2112

This is the first "real" album for Rush. This is where they overtly shed their very plain and easily noticed influences in favor of their own identifying sound. the title track is also one of the most well known songs in their catalog.

This is also where they finally began playing as a full band, and not just a group of people jamming together. The title track which takes up half the album houses many very good musical ideas, and most of them are explored adequately. Still, many weak moments pop up from time to time. The fiery first seven minutes of the song are pure classic, while the song slowly dips farther and farther down as it progresses along.

The softer segments never went across well to me. I felt that Geddy's voice wasn't strong enough to skillfully implicate the song's theme, and their prowess as a band only shines on a few key portions of the song. As much a powerful statement 2112 can be, it is held back by stagnation from previous tendencies, and the lyrics haven't gotten much better. the hard rock past has been amplified, and they rock harder than ever before, but it still hasn't risen above some somewhat simplistic structures and rhythms.

Side two is the normal gamut of hard rock with progressive touches that Rush so expertly perform. The arrangements are solid, and never offend. A Passage To Bangkok is well enough for a rocker, but the keyboard touches bother me. Not the strongest seen, but competent.

The Twilight Zone is the first major sag in quality. They get softer, and it doesn't flow well. The main melody is fine, and the guitar wails, but after that, it all goes weak and meandering. Geddy doesn't show off, masterfully, but the mood it creates is serviceable. In fact, the entire second side is mainly classic hard rock, with a Rush tint. Lessons cultivates this notion with the derivative main guitar riff, and almost power ballad in the use of singing register and simplistic acoustics.

Tears drops even lower.It slows down even more, and the main theme is even more shallow, but not as shallow as the worst from previous albums. An improvement overall, but mainly in Rush having found their sound, rather than any real technical progression or advancement. Something for Nothing closes adequately. The song feels stiff, and they don't have cohesion that the first side had. The album's atmosphere is far stronger than any other album Rush made, so far, but this still feels like amateur composition by the band.

In all, you get a lot of hit and miss with the first real Rush album, with many highlight moments on side one, and side two being very much the latter, as it caters to the simplistic classic rock fan. A more coherent and "together" album than anything they made, but lacks a consistently high quality.

Best Moment - Side 1

Worst Moment - Side 2 (lessons/tears specifically)

*** Interstellar Stars

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