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Rush - Permanent Waves CD (album) cover

PERMANENT WAVES

Rush

 

Heavy Prog

4.28 | 2362 ratings

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A Crimson Mellotron
Prog Reviewer
5 stars Rush entered the new decade with a more than brilliant release in the face of their expansive, epic work 'Permanent Waves', an album that marks a strong creative achievement along the greatest run of albums for the band. With just six tracks in rotation, Rush deliver a more concise but quite straightforward piece of work that tries to experiment with more radio-friendly arrangements and sounds, while necessarily preserving the progressive spirit, felt enormously on every single track on here. 'Permanent Waves' marks a shift in the way Rush albums sound, which might be attributed to the better production and the overall step up for the band in terms of writing and performing the material. A certain sense of maturity engulfs this album, which amazed with the taste for balance and control over the compositions.

Already expanding the scope of their music on preceding albums and trying out various instruments and mainly synths and synth pedals, Rush do not shy away from trying our a variety of styles on 'Permanent Waves', exuding a sense of musical eloquence that perhaps was not so obvious on previous albums. The listener will see them trying out some radio-friendly arrangements on 'The Spirit of Radio' and 'Freewill', a format the band is familiar with as well as some very complex, unpredictable and epic compositions, occasionally much darker than the usual Rush tune, in the face of the two main highlights on here 'Jacob's Ladder' and 'Natural Science', both of which are just too good. The tasteful solos of Alex Lifeson, the upfront menacing bass picks of Lee and the all-over-the-place drumming of Neal Peart all make this album quite special, everything fits perfectly and works as an excellent LP with several moments of true progressive greatness. 'Different Strings' is another excellent entry, while 'Entre Nous' provides a nice counterbalance to the heavier, more menacing tones.

A Crimson Mellotron | 5/5 |

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