RUSH IS A BAND

Friday, September 19, 2008

Rush: Retrospective 3 greatest hits album due out in December?

UPDATE - 9/22@9:30AM: There's been another recent development with this. In addition to listing a CD version due out December 9th, Amazon now also has a CD-DVD version listed as well. Perhaps the DVD will contain the videos from the Atlantic era? Thanks to Chad for the heads up.

UPDATE - 9/19@10:18AM: One thing I'd forgotten to mention was that it's rumored that the album would include some previously unreleased live Atlantic tracks in addition to several studio hits from the last 20 years.

About a month ago I posted the rumor that Rush would be ending their 20-year relationship with Atlantic Records with the release of a new greatest hits package due out next year. There also was speculation that the band might sign with Rounder Records but a few weeks ago Rush management told Classic Rock Magazine that this rumor was not true stating the following:

A spokesperson for Rush has contacted Classic Rock to deny web reports that the band are quitting Atlantic Records for the independent Canadian company Rounder. In fact, Rush are still contracted to Atlantic for one more album. Rounder ... will be issuing the trio's upcoming Snakes & Arrows Live DVD, but that's as far as the arrangement goes.

As I'd stated before, this really doesn't contradict anything I had previously reported. My sources tell me that this one album they refer to will be an Atlantic-era greatest hits package. And that piece of the puzzle now seems to have been indirectly confirmed by Amazon.com, who lists a Rush: Retrospective 3 album due out December 9th. In following the pattern of their previous 2 Retrospective greatest hits albums, we can deduce that this Retrospective 3 package will include the Atlantic-Era from 1987-2007. The previous 2 Retrospectives were released by Mercury to close out their contract with Rush, so it's likely that this Retrospective 3 package will close out the Atlantic contract. Now the question of whether Rush ends up with Rounder Records or someone else is still up in the air. But the fact that the band already has a working relationship with Rounder makes it certainly plausible that they may extend that relationship. We shall see. Thanks to Chad for the heads up.