Not very many like this one on PA but to me it is just as good as their previous material with some classic stuff. The progression continues so much so that you forget that this band is a power trio of Heavy music. Great stuff. Classic Rush in my opinion.

Faves from here: Time Stand Still,Open Secrets, Second Nature, Lock & Key, Mission, Tai Shan.

Great period from Rush if you ask me. 

ProgMetaller2112 wrote:  . I love the earlier period (A Farewell to Kings - Moving Pictures) perhaps a tinny bit more(but it's really really close ) Here are some of my favorite work from the Signals album: I love that Geddy's vocals are getting better (really began with Per. Wa). I also love how he plays this little synth bit on Subdivisions(it furthers the band's sound in my opinion) and his bass playing is as good as always. From Alex, he's got some killer solos like on The Analog Kid and Digital Man. His guitar work is continuing to progress as he is adding different kinds of influences in the mix. The Professor is as steady as always as he plays right along with the boys.  Fave from here: Subdivisions, The Analog Kid, Chemistry, New World Man, Losing It. From Grace Under Pressure:  The progression continues. We even get a little ska in here  . I love the lyrics on here though as they are a little more intense. The album has an intense feel behind it.  Faves from here: Distant Early Warning, Afterimage, The Enemy Within, Body Electric, Between the Wheels.  Power Windows:  My personal fave from this era. I feel there is something special behind it. Some have even said that this may as well be the missing link between Yes and the Sex Pistols. The themes behind this one is also one that makes it stand out for me. The theme of power is a real big one. Geddy's keys go perfect with the rest of the music on the album. Faves from here: The Big Money, Marathon, Territories, Middletown Dreams, Mystic Rhythms Hold Your Fire:  Not very many like this one on PA but to me it is just as good as their previous material with some classic stuff. The progression continues so much so that you forget that this band is a power trio of Heavy music. Great stuff. Classic Rush in my opinion. Faves from here: Time Stand Still,Open Secrets, Second Nature, Lock & Key, Mission, Tai Shan. Great period from Rush if you ask me.

 Glad to see you're such a big fan of this period as well. Rush are one of my favorites and if it wasn't for these particular albums, I probably wouldn't be as big of a fan, but I'm glad they went in this stylistic direction. In fact, I saw in an interview with Geddy that he wishes the band could have continued to evolve with the use of synthesizers, but Alex was getting rather tired of, in his own words, 'battling' for space with the keyboards. Truth be told, he never sounded better than he does on these albums. His style was jagged, unpredictable, edgy, spontaneous, and completely insane, but it worked with the music. Those moments when he solos the music just takes off into completely different realm, which shows the importance of his role in Rush. I often wonder how much of this or that is Geddy or Alex (they write all the music), but I've gathered that those moments that hoist the music out of the mechanical grind are Alex, but that highly structured and rhythmic complexity is Geddy. Personally, you can't have one without the other. They just made it work. Neil's role has always been the lyricist, but his drum parts are some of the most incredible of any prog drummer. He may not have much of a hand in the writing of the music, but his contributions to their music is substantial.

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of early Rush and never understood the attraction to be honest. Hemispheres is where things start picking up for me. Anyway, Signals is an amazing record. Subdivisions completely sets up the tone for the entire album. I honestly love every track on this album. Personal favorites are Subdivisions, The Analog Kid, Chemistry, The Weapon, and Losing It. To be even more honest, there's not a weak moment in their 'synth period' for me, but I may be a little biased here. 

Just out of curiosity what is it about the earlier period that you don't really like?

A great era indeed and one that permeates so much of my memory. Just when I think I think I have everything they wrote during period memorized, there's another layer in all of these songs that presents itself that I didn't quite hear before and this is what of love about this time in their history. The music is more textural but they still have managed to remain a bit edgy and rhythmically driven.

I agree that Geddy's vocals are very good during this period. Quite melodic and he even takes some chances vocally that worked incredibly well like Middletown Dreams for example where towards the last go-around with the chorus he sings "Dreams transport desires, drive you when your down." I literally get goosebumps when he makes that vocal leap on when he says "drive you when your down." Absolutely sublime.

I love all the albums during this period. I shouldn't have tried singling out Power Windows, because I think their all very strong musically. 

