RUSH

With 'Counterparts' Rush returned to a sound much more familiar to themselves and to their fans, in a metaphorical way "abandoning" entirely their synth-based meanderings and composing a heavy album that can without a doubt be seen as the band's strongest and perhaps most consistent release since 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals'. Juggling between crushing riffs with a rampant rhythm section and gorgeous melodies with balanced writing, 'Counterparts' is a great example of a return to form after the less enthralling albums 'Presto' and 'Roll the Bones'. Of course, as the story goes, some turmoil did encompass the band during the writing of the album, mainly coming from Lee's desire to use synths extensively for the embellishment of the songs, and Lifeson's insistence on sticking to a more guitar-based sound. Notwithstanding, the end result is a strong collection of songs dealing with the duality of human nature as well as love and sexuality, which is a bit unusual for Rush as a band not known for their love songs.

Stylistically, we can hear the prevailing influence of alternative rock and grunge over many of the album's tracks - the band utilized heavier guitars and a more organic production resulting in a daring and unfiltered sound that simply suits Rush well. Working with produced Peter Collins, it becomes even less surprising to understand why the Canadian trio opted for a heavier sonic presentation on 'Counterparts'. Cathartic opener 'Animate' sets a fantastic and engaging tone for the album, declaring its strong departure from the more lighthearted nature of preceding albums. 'Stick It Out' follows up with an even more traditional hard rock sound, this is a great track in which each player is able to stand out. 'Cut to the Chase' is a bit more experimental but still very good. What makes a lasting impression here is the excellent songwriting and the smart arrangements - e perfect combination of Rush's sophisticated classic albums and their accumulated experience, given that 'Counterparts' is their fifteenth studio album. 'Nobody's Hero' is another beautiful entry, a bit more melancholic, this is not the typical Rush song. After that, the middle of the album loses some of the initial steam, although still cramped with good songs that tend to get less heavy, until the end of the album where the listener encounters a gorgeous instrumental 'Leave That Thing Alone' and the powerful 'Cold Fire'.

Overall, 'Counterparts' is a more typical Rush album, mature and digestible, the heavier sounds are more than welcome after more than a decade of experimenting with pop and new wave. Both hard rock and prog fans should find plenty of delightful material on here, and while not a perfect album per se, this is a strong and contemporary release that still sounds as good.

'Roll the Bones' from 1991 continues the musical musings of Rush indicated by their previous studio album 'Presto'. Reacting to the popularity of the "digital" way of writing music, the band had turned their backs on synths and keys and embraced the more traditional way of writing as a rock band, only using a guitar, bass and drums (with the keys occasionally supporting or providing an orchestral touch to the songs). With an album that deals with the theme of chance, 'Roll the Bones' is a fine mixture of solid, rocking tracks and funkier, more lighthearted pieces, even famously featuring a rap section on the title track. And while the album might seem to have a little bit of an experimental nature, it is often a bit less cathartic than your usual heavy Rush, and definitely slightly mediocre at times (very few times, though).

Alex Lifeson is definitely at the forefront here, Lee's basslines sound as good as ever, and the warm, technical and immersive playing of Neal Peart could not leave Rush fans cold on this LP, with a "visibly" better songwriting but definitely not a brilliant production, we have an interesting and intelligent but not necessarily always musically exciting album that serves as a fine transition between the band's pop rock sound from a few years prior and their excellent return to their original sound, although with much stronger songwriting, better playing and vocals and a maturity in the lyrical content. 'Roll the Bones' is a good 90s rock/pop album, although nothing exceptional - great songs on here include 'Dreamline', 'Bravado', 'Where's My Thing', 'The Big Wheel', the excellent 'Ghost of a Chance' and to an extent 'You Bet Your Life'. The rest of the material is good but lacking something in terms of production. Nevertheless, 'Roll the Bones' was a commercial success for Rush, bringing the band back to the charts.

Rush concluded their fruitful and rather successful decade of the eighties with the release of 'Presto', an album that unlike its predecessor, exhibits signs of the band coming back to their rock heritage yet still embracing techniques and production values from their previous experiments with lush instrumentation and more straightforward arrangements. Generally astute, this 1989 release is a good return to form for Rush, featuring several really fine songs, although one might get the impression that something is missing, knowing how much the band had relied on synths and keyboards up until that point. With the decision to come back to a more guitar-driven sound, Rush indicated a sign of maturity in a sense, understanding that they had reached a certain level of their music that had necessitated a refreshment.

Still, we see the use of synths in a more supportive role all over 'Presto', which lyrically feels a bit more personal and maybe even adult-oriented despite not having an overarching theme like the previous album. The result of all this is a solid album that opens up with a great song ('Show Don't Tell'), is followed by a few hit-or-miss moments, has a rather strong middle and keeps the bar even until the end, offering nice tracks like 'Scars', 'Superconductor', 'Hands Over Fist' and 'Available Light'. Slightly forgettable, 'Presto' tends to sound like a feelgood soft rock album, which just doesn't necessarily fit a band who is much better at writing heavy music - good LP but not essential Rush.

