POWER WINDOWS

Unpopular opinion: this is my favourite Rush album. Not their best or most important but favourite. Perhaps it is the fact that this is the first album I ever heard from Rush, but surely it's not just that. For starters there are superb songs like Marathon (which deals about the persistence one needs to realise their dreams), Territories (Neil here pens the differences of the assorted cultures between West and Far East and played for the first time ever bongo percussion), Emotion Detector, the opener Big Money of course, but also Middletown Dreams which, uncannily, gets me the most. When it comes to a Rush album nothing is more superfluous than saying that the bass lines and the drum parts are top-notch, but there you are. The guitar parts are a bit pushed back whereas the keyboard parts take a more leading role, which suits the songs perfectly, though. These richer arrangements (as opposed to the Guitar/bass/drums ones) are fine with me, although sometimes they get too 80s, so to speak. Personally, I also find Lee's vocals more appealing to me since they are more mid-ranged than soaring high. So, there you have it. Music is a strange thing! And this one, in particular, makes feel good so many years now - and I'm sure for many more to come.