CARESS OF STEEL

Caress of Steel marks Rush's leap into prog. The last album showed hints of where the band was headed with songs like By Tor and the Snow Dog, but this album sped up the slow evolution with two monolithic numbers. Neil Peart by now established himself as lead songwriter, replacing Lee's and Lifeson's admittedly shoddy lyrics. His fascination with sci-fi would later result in the band's triumphs, but here he tried just a lttle too hard a little too soon.

"Bastille Day" opens the album with Peart's musings of the French Revolution processed through the philosophical viewpoint of Ayn Rand. The song is a great opening rocker and it's the highlight of the album.

"I Think I'm Going Bald" is the standard Rush filler. It's a silly tune that ruins the severity of the rest of the album. Now, I love humor in music, but Rush has never once succeeded in making these kinds of songs work. The humor fails miserably. This is what prevents me from ever giving Rush album five stars.

"Lakeside Park" is a poppy song tha the band pulls off quite well. Rush always was good at crafting little pop gems amidst the prog.

"The Necromancer" is the first of two proggy songs that would point in the direction of future releases. The song has the darkness that would later result in the great 2112, but here it lacks the emotion of that great piece. Also, for such a gifted band, the compostion is horrible. This track is a long letdown. The only pro is Alex's solo.

"The Fountain of Lamneth" shows real promise. Peart is in top form on drums, and Lee and Lifeson give their strings a pretty good workout. However, the song drags and Peart reached beyond his grasp with the lyrics. Overall, a pretty good song but nearly as good as later epics.

Caress of Steel is an important record for Rush, but it's a bit banal. The two satndout tracks are Bastille Day and Lakeside Park. I recommend 2112 over this album, since they hammered out all the flaws in their epics for the title track.

Grade: C-

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