PERMANENT WAVES

MASTERPIECE! This Rush album holds a special place in my heart... hands down my favorite Rush album, if not my favorite album of all-time. This album catches Rush in a transitory period, taking their hard rock roots and adding a little twist of new wave rock á la the police. Focusing on shorter pieces, Rush truly hones their creative capabilities for this album. There is not a bad song on this album! As Dave said in his review, this album has Rush focusing more on real issues and less on fantasy adventures, although "Jacob's Ladder" does have the band taking its listeners on another adventure. Peart covers some interesting topics here: the nature of the music industry, relationships, human nature, and of course, freewill. Although Rush had trouble balancing the synths with the guitar in many other albums, Permanent Waves strikes the right mix. "The Spirit of Radio" is absolutely classic, and Rush jams out together leaving the synths behind, and then turns a 180 and focuses mainly on synths in "Jacob's Ladder". Besides "The Spirit of Radio" and "Freewill", which are undoubtedly classics, "Natural Science" is definitely an underrated masterpiece in the Rush catalogue. A powerful piece from beginning to end, "Natural Science" shows that Rush isn't ready to leave its prog rock influence behind just yet (wait until Signals for that!). Highly recommended! If you don't have this album, GET IT!