So, my favorite Rush albums and why ...
(1) Moving Pictures - More than 20 or so years ago, I attended Cornell as an undergraduate in English and Physics. Around my junior year, I started grabbing lunch at one of the graduate student dining halls. The dining hall was a beautiful room - hardwood floors, solid oak tables, vaulted ceilings, and cathedral windows with a fantastic view of the surrounding countryside. They also had a jukebox, with a relatively nice sound system for the space. However, it only had about five albums, but one of those albums was Moving Pictures. The first day I was there, after sitting down to eat, I heard "Tom Sawyer" blaring out of the jukebox, which I had never heard before. It was a "Holy Cow" moment. I had always been a fan of classic rock -Zeppelin, Who, Doors, Cream, Stones, etc - but this was something new. I asked my friends about the song, but none of them recognized it. To date myself, I then ran a search on something called "Gopher," and learned about Rush and this album - which is solid from beginning to end. I have been a fan ever since.
(2) Self Titled (1974) - Before they eventually degenerated into self indulgent, prog rog pablum, there was the first album - hard core, blues inspired rock. This was Rush at its minimalist best, with a shoestring budget. Full of energy and intensity. "Working Man" is still a go-to song of mine to this day.
