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Master of Puppets
Apart from a few tracks I miss the melodic/catchy-aspects from its predecessor. My favourite tracks are the title track and Welcome Home (Sanitarium). Of course there are some amazing riffs but some tracks tend to bore more me sooner. There’s also not much variety, especially the mood feels the same most of the time. I don't care much for the whole side two.

Moving Pictures
Now we're talking. The best Rush album. Excellent songs only. Limelight and Vital Signs are top 5 songs of mine.

What I especially like about Barchetta are the accents in the rhythms and the atmosphere. Still, Tom Sawyer and Red Barchetta are for me two of the least three favourites of the album (the other is Witch Hunt). Maybe because these particular songs are (or at least feel) relatively seen more monotone and less dramatic, who knows. I can't explain well why I find them less*, but I can try to mention the strong sides of the other songs.

Strong melodies are always important to me, and Limelight has such a beautiful melodic chorus. A superb moody chord scheme, guided by Peart's beautiful ride cymbal work. Lee does one of the best vocal melodies the band has ever written. And the solo? That build-up is just superb. And the sound Lifeson creates! The way it ends and how the "chorus"-guitar and the vocals come back with Peart playing it double time was a very good idea. In this last chorus some of the accents are hitting with the snare drum, giving it an extra punch. Living in the limelight, the universal dream...

Check this out (also Peart in the background!), filmed by my wife in 2007:

Vital Signs is another favourite of the album (either my no. 1, either no. 2). That song is full of awesome melodies and rhythmic greatness. Wonderful interaction between all three. Very strong lyrics as well. Always shamelessly underrated on this forum, when it is features in survivors. The Camera Eye I find very adventurous with lots of space for the music. Many cool instrumental parts contributing to the suspense. As opposed to earlier epics (Cygnus book 1 and Xanadu excluded) it does not feature lesser moments. It keeps going and has some great singing and special atmosphere as well. YYZ is instrumental but not per se worse because of that reason. Love that slower part. The Analog Kid's chorus reminds me of it. Love that heavy "slow" synth countering against those other faster instruments.

I particularly like the darkness and -like in Camera Eye- suspense in Witch Hunt (also a song that has not much love on this forum). It's not just that. Take for instance its build-up! Gigantic. The vocal lines are very strong melodic. The riffs way cool as well. I find it a very interesting and daring song with heartpiercing melodies and strong guitar part, matching well with the atmospherical keyboards. I guess the rhythmic beginning had me hooked immediately when I first heard it. Some info I found:

-Vocalist Geddy Lee told The Plain Dealer newspaper in a 2011 interview the song's message is even more relevant today than when it was first recorded: "It's one of those songs that means as much today, if not more, considering what's gone on in the world with racial profiling and all these different issues. The sentiment of that song is as appropriate as ever."
-The song was recorded the same night that John Lennon was shot in New York. The band was right in the middle of laying down the tune when they heard the tragic news.

Let's look at the whole album again.
Besides the stable and subtle playing of Neil Peart, the production of his drums is done nicely as well. His patterns are so iconic that I could listen to these while erasing the rest of the music from my mind. You could see this album (and also its predecessor Permanent Waves) as Rush's move from very progressive music towards more compact and catchy music. Catchy in a good way. Gone are the happy and sweet moments as e.g. in Entre Nous. No more honey and butterflies dripping from the speakers.

Conclusion: I'd say that Moving Pictures is the first and last, therefore only Rush album containing very good to great songs only. *Even though I find some songs better than others: All songs I find quite better than:

A Farewell to Kings
Cindarella Man & Madrigal

Hemispheres
Circumstances

Permanent Waves
Entre Nous
 
Peace Sells may not be my thing but neither is Countdown that being said the title track to the former is a track that gets quite a lot of listens while I drive. So it gets the win

Powerslave was the first full Maiden album I purchased, and that was because Rime Of The Ancient Mariner couldn't be purchased separately from the album on Itunes due to its length, it is a masterpiece and while Machine Head has monster hits for Purple only Highway Star could really hope to stand up to the highs of one of Maiden's masterpieces

Accident Of Birth is an excellent album and while Ace Of Spades has a killer title track, Lemmy's vocals haven't clicked for me yet so this one is easy.

Master Of Puppets, despite not being a full lover of Thrash I cannot deny that this album is basically a perfect album. On the other hand Moving Pictures is another excellent album, with one of my favourite Rush songs in Limelight but it doesn't hold up to Metallica's monster album.
 
I cannot deny that I'm surprised about this severe "thrashing" of Rush's most popular album. And disappointed to see people voting against it while they have spoken in very lyrical terms about it in recent years.

I mean, yeah, that Metallica album is an iconic album, but was its popularity at this point such a given? I haven't seen admiration for it in recent years. Maybe it's just in people their heads, cd players and streaming platforms.

And a fuck off for the non-metal sentiment.
 
Forostar said:
I mean, yeah, that Metallica album is an iconic album, but was its popularity at this point such a given? I haven't seen admiration for it in recent years. Maybe it's just in people their heads, cd players and streaming platforms.
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Master of Puppets is the second most Maidenfans-nominated album. That strongly suggests it is very popular on this board, despite what comments might say. I expected Rush to get annihilated here and that is exactly what is happening.
 
Forostar said:
I cannot deny that I'm surprised about this severe "thrashing" of Rush's most popular album. And disappointed to see people voting against it while they have spoken in very lyrical terms about it in recent years.

I mean, yeah, that Metallica album is an iconic album, but was its popularity at this point such a given? I haven't seen admiration for it in recent years. Maybe it's just in people their heads, cd players and streaming platforms.

And a fuck off for the non-metal sentiment.
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My vote wasn't anything too deep or political, I just like Puppets more. I've had no problem with any Rush albums being in the game, (in fact I think the only album I had a problem with was a korean pop album from some list in the very early rounds). I've voted for Moving Pictures I suspect in every other round it's been in, it's a truely brilliant record, and far and away the best Rush album from the ones I know. I just like Puppets more.

EDIT: just checked Moving Pictures list of conquests, and I've definitely voted for it in every round it's been in.
 
Never understood that, Yax. The album feels inconsistent to me. I always felt it gained so much legacy because there wasn't much else around that time, because of Burton's death*, because 3, maybe 4 or 5 songs. And because of Metallica's name, concerts and problems between the members.

*I think he's nowhere near that God status people attribute to his playing. I hardly hear him, except on Orion, a very monotone and repetitive song, starting great, become dull before half of it is over.
 
I don´t think it´s that, @Forostar.
When I discovered this album on tape I was amazed by every song on it. I wasn't thinking about Cliff´s tragedy which I only "found out" years later. Orion monotone and repetitive? Don´t think so but to each his own I guess.
 
Not saying all you guys out here like it because of Burton's tragic death, but I esteem it did not only contribute to but also heavily inflated its legacy status. Without hearing it, already a huge album in the history of metal. Is it really that good? I say not. Just my 2 cents. Good you love it so much. And interesting for the game. Looking at this round it may endanger any Maiden album.
 
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Yeah, maybe some people think Puppets isn't great, but most people do. So...I mean, it's damn near the unanimous #2 from various lists.
 
I knew very little about Metallica's history when I purchased RTL and MOP, but it didn't take me long to start digging both albums. The "legacy" part definitely has no role in my admiration for those albums. They're up there with the best from Maiden and others. I'm not saying Moving Pictures isn't great, It is.
 
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