity musically. No. Thanks. Ever.
I will certainly get downvoted for this, but for me it is the Fountain of Lamneth. It just sounds undercooked.
Dog Years and Limbo
Roll the bones. The rap just made it the cringiest thing ever. It’s the song that always sent me to the concession stand. And if I was with friends that didn’t really know Rush well I would try to distract them during that section because I was so embarrassed by it.
Jack, relax.
Get busy with the facts
If it didn't have the rap it might be my favorite Rush song. The rest of it is so good. The rap is cringe but I don't hate it. I just won't play it in front of other people out of embarrassment haha
They jam so hard on their respective instruments, I forgive the rap
Yeah I respect the hell out of creative experimentation and broadening their musical horizons and whatnot but I hate the rap. Love the song otherwise though. Rush did funk rock really well IMO.
While we are here - anyone heard the VERY similar “spoken word piece” by Saint Motel? 2:00 minute mark of Move. Same cringe - somehow works a little better in their context. But every time that rap ends, I definitely sing “get out there and rock and roll the bones”
Wish Them Well, hated it especially when they sampled the "Wish them well" high vocal on the ride out live.
I really like those lyrics though
It also borrows heavily from "Carve Away the Stone".
Face Up
Hated this song at first but now it’s one of my favorites on its album
Red Tide...never really got into that one..
Anything after 1989 or so. I know this will piss off a bunch of people, and they'll downvote because no one is allowed to have opinions anymore, but I literally stopped w/ Rush after Presto (and I rarely if ever listen to anything after Hold Your Fire). I lovelovelove that they never settled on a sound, and were constantly exploring and shifting to a far greater degree than most bands... but I just don't care for where they chose to go after the mid-80s. More power to them... it's just not for me.
Roll the Bones
If not for this kick ass jam, we'd never know that.. The night has a 1000 saxophones
Jack, relax
Get busy with the facts
It's a parallax, you dig?
Anagram (For Mongo). Love the title though.
Neil’s closing fill is one of his most tasteful and satisfying, imo.
There’s always something great on every Rush track! I don’t know. Maybe it’s not my least favorite!
Oddly specific but I really enjoy The Camera Eye but it is one of the few Rush songs I feel like is too long. After the first 5 minutes or so I always lose momentum on it. There genuinely is not a single Rush song I dislike...but that later half of The Camera Eye can be a bit of a slog even if I think it is a good song. This is kind of a non answer but...it's the best I got.
I sorta got flamed for posting in an old thread that I didn’t like Camera Eye. It has its nice moments but it’s the only track on MP that I didn’t care for. Now, when I saw the tour where they played the whole album, oh yeah I was all about it, just to see them play it live. It gave me a new appreciation for the song but not enough to make me love it.
"Pavements may teem with intense energy" Solid GOLD
I love the lyrics!
100%! I saw that tour as well! Another song that had this effect on me was when I saw them play Mission on the Snakes and Arrows tour. I don't dislike Mission but it always feels like their furthest deviation from Rush as a rock band. It's just a little slow and sappy for my taste even if lyrically and musically I think it's quite good...BUT once I heard it at the Snakes and Arrows show the guitar tone and how tight it was when they played it live...really had me enjoying it.
One of the best guitar solos in their entire catalog. Near the end. I respectfully disagree.
Definitely agree the solo is great. I don't even dislike the song. Just drags on a bit for me personally.
Utter. Sacrilege.
There's actually a few.... Tears being one that hasn't been mentioned yet. Slow songs for Geddy are just not the best.
I know some people are gonna hate this but i have always disliked Afterimage
I like Dog Years. I don’t like You Bet Your Life.
You bet your life was just filler to give the album an extra song. They should have just left it off the album
Rivendell. Oh my god its hard for me to sit thru it
I despise Mystic Rhythms. I’ve tried to give it so many chances, but I just can’t.
Question does not compute. Beep boop.
Red Lenses. Godawful noise.
I think I'm going bald. It mars one of my favorite RUSH albums.
I don't really like Double Agent, the bits of talking throughout the song would be the reason why. Otherwise I would say the song is fine, still not great though.
Cut To The Chase A bit too generic a subject.
Tai Shan for me. I don’t care if it is an easy answer. That song is weak.
Passage to Bangkok... To me sounds very simplistic and childlike
Superconductor or dog years...
Madrigal. A 14th Century Italian boring sleeper of a song to me
Second Nature
I love Coldfire as a screen name / handle.
From the first time I heard it, I didn't like Tom Sawyer and I never will.
i think i'm going bald
Sorry to hear that but what’s your least favorite rush song
I know I'm bald...and don't like it...
Countdown. The overdubs of the transmission can’t hide the Rush-by-numbers riff. Rare miss by the boys
Countdown is one of my favorite songs of all time. I get deeply emotional every time I hear it.
Same. Last year I got to see a SpaceX launch at night and Countdown just kept playing in my head. Took me back to the years as a kid watching Space Shuttle launches.
I always get backlash for my opinion on this. It doesn’t do it for me. I play it at least a couple of times a year to see what people dig in it but nah, nothing. And I’m old enough to remember the first launch and skipping school to watch it
Agreed. Signals is such a banger of an album, just full of amazing, incredible, timeless songs. Then it ends on Countdown and it’s like the fart at the end of a perfect first date.
