SIGNALS

'Signals' has to be Rush's synth-prog album, directly following-up the acclaimed and rather excellent 'Moving Pictures', this is the album that sees the Canadian trio tipping their toes into new wave territory, offering an album of eight tracks that focuses on a more melodic approach with lush synth layering, often at the expense of Lifeson's guitars (which never sounded like a good idea). Still, this album does not fail to deliver and is a great collection of accessible, melodic, lush and sometimes even "mechanical" songs that allows us to see how Rush would deal with a genre mostly unfamiliar to them, but one that had allowed them to stay relevant during the decade of the 1980s. And it is this precise sense of ingenuity, of doing things "the Rush way" that makes 'Signals' a really good entry (well, once you understand its place and role within the band's discography).

This is the album where Rush really manage to improve their choruses and we see a more seamless transition between the moody and ethereal synth passages and the rockier, more traditional riffs, definitely not abundant here. The meliorated songwriting is arguably the novelty of this album, which can end up as overlooked and underappreciated, given that it had never received the attention of the previous two albums. But songs like 'Subdivisions', 'The Analog Kid', 'Digital Man', and 'Countdown' are all very strong Rush tracks with a more predictable, recognizable and advertisable sound, if you will, and these are all qualities that serve 'Signals' well, which is a good (and eventually) logical step on from 'Moving Pictures'. Let's not forget how dense and rewarding the bass playing of Geddy Lee is here, together with the tasteful and elegant licks of Alex Lifeson. This is an album with good writing, decent instrumentation, good production and enjoyable signing, seeing Rush in a slightly different role.

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