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The Modern Rock Review has published an extensive feature on Rush. Included are two multi-part articles, two editorial articles, and a discography. - Thanks to Ric Albano at Modern Rock Review for the headsup!
The Modern Rock Review has published an extensive feature on Rush. Included are two multi-part articles, two editorial articles, and a discography. - Thanks to Ric Albano at Modern Rock Review for the headsup!
Ugh! Do I ever get tired of people putting down Rush's mid-80s output, as if the material is less valid because of it's style and orchestration. Okay, I probably would have been cross were I Alex at the time, but Rush, as always, did their own thing, they moved with the times, and the moved away because they felt like it. Much of their fan-dom's minds tastes seem so limited and centered around guitar rock, and their distaste for Hold Your Fire only comes from a knee-jerk detraction from the synthesizer, or maybe to somehow equating it to selling out. If hard rock is your thing, that music likely won't suit you, but if you can get over your prejudice, the albums are quite good, because whatever the instrumental arrangements, it's still Rush, and that means excellence.
ReplyDeleteAdam,
ReplyDeleteI do not think our article was a "knee-jerk detraction from the synthesizer". In fact, we were quite positive in reviewing Grace Under Pressure and Presto, both synth-heavy albums. We just feel that Power Windows and Hold Your Fire are mostly uninspiring, as if the band was just going through the motions.
Ric Albano
Editor, Modern Rock Review
I second Adam and in fact go even further to say that "Power Windows" (PoW) and "Hold Your Fire" (HYF) are two of the best Rush albums and the ones that I listen to the most even today. If you read the liner notes of the two albums, you'll see that the band was *not* going through the motions - far from it.
ReplyDeleteOn PoW, "Marathon", "The Manhattan Project", "The Big Money", "Territories", "Mystic Rhythms" and "Middletown Dreams" are all excellent songs. Even "Emotion Detector" has a great opening and a killer solo.
On HYF, "Force Ten", "Time Stand Still", "Open Secrets", "High Water", "Mission" and "Turn the Page" are great songs. In the liner notes, Geddy comments on how they finally learned to write *songs* as opposed to merely stringing together chords with shifting time signatures. Also, the additional orchestrations on PoW and HYF are superior to any other Rush album and for me personally, the lyrics to "Marathon", "Territories", "Mission" and "High Water" are unbeatable.