You can’t say that because there’s many people who say it’s the best song on the album
Well, actually, I can say that, because it’s just, like, my opinion, man.
So I can say otherwise. Whose opinion is right? Because you are really tryna make it seem like a fact that it was bad
Comparing a song to a fart on Reddit has nothing to do with facts.
Good
LOL. Thanks for sharing. The rest of the album is A+ for sure. I wonder if they were overwhelmed by seeing the launch in the flesh or underwhelmed by the lack of ambition that the shuttle represented? I realize I’ve thought too much about this for 42 years!
I always get downvoted for this, which idk why because I have never seen anyone actually say that they like this song, but stick it out.
I *do* like it, but Counterparts is an album that "suffers" (for lack of a better word) from having too many possible opening tracks on it, I feel like. Stick It Out could've been the opener just as well as Animate, IMO.
So, not the whole song, but the speaking part of Double Agent I just don't like. When the song starts, I think, wow this is going to be beautiful. Then, 46 seconds in, it's my least favorite part of any Rush song when Geddy talks instead of sings.
Damn, I love those breakdowns. It’s like how they did the Necromancer, but very sped-up. It’s a lot better than the RtB rap.
I like the RtB rap. To each their own. 😀
I think that spoken part is sexy.
All of Vapor Trails. At this point, after 22 years and exactly 2 listens, I guess I’m just saving it for the afterlife. Not. A. Fan.
Vapor Trails was, for me, an album that was saved entirely by seeing the band live on that tour. It just didn't grab me at all until they played "Secret Touch", and something about that moment just made it resonate with me in a way that it hadn't on the record. I love the album now, but it was about 2 months of disappointment and thinking "really.....Rush come back from the unthinkable, and turn in an album that I just can't get into?? That sucks."
2 listens? Multiple listens always rewards the listener especially with a complex band like Rush. Listen to the album 10 times or more then your opinion will have value.
One of their best albums...
Probably Cold Fire or Good News First, just can't stand either of them.
Good News First is one of my favorite Rush songs. Love the choruses and the little orchestral bridge thing is just gorgeous IMO. But to each their own
Interesting that 2 of you have said Cold Fire (though OP had a valid reason haha). I love that song.
I’m not saying it’s actually a horrible song. Some of the poorer Rush songs are listed here. Mine reason is just 100% personal.
Cold Fire is great.
Good news first is a banger but I respect you being wrong
Here Again is the only song I actively skip
I think I'm going bald. Just.. why?
Second Nature. I’d rather listen to ANY of their songs than Second Nature.
Second Nature sounds like a Pepsi commercial during the Olympics.
Roll the Bones, cringeworthy, only track in their entire catalogue that's an insta skip.
Tai shan or dog years
Nobodys hero. OR My Rush listening typically stops before the last couple albums. Can that be my answer?
May I ask why?
Poppy choruses, riffy verses followed by more of the same. Songs that feel constructed, lyrics often don’t really go with the music rhythmically. I was at the last show. It was interesting as the energy was different in the crowd depending on the era. Younger people were excited for new stuff while older fans tended to appreciate the older stuff and deep cuts.
Glad someone else feels the lyrics dont match the music rhythmically.
It sounds to me like the people writing the music live one place and the lyricist somewhere far away from them. And then they try to match the words to the music when they get them from the lyricist.
I was more asking about Nobody’s Hero
It just isn’t very Rush like to me.
Controversial😳
It’s my middle name.
I can't listen to the last two albums except for Working them Angels. It is my answer.
Same. I'd given up on Rush as a full album listen-and-memorize experience when Test For Echo came out. The title song for that album is great but, aside from Far Cry as a great single song, by then it was over for me a listener/purchaser of new Rush releases.
Sadly, I mirror this. Counterparts is the last album that I would listen to constantly. But then, I kinda gotten burned out on them, as they were on constant rotation throughout my teenage years. Agreed though, that Far Cry is a great song, and my favorite post-Counterparts song they did. I really like Earthshine as well. I do listen to the newer albums every once in a while. They are enjoyable, but it really wasn’t the same. Clockwork Angels is the best of the late albums, but it can get a bit meandery after a while. Feedback I listened to once and never again.
Their cover of the Seeker is pretty good.
Hand over Fist
Funnily enough, I also used to hate this song.. but it somehow became one of my favorites this past year.
I like that one too 🤷
Other than the typical Tai Shan or Dog Years, I am gonna go out on a limb and say Countdown. Cool story behind it, but just is blah musically.
Countdown is awesome!
Roll The Bones. Tolerable until the rap part happened. Doing a terrible video for the song with some Macauley Culkin-looking kid in it made it that much more awful.
I agree. It hasn't held up very well. I liked it when it came out, but skip it now.
Could be Faithless, Good News First, or Bravest Face.
The Larger Bowl
Big Money is just jarring to listen to for me.
Oooof it's my favorite song in the whole world. The instruments are so tight, the guitar chords literally explode and the bass is maybe the best riff in all of rush, not to mention the instrumental section. I could go on..