GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

RUSH took a couple years off after "Signals" to release their 10th studio album GRACE UNDER PRESSURE which takes their progressive synth pop style and channels it into a slightly stronger album with some excellent songs that pack a little more guitar punch than the last album despite having no solos. Perhaps they were influenced a bit by the jangle pop of The Smiths, R.E.M or other similar bands of the day. This is a much darker album with lyrics addressing worldly issues focusing on the pressure human beings face in the modern world which gives reference to environmental problems, nuclear annihilation and other less-than-uplifting themes such as holocaust survival.

This is actually one of the 80s RUSH albums I have listened to the most. I have always loved the songs on this album. "Distant Early Warning" and "Red Sector A" are two of my favorite RUSH songs and I find the entire album to be a very competent and a beautiful listening experience. The conceptual theme is well represented and the band really hones this particular sound and masters it in a way that makes it hard to believe that they were any else but a mere few albums prior. I'm sorry to see that this album generally doesn't get as much love as their earlier works and granted this is substandard to that era, but a substandard album of this caliber is much more than lesser bands could ever hope to achieve.