'Hold Your Fire' comes soon after the great 'Power Windows', and as a late 80s Rush album, this is a release that sees the band embracing their pop side to the fullest - we have lush instrumentation all over, the typical new wave production values, a more straightforward writing (and subsequently, a less sophisticated musical palette) as well as some fine vocals delivering some even finer lyrics dealing with various aspects of life and the like. Lee's role as a band leader is arguably more prominent on this album than on some of the preceding ones, and this might also be the first time where Alex Lifeson's role is "reduced" to a more supportive one, with the guitars taking a back seat in favor of synths and effects. Even within the frame of such an incarnation, Alex Lifeson delivers some tasteful licks and some truly wonderful solos, so do not be fooled by the pop direction of 'Hold Your Fire', this is still Rush!

The album is composed of ten tracks, five on each side, and following the strong releases by the band in recent years, we have some brilliant tracks - powerful, passionate, intricate and very melodic, there are great entries like the opener 'Force Ten', the lovely 'Open Secrets', 'Prime Mover' and 'Lock and Key', together with the thoughtful 'Misson'. At the same time, 'Hold Your Fire' bolsters some songs with questionable quality, leaving the listener wondering what the band was trying with some of these songs - the single 'Time Stand Still' is a too obnoxious 80s sugar pop, 'Second Nature' is too mellow and wimpy, 'Tai Shan' is another surprising entry that lacks a general direction, and the album closer 'High Water' is a bit indulgent. So, the overall personal reaction to 'Hold Your Fire' would be generally indifferent, but this is a good album, nonetheless, featuring both excellent and mediocre songs; good but not excellent in its entirety.

Rush explore the various manifestations of power on their excellent mid-80s album 'Power Windows', a record that continues the band's ingenious synth-driven amalgamation of prog, pop and AOR, taking in many respects the best aspects of their previous couple of albums and delivering a more ambitious, consistent and lush work. 'Power Windows' remains quite an understudy in this catalogue, which is a shame given that this is a tight record with fabulous songwriting (you get some of the most convincing and moving 80s Rush material, definitely on par with the music on 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals'), really good singing from Geddy Lee (I would argue among his best recordings for the band), and a very quirky, inventive and powerful use of synths, achieving a sonic balance that overshadows that of the few preceding albums.

'Power Windows' is Rush displaying everything they had learned throughout the decade and synthesizing their sound in a very melodic and accessible format - there are no weak entries on here and the all the songs maintain the same level of precision and intrigue. Once again trying out to work with a new producer, 'Power Windows' is definitely a success and an underrated piece of work that produced great tracks like the popular opener 'The Big Money', the gorgeous 'Manhattan Project', or the uplifting 'Marathon', not forgetting excellent songs like 'Middletown Dreams', one of the songs with the best production on a Rush LP and, of course, the really strong 'Mystic Rhythms'. Just great playing and writing overall, this album is a solid step up from the less focused 'Grace Under Pressure'.

Being the successor of 'Signals', there should not be too much separating 'Grace Under Pressure' from its predecessor and yet the tenth studio album by Rush is a steady misstep along the creative path of the Canadian power trio, and the first studio album not to be produced by their long-time producer Terry Brown. But it is not just the change in the producer, since 'Grace Under Pressure' is actually a good album, a decent-sounding one with several fine tracks - the main problem here is the lack of drive that 'Signals' had exhibited two years prior, the lack of originality perhaps, too, and the lack of the adventurous aspect that elevates many of the classic Rush albums.

Still, each band member shines as a virtuoso instrumentalist, and while 'Grace Under Pressure' tends to leave more space for Alex Lifeson, and dial down on the synth sounds, this is still not a remedial move as Rush go for a Genesis-like 80s style of synth-rock that generally does not allow them to unfold the potential of their writing or playing. On a more positive note, some of the good material on here is to be heard within songs like 'Distant Early Warning', 'The Body Electric', or 'Between the Wheels' - just the dynamics of this record are lackluster, and the album tends to be a bit too formulaic for Rush standards.

'Signals' has to be Rush's synth-prog album, directly following-up the acclaimed and rather excellent 'Moving Pictures', this is the album that sees the Canadian trio tipping their toes into new wave territory, offering an album of eight tracks that focuses on a more melodic approach with lush synth layering, often at the expense of Lifeson's guitars (which never sounded like a good idea). Still, this album does not fail to deliver and is a great collection of accessible, melodic, lush and sometimes even "mechanical" songs that allows us to see how Rush would deal with a genre mostly unfamiliar to them, but one that had allowed them to stay relevant during the decade of the 1980s. And it is this precise sense of ingenuity, of doing things "the Rush way" that makes 'Signals' a really good entry (well, once you understand its place and role within the band's discography).