The main thing is the rather emptiness of the trio format. By the time 2112 was released, however, the usage of keyboards started to evolve. Of course, they didn't have as much importance during this time as they later did. The music itself also just didn't really grab me. Rhythmically they were outstanding at this time, but I still wasn't completely onboard with what they were doing harmonically. Again, this started to change for me on Hemispheres when the music started becoming more complicated.

I do enjoy some of Farewell To Kings. I suppose I could say I enjoy this album more than anything prior they have released.

However the synth period really evolved from Permanent Waves onwards when you think of Jacob's Ladder especially. By the time of Hold You Fire it was becoming a bit tired to me although Force Ten is a great track and one of Rush best.. I also love Signals of course which was very inventive and varied. Grace is okay but didn't quite float my boat as much. 

Couldn't agree more. Power Windows is hands down, my favorite post Moving Pictures album. 

The three album block of PW, HyF, and Presto really scratches an itch for me. Love that stuff.

It's hard to compare those records with what came earlier because they are so different. I will always love Caress, and Hemispheres, and Farewell to Kings, and Permanent Waves as much if not more, but for different reasons.

Subdivisions

Analog Kid

Digital Man

Losing It (very underrated Rush song) Why they didn't play this on the Clockwork Angels tour I don't know. It would have been a perfect song to play with those string musicians as backup)

Between The Wheels

Emotion Detector

Mystic Rhythms (I could easily list all PW songs, sans Big Money)

Time Stand Still

High Water

Best songs: Losing It and The Weapon.

Grace under Pressure: Red Lenses and Distant Early Warning.

Power Windows: The Big Money and Mystic Rhythms.

Hold Your Fire (my second favourite of these): Second Nature, Force Ten and Mission.

Zombi mentioned that Moving Pictures was actually the start of their 'synth period' and while I wouldn't disagree in some respects to his points, I think it can't be counted as a synth album for the simple fact that on many of the songs the keyboards were just an added layer and not an integral part of the music. I'm thinking mainly of Red Barchetta, Limelight, and YYZ. A lot of Moving Pictures is guitar-dominated with just that extra layer of keyboards whereas on Signals the keyboards were fully integrated into the sound of the band.

You don't have Power Windows on CD? Hmmm...get the 1997 remaster. Bob Ludwig did a fantastic job with the remaster. Anyway, how long has it been since you heard Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows?

I put this album among their best albums, and find it vastly underrated. Of course it's not some revolutionary progressive record but it has something that many Rush records lack in certain places, warmth. Rush is one of my favorite bands, and by far the most influential band to my listening, but something some of their records lack is this warmth.

Hold Your Fire is filled with this sense of intimacy or connection. Geddy's voice sounds perfect, his melodies along with some of Neil's best lyrics is probably the big reason why, but also the guitars' tones. The musicianship is still top notch, and will soon decline unfortunately. 

Love this album - not sure what else to say. 

Favorite songs: Mission, Force Ten, Turn the Page, Prime Mover.

A couple of months ago. I got Grace from my local CD shop and Windows from my local Goodwill.

Thanks for this detailed response. It's always great to read people's thoughts on this great period in Rush's history. Also, thanks to everyone else for their responses so far. Great reads!

Again, some very strong points and ones that I don't necessarily disagree with, but my only quibble comes from hearing the actual transition from Moving Pictures to Signals. Like, for example, when the opening keyboard chords crash down in the introduction to Subdivisions, you're clearly in a different aural territory than what came before. The way the keyboard basically dominated that entire song makes me think that this is the start of a different period for the band. Moving Pictures is more of a transitional album IMHO.

I think my favorite overall from this period is Time Stand Still, partly for nostalgic reasons.

Hold Your Fire is my other favourite from synth period and I have never really liked the subsequent albums very much apart from Counterparts and Clockwork Angels.

Yes, I picked on the same feeling you did in Subdivisions, but also a feeling of isolation and even desperation. All these songs you mentioned are first-rate, quintessential Rush.

Isn't it amusing how an album we disliked so many years ago end up becoming favorites? I definitely felt this way about Power Windows, but become a favorite of mine this year and this was a simple matter of musical growth as a listener. I can appreciate things much more now for what they are and not for what the music tries or tries not to be.

I could never get into GUP from that period. Second place would certainly be Signals though. Let's be real here: Subdivisions is a complete anthem. 

