Retrospectives 1974-1980 (1997)
Retrospectives 1981-1987 (1997)
1974-1980
1.The Spirit of Radio
2.The Trees
3.Something for Nothing
4.Free Will
5.Xanadu
6.Bastille Day
7.By-Tor and the Snow Dog
8.Anthem
9.Closer to the Heart
10.2112: Overture
11.2112: The Temples of Syrinx
12.La Villa Strangiato
13.Fly By Night
14.Finding My Way
1981-1987
1.The Big Money
2.Red Barchetta
3.Subdivisions
4.Time Stand Still
5.Mystic Rhythms
6.The Analog Kid
7.Distant Early Warning
8.Mission
9.Limelight
10.Red Sector A
11.New World Man
12.Tom Sawyer
12.Force Ten
Several years after the band jumped ship to the Atlantic record label, their former label decided to put out another greatest hits package. Packages actually. Why? Who knows. This was becoming more and more popular with record labels in the dog eat dog world of music sales. To get finicky, these selections were slightly better than Chronicles, but sold as two separate CD's, hence a higher combined price.
Ironically, the time split where the first collection ended and the second begun was at the peak of the band's career (1980-1981). Therefore, hard-core fans who may be tempted to buy their favorite era of Rush music, now pretty much had to buy both. Another question of ethics. What did work out nicely was the running order of the tracks on each piece. Rather than featuring the songs chronologically, these releases had a better overall flow. Almost as if the band were making a set list for a show. One can only speculate that Atlantic will one day do the same manipulative thing in the future. Sigh.
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