This is the album where Rush really manage to improve their choruses and we see a more seamless transition between the moody and ethereal synth passages and the rockier, more traditional riffs, definitely not abundant here. The meliorated songwriting is arguably the novelty of this album, which can end up as overlooked and underappreciated, given that it had never received the attention of the previous two albums. But songs like 'Subdivisions', 'The Analog Kid', 'Digital Man', and 'Countdown' are all very strong Rush tracks with a more predictable, recognizable and advertisable sound, if you will, and these are all qualities that serve 'Signals' well, which is a good (and eventually) logical step on from 'Moving Pictures'. Let's not forget how dense and rewarding the bass playing of Geddy Lee is here, together with the tasteful and elegant licks of Alex Lifeson. This is an album with good writing, decent instrumentation, good production and enjoyable signing, seeing Rush in a slightly different role.

'Moving Pictures' is by far the most successful Rush album and the one that produced the omnipresent hit 'Tom Sawyer', and while there might not be much room for speculation on how important this record is for the band, catapulting them to a status of stardom reserved only for a select few artists, this is also the album that marks the most drastic shift in the band's sound, as Rush focus extensively on writing shorter, more straightforward and often radio-friendly tracks, while preserving their adventurous spirit and the desire to experiment with different styles and playing techniques. 'Moving Pictures' is also the last studio album to feature a song surpassing the ten-minute mark, which is another sign of that aforementioned change in sound. For what concerns the music on this album, we often speak of some of the most accessible Rush material, relying on more predictable patterns and more streamlined, memorable lyrics that dare not to step into the fantastical territory of earlier releases.

A commendable achievement in terms of balancing their capabilities of writing good pop tunes and their overall progressive, technical approach to playing through, Rush present a collection of seven entries in a style much more presentable for radio stations than a 'Hemispheres' or a '2112'. The extensive experiments with synths, so prevalent on their 80s material, 'Moving Pictures' is perhaps the one record that achieves the finest balance between the keyboards and the sweeping guitars of Alex Lifeson. Notwithstanding, 'Moving Pictures' is undoubtedly a drummer's album - this is the LP that exhibits Neal Peart's drumming antics like no other, as his acrobatic all-around style is so upfront, cerebral and entirely impressive that you can't help but marvel at the complexity of the drum playing. There is a great unison with the bass, which never dares to overtake the space occupied by the drums on this album.

But then again, even if this album contains several iconic Rush tracks and exhibits some of the band's best playing (mostly referring to the instrumental 'YYZ' and the epic 'The Camera Eye'), this is also one of the albums that feels the most emotionally detached, often leaving the listener in the cold, with the band focusing on delivering a tighter arrangement and a playful fill at the expense of a more natural flow or a more organic unfolding of many of the tracks. It might also be the pressure exercised by the media in lauding the album ad infinitum but I do believe Rush released better albums prior to 'Moving Pictures', which is in any case a great leap forward for them into the territory of more accessible, straightforward rock music.

Time Machine is perhaps one of the more inessential live Rush albums. They'd put out enough of these at this point that most devoted fans will have multiple live versions of much of this material already, and they hadn't put out a new studio album between this and Snakes & Arrows so there's significant overlap with Snakes & Arrows Live. The audience is also too prominent in the mix - almost as though to prove that this was recorded live rather than just consisting of studio runthroughs - which is a problem which also affected R30 and Rush In Rio.

But on top of all that, this captures the band on an off-night! Geddy Lee apparently had a terrible cold, but bravely performed anyway, and whilst that was nice for the people live in attendance at the same thing I feel like it should have prompted them to cancel the recording and just record a different gig on the tour instead - or, even more sensibly, just tape several gigs on the tour and pick the best one. And if they did the latter and decided that this was the one to release live anyway, that's mildly embarrassing to say the least.

Rush entered the new decade with a more than brilliant release in the face of their expansive, epic work 'Permanent Waves', an album that marks a strong creative achievement along the greatest run of albums for the band. With just six tracks in rotation, Rush deliver a more concise but quite straightforward piece of work that tries to experiment with more radio-friendly arrangements and sounds, while necessarily preserving the progressive spirit, felt enormously on every single track on here. 'Permanent Waves' marks a shift in the way Rush albums sound, which might be attributed to the better production and the overall step up for the band in terms of writing and performing the material. A certain sense of maturity engulfs this album, which amazed with the taste for balance and control over the compositions.

Already expanding the scope of their music on preceding albums and trying out various instruments and mainly synths and synth pedals, Rush do not shy away from trying our a variety of styles on 'Permanent Waves', exuding a sense of musical eloquence that perhaps was not so obvious on previous albums. The listener will see them trying out some radio-friendly arrangements on 'The Spirit of Radio' and 'Freewill', a format the band is familiar with as well as some very complex, unpredictable and epic compositions, occasionally much darker than the usual Rush tune, in the face of the two main highlights on here 'Jacob's Ladder' and 'Natural Science', both of which are just too good. The tasteful solos of Alex Lifeson, the upfront menacing bass picks of Lee and the all-over-the-place drumming of Neal Peart all make this album quite special, everything fits perfectly and works as an excellent LP with several moments of true progressive greatness. 'Different Strings' is another excellent entry, while 'Entre Nous' provides a nice counterbalance to the heavier, more menacing tones.