Signals or GuP

Signals by 1.25 star.

Finnforest wrote: ^ Well, I saw the Grace tour from the 3rd row on Alex's side, and "disappointing" does not describe our evening nor the other fans around us who were very obviously digging it. Had a total blast. Cheesy haircuts? You got me there.

I skipped the GUP tour (I think...?) but did see the PW tour (awesome) and then Presto with the big bunnies
That was my wife's first Rush concert...she liked the bunnies.

Atavachron wrote: Never understood the appeal of GUP, it was a shock to the ears of older fans and the tour was disappointing to say the least.   Grace under pressure indeed, but hardly graceful, and the pressure came from the band, their dismissal of Terry Brown, cheesy '80s haircuts, and the rejection of their fantastic past.

A "shock to the ears of older fans" who wanted 2113, maybe.

Rush enjoyed years of successful collaborations with Broon, but that lake was now a dry bed. Survival requires change. The songwriting was the key. They conjured up eight more fantastic songs that sound patently "Rush." The new material evoked a stark dystopian aesthetic; it was meaner, more urgent, "future-rock."

You have to remember that Signals also did not escape the wrath of "old Rush fans" who lamented the increased role of keyboards in their music. (Alex, too!) Then there were those of us who relished it.

Atavachron wrote: ^ ^ Alex was the best thing that year with his cool new minimal style.   But "I see red, it hurts my head, must be something that I read" was not Peart's best moment.   Even Body Electric's "1 0 0, 1 0 0, 1 in distress" (one of the better things on the album) was a cringe-worthy '80s mech-rock shock when compared to just two years earlier.

Sorry, I disagree. As quirky "Red Lenses" is, it's a great song. There are no bad songs on GUP. It's a perfect album.

If you want to read Neil's cringiest lyrics, those are found on Roll the Bones, Test for Echo, and Snakes and Arrows.   

Catcher10 wrote: I skipped the GUP tour (I think...?) but did see the PW tour (awesome) and then Presto with the big bunnies That was my wife's first Rush concert...she liked the bunnies.

Presto was a weird show. I liked it, it was a good show, but it felt short...because it was short: about 2hrs, with the encores!

It was cool they brought back "Xanadu." I loved that they still opened with "Force Ten." I would've swapped out a Presto song for "Open Secrets" or another from Grace Under Pressure. And they needed to play another twenty minutes!

verslibre wrote: Finnforest wrote: Naturally, if I could have chosen the set list myself, it would have been the first three albums played cover to cover....that's my idea of optimal Rush. Rush + Fly by Night + Caress of Steel? That would get old pretty fast. I've no use for the debut. They sound like a high school band on that.

Never! Still love it.

Agree with you, though, on Grace being a perfect album.

verslibre wrote: Atavachron wrote: Never understood the appeal of GUP, it was a shock to the ears of older fans and the tour was disappointing to say the least.   Grace under pressure indeed, but hardly graceful, and the pressure came from the band, their dismissal of Terry Brown, cheesy '80s haircuts, and the rejection of their fantastic past. A "shock to the ears of older fans" who wanted 2113, maybe. Rush enjoyed years of successful collaborations with Broon, but that lake was now a dry bed. Survival requires change. The songwriting was the key. They conjured up eight more fantastic songs that sound patently "Rush." The new material evoked a stark dystopian aesthetic; it was meaner, more urgent, "future-rock." You have to remember that Signals also did not escape the wrath of "old Rush fans" who lamented the increased role of keyboards in their music. (Alex, too!) Then there were those of us who relished it. Atavachron wrote: ^ ^ Alex was the best thing that year with his cool new minimal style.   But "I see red, it hurts my head, must be something that I read" was not Peart's best moment.   Even Body Electric's "1 0 0, 1 0 0, 1 in distress" (one of the better things on the album) was a cringe-worthy '80s mech-rock shock when compared to just two years earlier. Sorry, I disagree. As quirky "Red Lenses" is, it's a great song. There are no bad songs on GUP. It's a perfect album. If you want to read Neil's cringiest lyrics, those are found on Roll the Bones, Test for Echo, and Snakes and Arrows.

2112 is far from their best record, a bit juvenile if you ask me.   Signals on the other hand was & is a terrific record despite the synths and shortened thematics.

As far as your "eight more fantastic songs" and GUP being a "perfect album", you must be a second-gen Rush fan, it's the only explanation.   And while I agree Roll the Bones was not their peak (saw that tour too), at least it had a modicum of heart.   

Grace Under Pressure was a bowl of cold stone soup.

neither, but GUP and Windows are potentially the worst un-Rush albums ever.

So Signals gets my vote.

Edited by Sean Trane - 11 hours 40 minutes ago at 02:04

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I went with both equally on this one. Signals was the first one I bought and heard but "distant early warning" is my favorite song from anything on either album and there's a few other gems on there too. Overall, I can't really choose between them which is why I decided to go for both equally.

"Afterimage" is a lyric that hits home at a certain age when you start having to say goodbyes.

So many of the songs resonated with friends and myself at the time, and all of us were "early Rush" fans so it was remarkable. We didn't like Signals, but Grace was pretty enthusiastically received by all of us in my little group of high school dorks. We were all living with the constant trauma of having missed the 70s concert scene for being too young, so we took what scraps we were thrown in the 80s and made the best of it.

I like both, but I think Signals is a few steps ahead of GuP with Subdivisions, The Weapon and Losing it.

Signals pour moi.