Several years back when Rush began issuing 40th anniversary sets commemorating its catalog of studio albums, fans anticipated, quickly and rightly, 2021 and the birthday of Moving Pictures– the most successful record ever from the Canadian power trio.  Then, the pandemic struck and 2020 and most of ’21 came and went with but a few Internet whispers of the possible release.  Pandemic be damned, Rush had to celebrate the one that forever shifted the group, and immortalized “Tom Sawyer” as an FM classic rock ubiquity, perhaps even more than as a Twain character, for the children of the 1970s and early ‘80s.  No matter how long the devoted had to wait, Moving Pictures deserved its day.  Well, this is it.

Just peruse the liner notes from Les Claypool or Kim Thayil or (sadly) Taylor Hawkins as they write like smitten teens, remembering what it was like to absorb these epics charging out of the speakers.  Or take in the previously unreleased concert recording included- a Toronto homecoming show at Maple Leaf in ’81- that encapsulates, over eight sides of vinyl, the prog-rock royal masters that Rush had become in roughly half-a-decade; from struggling local band to arena headliner.  Or reflect on the fact that the 5x-Platinum-selling (in the U.S., alone) Moving Pictures was Rush’s eighth studio album. 

Eighth. 

Like Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon (also the band’s eighth), it certifies irrefutably the value of major labels giving time and space, development and support, to such talented and creative artists.

In keeping stride with its predecessors, it’s a Super Deluxe set overflowing with bonuses.  Start, though, with the remastered album, itself, sounding so sonically majestic it still feels like it’s from the future.  The opening four- “Tom Sawyer,” “Red Barchetta,” “YYZ,” and “Limelight,”- are as beloved, quintessential, and as mighty as any grouping of Rush songs ever to populate a Side One.  Next, the aforementioned live show, thankfully captured on multitrack, runs the course of Rush’s escalating and expanding career with highlight after highlight- from the early hammers of “Working Man” and “By-Tor & The Snowdog” to the blooming of “2112,” “Freewill,” and “Closer to the Heart.”

Add a Blu-Ray audio and videos, plus a veritable harvest of fan swag- including Neal Peart signature drum sticks, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee signature guitar picks, tour book, tour posters, luggage tag, and 3D litho, plus a bookshelf-ready model Red Barchetta- and it is really a gift that just keeps on giving. 

Of course, Moving Pictures was going to have its 40th, albeit a year late.  Given the immensity of the album’s historical place, sheer magnificence of the songs themselves, and the precedent of prior anniversary nods, Rush wanted to (and had to) do it right.  This definitively thorough, conscientious, and generous collection does it exactly right.