MOVING PICTURES

Moving Pictures is one of Rush's best known albums. The album combines the heavy rockof Rush with synthesizers, just like they did on Permanent Waves, their previous album. The combination of distorted guitar and synth is very balanced and I really love it.

The album starts out with "Tom Sawyer", one of Rush's most popular songs. The song has some powerful riffs, great synths and of course amazing drumming of Neil Peart. The song is more accesible than Rush's earlier work, just like most of the songs of Moving Pictures. "Tom Sawyer" is a very good song, though not really a prog song.

Next is "Red Barchetta", a song about a red sports car. The songs starts out with a nice harmonics intro and turns into a song that's just as Tom Sawyer, pretty accesible. "Red Barchetta" is faster and more exciting than Tom Sawyer, it is however, even less a prog track than Tom Sawyer. The song is a fairly simple one, but a very enjoyable one.

The third track is "YYZ", a fantastic instrumental, really, it's amazing. The song starts out with a heavy guitar riff with mysterious sounding synthesizer on the background. After the intro the song goes crazy, a very fast and powerful riff comes in, and all instruments are amazing. Geddy Lee's bass jumps out the most of all, really fast and terribly complicated bass playing, amazing! The song has a very nice guitar solo and some great drum and bass fills, one of the best songs Rush has ever made.

"Limelight" is next, a song about being famous and being recognized on the streets, something Neil Peart really doesn't enjoy. The song is pretty accesible and is just as Red Barchetta a pretty fast and pretty simple song (for prog rock), it is not bad though. One of the great things about this song is the great guitar solo, a solo that's not about technique, but a solo that show's that Alex is really able to do a very emotional guitar solo like David Gilmour. "Limelight" is not the best song of the album, but it's pretty good.

The longest and most proggy song is "The Camera Eye". The song starts out with a lengthy intro, with some guitar licks and a synth riff. The intro is one of those great synth moments, the synth is very balanced with the other instruments, something I really like. After the intro a powerful riff will be heard and soon after that the singing begins. The song is pretty complicated and has a couple of changes is rythms and tempo, some pretty rocking and some very mellow. Near the end of the song Alex plays a lengthy and very good guitar solo and after a couple more seconds of singing the song ends. This song is very good, one of the most memorable moments of the album.

Next is "Witch Hunt", a song about judging people. The song starts out with a soft and pretty creepy sounding intro, but after a while it turns into a rocking song, still in a creepy mood though. The song goes on in the same way till the end, actually the song knows only little diversity, which makes it one of my least favorite of the album.

"Vital Signs" is the last song on the album, and probably the least enjoyable song. The song seems to be pretty reggae influenced, though still having the synths and still being a true Rush song. Apart from the chords that are played, the song has a pretty uninteresting riff. This song is really not the best ending, I can't really enjoy the song.

Moving Pictures has some fantastic songs like "YYZ" and "The Camera Eye", but most songs are not fatastic, though they are good, the album even has some flaws, like "Vital Signs". I don't think the album is a masterpiece, just because several songs prevent it from being that, I do like the album very much though, so I give Moving Pictures a four star rating.