HOLD YOUR FIRE

After they reached rock bottom with the abysmal Power Windows album, Rush finally managed to break out of the downward spiral they found themselves in after Moving Pictures and release their best album since Signals in Hold Your Fire. The band is once again more inspired here than in several years and the songs are generally quite strong in comparison with other post-Moving Pictures Rush albums. As far as Prog goes, however, it should simply not be expected here. The band's Prog-phase was since long over at this point in time. The turn towards shorter and more conventional compositions and more polished and radio friendly production can be traced as far back as Permanent Waves at the dawn of the 80's and it reached its culmination in the mid 80's with albums like Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows and the present one. Of these three, I personally like this one the best.

Hold Your Fire consists of 10 tracks, all of them between four and six minutes in length and mostly quite similar to each other in mood and tempo. Two exceptions are the World-Music/Chinese-influenced ballad Tai Shan and the closer High Water, both on which Geddy Lee hands in some of his best vocal performances ever! Some unusual - for this band - elements are featured on this album such as electronic percussion, female backing vocals, string arrangements and even a brass section. Several guests appear on the album, which is also unusual for Rush. However, the presence of these "alien" musical elements are mostly very discrete. The production is very much of its time, corporate and a bit "plastic" (like Yes' Big Generator album from the same year, for example).

A decent album that is recommended to the band's many fans and collectors, but not for Prog fans in general

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