Rush: Moving Pictures - The Wizard Listens

     Rush's Moving Pictures is an album with a lot to offer. Every track has something new and different about it compared to the rest of the tracks on the album, but all are unified by the same futuristic rock sound that Rush is know for. It isn't my favorite Rush album, but it's pretty damn good all the same.

     Each track on Moving Pictures brings something new to the table, but almost all of them have something in common - they all tell a story. The only 2 outliers to this are "YYZ", which is essentially an instrumental jam session, and "Limelight", one of the most famous songs from the album and a song about fame and, well, being in the limelight. Every other song tells or a story - or PAINTS A MOVING PICTURE if you will - of a certain situation or scenario. The stories vary in tone and atmosphere as well. For example, "Red Barchetta" seems more a song about enjoying a day driving fast cars whereas songs like "The Camera Eye" and "Witch Hunt" speak of some great, violent distress among certain groups of people. And, anyone who knows Rush or this album already knows the story about the modern-day warrior, today's "Tom Sawyer". Each track vividly paints a picture of an entirely new situation.

     Moving Pictures, though not my favorite Rush album, is a cinematic trip packed into a 40-minute album with a little bit of everything to offer to the casual fan. The storytelling is beautifully intertwined with Rush's usual futuristic sound, fast guitar, and intense drum solos. This is, for me, one of the best rock albums of all time.

(4/5)