SIGNALS

I used to assume that among serious Rush fans, Signals had to be the lowest-rated of the group's albums. At a minimum, Signals opens with "Subdivisions," a song without a lead-guitar part until well within its fifth minute - - and this only after a synthesizer solo. Since Rush's synthesizer use would begin to decline after this album, I figured that (a) the band thought they'd gone a little overboard in the synth department on Signals, (b) fans would agree, and consequently, (c) Rush fans would see this album as a low point in the discography. But in making this assumption I overlooked two important things.

First, synth-heavy or not, Signals has three very good songs: "Digital Man," "The Weapon," and "The Analog Kid." "Subdivisions," its near-clone "Countdown," and "New World Man" aren't bad, and "Chemistry" is the only real dud. Second, many, many Rush fans are devotees of drummer Neil Peart, and quite a few others favor bassist/singer/keyboardist Geddy Lee. So the lack of guitar might not be as big a deal-breaker for Rush fans as a whole. Anyway, as of this writing, Signals has a Prog Archives rating of 3.94 - - clearly lower than, but in the same range as, the iconic 2112 (which is rated 4.11).

As a miscellany of songs of varying quality, Signals suffers a bit from being the follow-up to the great Moving Pictures and being followed by the consistent Grace Under Pressure. Even so, a three-star rating (i.e., making it equal to Grace Under Pressure) is more appropriate than two stars; Signals is good, but not essential.