Retrospective, Vol. 3 (2009)
1. One Little Victory (Remix)
2. Dreamline
3. Workin' Them Angels
4. Presto
5. Bravado
6. Driven
7. The Pass
8. Animate
9. Roll the Bones
10.Ghost of a Chance
11.Nobody's Hero
12.Leave That Thing Alone
13.Earthsine (Remix)
14.Far Cry
Retrospective III is, in many ways, a predictable move. When Rush made their label switch in 1989, Mercury Records wasted little time cobbling together several posthumous “greatest hits” packages to capitalize on the band’s back catalogue. It should come as no surprise, then, that some twenty years on, Atlantic decided it was their turn.
Spanning material from Presto through Snakes & Arrows, the collection attempts to offer a neat summation of the band’s latter-day output. And on the surface, it does so reasonably well. Each of the six studio albums from this period is represented, and the sonic polish applied to the two tracks from the notoriously uneven Vapor Trails is a welcome—if only marginal—improvement. It’s not a full redemption, but at least your speakers are no longer at risk of spontaneous combustion.
Yet even within the context of its own mission, Retrospective III manages to slightly stumble. While Rush was never a singles band in the traditional sense (the charts, by and large, ignored them), there are still glaring omissions—tracks that even the casual fan might have expected to find here. Instead, what we’re given is a respectable, but slightly aloof, collection that seems more interested in covering chronological ground than capturing fan-favorite moments.
More perplexing, though, is the visual presentation. The cover features a spread of the studio album art from the era in question—except, inexplicably, Snakes & Arrows is nowhere to be found. In its place is the artwork from the live release Snakes & Arrows Live, which, while competent, was not the focus of this compilation. Whether this was a design oversight or a deliberate substitution is unclear, but it does little to instill confidence in the curation.
Still, for those newer to Rush’s Atlantic years—or for longtime listeners wishing to revisit this often-overlooked chapter—the disc provides a
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