Rush’s worst album, in Geddy Lee’s opinion

Over the more than four decades of its existence, the Rush He had a practically impeccable career. Even at different stages of its trajectory, the Canadian band composed of Geddy Lee (voice, bass and keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart (drums) released praised albums and toured with high-level technical performances.

However, like any group that remains active for so long, the trio had its “stumbles”. The most notorious of them, in the opinion of Leetook place precisely in the initial years of the group.

In a 2020 interview with the magazine Classic Rock(via Far Out Magazine), the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist defined Caress of Steel (1975) as the worst album of his career Rush. Interestingly, it was made available between two of the trio’s great classics: Fly by Night (1975), which marked the debut of Neil Peartand 2112 (1976), which consolidated the transition to a more progressive sound. Geddy comments:

“Immediately Caress of Steel comes to mind when talking about the worst album in the world. Rush. But interestingly, I met a lot of fans who love this record.”

On the same occasion, Lee mentioned another album that is certainly not among the most appreciated: Presto (1989). The album saw the band put an end to experiments with synthesizers made in the 1980s. Even featuring songs like “Show Don’t Tell” and “The Pass”the material, according to him, does not please the fans.

“I think that Presto disappointed many fans. His composition work is a little monotonous.”

Rush and Caress of Steel

Perhaps Geddy Lee don’t see Caress of Steel as a good album precisely because of its transitory nature. It was the first album in which the Rush really explored the progressive sound, which would only be consolidated with the successor 2112.

Alex Lifesonincluding, understands that Caress of Steel made the group’s successful subsequent career possible. In a 1980 interview with the magazine Guitar playerhe commented:

“Without Caress of Steel, we couldn’t have done 2112. And this last one, for us, was like coming back with full force. It was at that time that we said, ‘okay, everyone wants us to make short, sweet songs like we did on the first album.’ Either we would do that, or we would just say: ‘screw you, we’ll do whatever we want’. This last option was the one we chose, so we came up with 2112. That’s still the feeling I have with this album today. I can feel the hostility hovering.”