I don't listen to any Rush post-Hold Your Fire. I think they lost a lot of magic when the keyboards no longer had an important role in the music. As I mentioned before, Geddy said he wished the band could have expanded on this direction, but Alex was getting pretty fed up with it all.

Personally, I love Grace. Killer album from start to finish. 

At the time, I welcomed their move away from synth. However, most of the albums post-HYF, (exception is presto) don't interest me as much as what came before. There is not one single album after Presto that I listen to in its entirety. They all have some great songs on them but as complete albums are not as interesting.  

Yes, I suppose they reached a certain saturation point and the need to move away from the synthesizers was what needed to happen.

I read an Inteview where Geddy said that they where writting songs like machines, no feeling at all, they went back to basics to feel the music grow again.

From Signals, The analog kid, the weapon drums and Losing it.

Afterimage from GUP is one of my fav, let's think a bit... Between the wheels, the rhythm section is out of this world, hard not to air drum that song,  The bass line on The Enemy Within (the closing section brings shivers down my spine).

From Power windows, the lyrics of Middletown dreams, you need to understand that I was a teenager by the time I meet Rush, so the lyrics where a really important part of the product, and even on the cover you could see that he was talking to us at that time.

From HYF,  the lyrics of Open secrets, and the bass on Prime mover, well really of the whole album, a special album for my teen years.

That's a relief. I thought I was old for having A Show of Hands on VHS 

I got a very particular way of seeing this album, I bought it when it came out, the strange part is that I was getting this similarity with the Candide by Voltaire (witch is by the way one of my fav books, highly recommended), that album has that WOW effect thanks to it, It was a very pleasing surprise, I was totally unaware of that when I bought the latest album of my favorite band. Only by that, it deserves to be among the ones that I like the most.

Grace Under Pressure - Afterimage, Red Sector A

Power Windows - Marathon, Mystic Rhythms

Hold Your Fire (least favorite) - Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Mission (only songs i know from it actually lol)

I love that period of Rush, all the four albums, Power Windows is probably my favourite of the lot but by a small margin, I found Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire brilliant right from the first listens. Signals was the one which took me a bit longer to love in the same measure but eventually it earned all my praise as well.

I guess that the change of style of Signals took me a while to digest and that's why for some time I put that album a bit on hold, considering it as a step down for the mighty Rush. Only when with the later Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows I got used to that new direction and I gave Signals a new chance I realised how good an album it was, even if it was much more modern-sounding than its predecessors.

We all know that classic Rush can be divided in periods of 4 studio albums. I definitely like this period more than their 1st period from self-titled to 2112. If you ask me if I like it more than the 2nd period (A Farewell To Kings to Moving Pictures) then it's a much harder question to answer though.

I can tell you, I remember where I bought each one of my Rush albums, as a teen, Rush was like the soundtrack of my life. Hard not to look at them and smile. 

Thanks Metalmarsh89, I've been reading it for a while, actually looking at the visits on this threat, I think it would be better to open a threat like this one but about the first 4 and so on, after that, we can talk about the live ones, it's up to the creator of this threat.

By the way, I got the albums on this threat on vinyl, I encourage everyone to listen to The enemy within on that format, that's how it was meant to be.

What Geddy thinks of the music and what the fans think thankfully are two different things!  Anyway, I believe this interview I saw with him where he said he wished Rush could have continued on with the synthesizers was on the Beyond the Lighted Stage documentary.

Why would I want to do that? The 'synth period' is my favorite Rush era and I saw no thread dedicated to it. 

Interesting, I don't think I've heard Peart's view on the band's music.

Thanks for this. Man, he's pretty harsh on their earlier work.

Not unusual for an artist to bag on their early work. Totally in character for Peart. I think he's batsh*t crazy when he says that about their 70s music.

This true and definitely true of Genesis. Don't ask Tony Banks what he thinks about The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. He has a problem with pretty much everything on every album. 

I'm not sure they had to adjust to the new sound. On the other hand, they could have gone big hair power ballads instead.  I'll take the synth, thank you very much.

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/keyboard-09.1984.php" rel="nofollow - http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/keyboard-09.1984.php

Excellent article/interview. Thanks for sharing. That website cygnus-x1.net is a fantastic resource for us Rush fans.

Closer To The Heart is a concert favorite of course as are excerpts from 2112 and La Villa Strangiato.