Rockers, art directors, and artists have made great teams since the glory days of album art—even right up to the slightly less awesomeness of tiny, non-tactile images on Spotify and other streaming services. From Reid Miles’ iconic Blue Note album covers to Peter Blake’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band masterwork, to Roger Dean’s artistry for Yes, Storm Thorgerson’s for Pink Floyd, Peter Saville’s for Factory Records, and so many others, the synergy of visual art and music has forged compelling, seductive, and tremendously marketable iconography for both bands and fans. But few creative collaborations can match the continuous 40-year rapport between artist Hugh Syme and Rush. Recently, that artistic relationship was documented in a gorgeous coffee table book, Art of Rush: Serving a Life Sentence [IDW Publishing]. The tome not only includes original illustrations, paintings, and photographs, it reveals the working relationship of the band and artist—particularly the input […]

September 2021 Issue