GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

Grace Under Pressure is part of RUSH's "Synthesizer Period". All of these albums came out during the 1980's and represent the band's post-Moving Pictures era. The albums are Signals (1982), Grace Under Pressure (1984), Power Windows (1985), Hold Your Fire (1987) and A Show of Hands "Live" (1988).

Grace Under Pressure was another turning point for the band. This was the first time the band members ventured off without their long-time producer Terry Brown. This decision ultimately led to many problems that the band had to eventually overcome. There were long delays in production. Notice the two year gap between Signals and Grace Under Pressure (hence the title, there was a lot of pressure on the band to complete this record). The band was actually in the studio for about four and a half months, longer than they had ever worked on an album before.

Due to the lack of a competent producer, Grace Under Pressure has a distinct sound and feel that no other Rush album ever had. Even though it is part of the band's "synthesizer period", Grace is less overtly synth- laden than Signals was. Grace seems to strike a better balance between the guitars and keyboards than some of the albums from this era.

I actually saw this tour and it was as entertaining as ever. But, it was the beginning of the end for me, and many other rock music fans who had been enjoying Rush music for a long time. From this point forward, the quality of Rush's musical output really started going downhill, and I was disappointed more and more with each subsequent release. Rush's synthesizer period starts off great with Signals. Then Grace Under Pressure, which is good, but sadly the worst was yet to come, just over the mid-80's horizon.