HOLD YOUR FIRE

There's a continuity from Power Windows to HYF. Not so clear in the composition, but in sound, which could be thought as glittering, acute (courtesy of Jimbo Burton). Mid-tempo songs are prevalescent, and songs are an average 5 minutes long. Of course, we are in the eighties, so suites and epic tracks are no longer here, but the path they had taken years before makes coherent and even desirable this fact.

HYF is a record full of subtle arrangements, with a female voice for the first time (Aimee Mann in Time stand still), sample sounds in Force Ten, the heaviest song here, and keyboards here, there and everywhere. Peart's labor is so rich in rhythmic variations as it was in PW, and sometimes is directly responsible of the climate of the theme (Prime mover is a good example of what Y mean). Geddy Lee adds a way of playing, described by himself 'fingerpicking & snacking', resulting a foreground bass with a protagonic melodic role. Somehow, it's the same way of Vital Signs or Tom Sawyer. Lifeson appears in the end, despite he attains some space from keyboards and synthesizers in a couple of songs. His guitar is lighter, in a full sense, which by no means is bad and contributes with the musical concept of this work.

Some things may be missed, such as the monolithic wall of sound, perversely syncronized from the bass and guitar present not so long ago. Voices are tuned and without those witch excesses of the first times. But to reduce Rush sound to that is, at least, an appreciation mistake. HYF is essencially Rush, and a confirmation of the progressive spirit of the band with no need of baroque scales or multiphonic harmonies.

This is another step forward in the path taken since Permanent Waves (1980). Since then, each album brings more technical, rhythmical and sonorous complexness, inside a riskful evolution. For this reason, it was said that they had became a 'sound engineers' band', which is not bad at all, except for being an exageration. Maybe there's few rock'n'roll in the structural way, and hard rock seekers may be confused, the same as the ones who search for a new Xanadu. The 'art-rock' gives way to an 'art-pop' magnifically played and serious. Rush hasn't lost poetic quality, and still transports you to a deep and calm exaltation. This is a record homogeneous and careful, delicate and mature.