POWER WINDOWS

Power Windows represents so much in the Rush catalog. First, I consider it underrated b/c I place among the best of their releases. Second, it is their last truly great release, with all following albums suffering from a lack of great songs. Third, it represents the musical highpoint of the synth stage of the band's career. Finally, unfortunately, it shows the stagnation of the band. While all the songs are great, there's nothing new here, nothing they haven't done before. For that reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5.

I just can't get over how good the songs as this album are. It's mostly due to the band's great chops and comfort with the technology they've embraced. Here you'll find digital sequencers, drum machines, looped guitars.....an enthusiastic embrace of all that was the rage in 80s synth sounds. But it is the songs that make it all good. Big Money is a classic 80's pop rock song. Grand Designs and Middletown Dreams feature the razoer sharp staccato guitar work Lifeson had perfected at this point. Territtories combines the more subdued 80's Rush with Peart's world-vision lyrics perfectly. Mystic Rhythms is synth heavy but creates a brooding atmosphere.

All in all the final culmination of perhaps the greatest 12-year run of music consistency in the annals of rock music. From 1974 to 1986 Rush released no less than nine 4 and 5 star albums and toured for a year and a half behind each one. That is a record I'm not sure any other band, of any type, can match. Power Windows represents the end of that run, but it is a fitting conclusion.,