Rush's early modern album page
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Leaving behind the epic length pieces of "The Great Era", Rush concentrated on writing better shorter-length songs. The result of these attempts would reach full maturity in the studio meisterwerk: Power Windows. Each of these cds would employ greater and greater use of technology, eventually Rush would produce work which would be accompanied by string sections, brass bands, and choirs! Signals is the first experiment with using different effects; Hold Your Fire is the polished end-result of this era of Rush's creativity!
Signals represents Rush's first experiment with shorter song structures and more
synthesizers. Overall, the songs, "Subdivisions," "The Analog Kid" and "The Weapon" are very good!
"Digital Man," "Chemistry," "Countdown," "New World Man" and "Losing It" are superb! Rush has integrated
the "reggae" and "ska" sounds fully into their repertoire! At this point, many critics accused Rush of
plagiarizing The Police!
Grace Under Pressure is a slight disappointment! I'm sorry to say that a new
producer: (Peter Henderson of Supertramp's "Breakfast In America" fame) comes onboard and produces
a rather mediocre album. True, not every producer can produce an ESL!" But this album is just not
very polished: It reminds one of Rush's early days when they were searching for their own sound!
The best songs are: "Distant Early Warning," "Red Lenses," "Red Sector A" and "Afterimage." The rest
contains quite a bit of filler! A major disappointment from such a great band!
Indeed! A good title! This album sounds like a 50:34 long suite- broken into 10 distinct parts!
Quite possibly overproduced! Great? Yes! Superb? No! The songs are all superb, but they
sound too much like each other-there is not enough variety- unfortunately! An album whose concept is about
creativity! The best songs are: "Prime Mover," "High Water," "Tai Shan," "Open
Secrets," "Second Nature" and "Turn The Page!" "Mission," which holds the key
to uniting this work-makes this seem like one long suite! "Time Stand Still," "Force Ten" and
"Lock And Key" are also very good!
Time to sound like an automaton, eh? Rush's third live album is so well produced that the
vocals sound like they were generated by a computer! I appreciate the paean to modern technology; but I
have to wonder, if the songs would not have been much better had they been given the "ESL"-type treatment?
Many great songs dominate this cd, but it lacks the energy and intensity
of the second live album!
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