The Spirit of Radio (2003)

The collection is billed as the band’s greatest hits between 1974 and 1981, but many listeners hardly think the most radio-friendly pieces represent the band’s best work. “Working Man,” “Fly by Night,” “Limelight,” are good, representative pieces and they were hits, but they’re also already included on many other compilations. In fact, all of the pieces in the set are included in other compilations, so we start asking the question, What’s the point? That will be the question we’ll hear increasingly about the compilations released after this one.

Working Man
Fly by Night
2112 Overture/The Temples of Syrinx
Closer to the Heart
The Trees
The Spirit of Radio
Freewill
Limelight
Tom Sawyer
Red Barchetta
New World Man
Subdivisions
Distant Early Warning
The Big Money
Force Ten
Time Stand Still

Review

Buy if You’re Off Your Rocker
“Really, there are only two reasons you would even want this album. 1) You don’t own any Rush albums, and you want to try them out by listening to some of their more radio-friendly and bite- size songs, and 2) you’re a Rush fanatic, and you want to buy it because you’re slightly off your rocker and you have to have every Rush album in their catalog. If there is another reason, let me know.”—-SoundsofSeasons on Prog Archives edited)

Too many compilations?