Review: Rush – Rush 50 – Anniversary Super de Luxe Edition
Rush – Rush 50 – Anniversary Super de Luxe Edition
Format: 4CD – 7Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: UMC – Mercury
Release: 2025
Text: Martien Koolen
Seeing the fact that I am a 100%, utterly “obsessed”, addicted die-hard Rush-fan, you will forgive me if I am not 100% objective reviewing this ‘RUSH 50’ compilation album. This iconic, best band ever, celebrate fifty years of RUSH with their first ever complete career anthology, consisting of fifty tracks on four CDs or seven LPs. Needless to say, that this is a MUST have album for RUSH fans, but also for all rock fans who appreciate and admire astonishing, innovative rock music.
However, as I am a die-hard RUSH fan, I “sadly” feel/think that this is NOT the perfect RUSH compilation and now you may wonder why I say that; well, here are my reasons for this “bold” statement. There are good RUSH songs, there are better RUSH songs and then there are the best – read: brilliant – RUSH songs, and on this compilation, I sadly miss a couple of brilliant RUSH songs indeed!
As each of the nineteen studio albums is represented on this compilation, I would have chosen other songs from each album. The debut album, released in 1974, featuring drummer John Rutsey, is represented with five tracks, which is way too much, as far better albums like ‘Caress Of Steel’ (1975), ‘Hold Your Fire’ (1987), ‘Presto’ (1989), ‘Roll The Bones’ (1991), ‘Counterparts’ (1993), ‘Test For Echo’ (1996), ‘Vapor Trails’ (2002) and the electrifying ‘Clockwork Angels’ (2012) are only represented by mere one “bloody” song each!!
Furthermore, this RUSH compilation contains two drum solos, which are utterly superfluous, as we already know that Neil Peart is/was the best rock drummer of this planet! So, brilliant tracks that I miss on this release are: The Necromancer, A Farewell To Kings, The Camera Eye, Chemistry, Marathon, Middletown Dreams, Force Ten, Mission, The Pass, Presto, Bravado, Animate, Nobody’s Hero, Driven, Dog Years, Ghost Rider, Earthshine, The Anarchist, The Wreckers and The Garden; need I say more??
This – still a MUST have album, by the way – RUSH collection showcases seven unreleased songs, including five live tracks, recorded in 1974, a vault edition of their awesome track The Trees (with an alternative guitar solo from Alex Lifeson) and the very last performance of RUSH as a trio, recorded in LA on August 1, 2015, featuring three songs, namely: What You’re Doing, Bad Boy and Garden Road. Of course, for me as a Dutchman, the two songs – In The Mood and a stunning version of La Villa Strangiato – that RUSH played at the notorious Pinkpop Festival in 1979 (I was present, of course…) belong to the highlights of this anthology for sure.
Among the RUSH rarities on this album, which I could do without, as they are cover songs, are the first ever official reissue of their first single Not Fade Away (Buddy Holly) and B-side You Can’t Fight It. Another superfluous track, for me, at least is another cover song, being The Seeker, from the ‘Feedback’ covers EP, which I consider a “NO RUSH” album, by the way…
Only seventeen of the fifty songs are originally released, other studio takes are three alternative mixes of Working Man, One Little Victory and the already mentioned The Trees. The other twenty-eight songs are live versions (two with drummer Rutsey), and the absolute highlights are live performances of Jacob’s Ladder (‘Permanent Waves’), Manhattan Project (‘Power Windows’), YYZ (‘Moving Pictures’), Natural Science (‘Permanent Waves’) and the already stunning Pinkpop version of their instrumental master piece La Villa Strangiato.
Each box includes stunning artwork from Hugh Syme and a hard cover book featuring essays and photographs and the Super Deluxe CD/LP set will also feature twenty lithographs illustrating one song from each of the band’s studio albums, so buy or die indeed, for sure!!!
So, there you have it. The first RUSH compilation to emerge since the end of this brilliant band and the death of Neil Peart in 2020. Although I uttered some “complaints” about this release I still love it, of course and I cherish it and wonder if this will be the last ever RUSH record indeed… To end this rather NOT objective review I will quote Geddy Lee who stated in the press release announcing this album: “It’s a cool collection… but look at all those songs, I’m exhausted just reading the effin list”; that is RUSH humour for you, or not?
Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Not Fade Away**
02. You Can’t Fight It**
03. Working Man (Vault Edition)**
04. Need Some Love (Live)**
05. Before And After (Live)**
06. Bad Boy (Live)*
07. Garden Road (Live)*
08. Anthem (Live)*
09. Fly By Night
10. Bastille Day
11. 2112: Overture / The Temples Of Syrinx
12. By-Tor & The Snow Dog (Live)
13. Something For Nothing (Live)
CD 2
01. Closer To The Heart
02. Xanadu (Live)
03. Drum Solo (Live)
04. The Trees (Vault Edition)*
05. La Villa Strangiato (Live)
06. In The Mood (Live)
07. The Spirit Of Radio
08. Natural Science (Live)
09. A Passage To Bangkok (Live)
10. Tom Sawyer
11. Limelight (Live)
12. Vital Signs (Live)
CD 3
01. YYZ (Live)
02. Subdivisions
03. Red Sector A
04. Witch Hunt (Live)
05. New World Man (Live)
06. The Big Money
07. Time Stand Still
08. Distant Early Warning (Live)
09. Superconductor
10. Dreamline
11. Stick It Out
12. Test For Echo
13. The Rhythm Method (Live)
CD 4
01. One Little Victory (Remixed)
02. Cygnus X-1 (Live)
03. The Seeker
04. Between The Wheels (Live)
05. The Main Monkey Business
06. Workin’ Them Angels (Live)
07. Freewill (Live)
08. Red Barchetta (Live)
09. Headlong Flight
10. Manhattan Project (Live)
11. Jacob’s Ladder (Live)
12. What You’re Doing / Working Man / Garden Road (Live)*
* Previously unreleased
** Previously unreleased on CD & LP
Website: https://www.rush.com/