Last spring, the seemingly impossible happened: Canadian rock legends Rush were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neal Peart had long endured the snark and critical dismissal from the powers-that-be, proving themselves a solid prog rock outfit for the ages. It was the cherry on top of a delicious bounty of treats for fans in the past few years: deluxe editions of two of the band's most popular albums, Moving Pictures and 2112, box sets compiling the band's entire Mercury discography and a No. 2 album with 2012's Clockwork Angels - their second to hit that position on Billboard's charts. (A chart-topper has eluded them...for now.)
Last week, another catalogue project for the group was announced: the boxing up of the band's entire discography for Atlantic Records. The band signed with the label in 1989; Presto, produced by Rupert Hine, was a seismic shift for the band away from synthesizer-based composition and back toward a straightforward rock trio.
Rush would rack up three U.S. Top 10 records with their next works, Roll the Bones (1991), Counterparts (1993) and Test for Echo (1996), the last two seeing the band reunite with Peter Collins, producer of 1985's Power Windows and 1987's Hold Your Fire. But the band was severely curtailed by personal tragedy shortly thereafter, when Peart lost his wife and daughter in 1997 and 1998. A lengthy hiatus came to a triumphant end in 2002 with Vapor Trails. The covers EP Feedback (2004) and Snakes and Arrows (2007) were Rush's final works for Atlantic.
As a special extra for fans, Rush: The Studio Albums 1989-2007 will feature a brand-new mix of Vapor Trails by David Bottrill. Owing to both the lengthy production cycle of the album (recorded over nine months in 2001, the longest ever spent on a Rush LP) and the ongoing loudness war that affected the album's mastering, fans and the band alike had expressed interest in remixing the record from the ground up; band engineer/mixer Richard Chycki had newly mixed "One Little Victory" and "Earthshine" for the Retrospective 3 compilation in 2009. (Bottrill's mix will be mastered by Andy VanDette, who recently remastered the original Vapor Trails for HDTracks and iTunes.)
The Studio Albums 1989-2007 will be available October 1; Vapor Trails Remixed will be released the same day. Pre-order links and a full box breakdown are below.
Rush: The Studio Albums 1989-2007 (Atlantic/Rhino, 2013)
Disc 1: Presto (released as Anthem LP ANL 1059 (CA)/Atlantic LP 82040 (U.S.), 1989)
Disc 2: Roll the Bones (released as Anthem LP ANK 1064 (CA)/Atlantic LP 82293 (U.S.), 1991)
Disc 3: Counterparts (released as Anthem LP ANK 1067 (CA)/Atlantic LP 82528 (U.S.), 1993)
Disc 4: Test for Echo (released as Anthem LP ANSD 1073 (CA)/Atlantic LP 82925 (U.S.), 1996)
Disc 5: Vapor Trails Remixed (CD / 2LP) (original mix released as Anthem LP 6682510962 (CA)/Atlantic LP 83531, 2002)
Disc 6: Feedback (released as Anthem EP 6682520012 (CA)/Atlantic EP 83728 (U.S.), 2004
Disc 7: Snakes and Arrows (released as Anthem LP 6682520122 (CA)/Atlantic LP 135548 (U.S.), 2007)
Bill B says
Damn, no 5.1 mix.
LOL @ "PICTURE Windows".
greg says
Jeez that's power windows
Hank N. says
While we're making proofreading corrections, Peart's name is spelled Neil not Neal.