MOVING PICTURES

This is Rush´s highlight here in Progarchives. But, unfortunately, I do not agree with this view. Moving Pictures lacks uniformity, a problem that does not occur in Hemispheres, Permanent Waves or Grace Under Pressure, for instance.

It is not a problem that Tom Sawyer played a lot in FM, because it is as fantastic as The Spirit Of The Radio. On the other hand, this song presents some instrumental challenges to its players that yields a progressive taste not allowed to be missed by listeners. Other flawless song is Red Barchetta; guys it really rocks !! This song goes forward growing stronger and stronger until a climax followed by a relaxing passage in its end which sounds so much proggy !!

Now let´s see some problems. The Camera Eye used to be one of my favorite songs, but didn´t age well. It is too long only because in a certain way it repeats itself. If we think about epics (or something close to it as a ten minutes song is), to be repetitive is like a sin. Sorry Lee&Lifeson, there should be something different in the second part of The Camera Eye, not only Peart´s poetry. Limelight, Witch Hunt and Vital Signs are good songs, but not exceptional. They can be compared to Circunstances, but not to The Trees; both from Hemispheres. Ok, there is a good guitar solo in Limelight, but that song is in a model verse-chorus-verse that does not make me enthusiastic about it. Finally, YYZ is very strong? but pardon me, not as nice as La Villa Strangiato.

In the end, Moving Pictures is decent and a strong four stars album. No way of five stars, because it is easy to identify its weak points. Tom Sawyer is the best song and is close to radio stations. In Permanent Waves, the strictly proggy Natural Science is the highlight, not The Spirit Of The Radio with this commercial approach (ok, in both case just a slight commercial approach). And, dear friends, this is why I rated them differently.