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Signals vs Grace Under Pressure


YYZumbi
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80 members have voted

  1. 1. Which one is the best?



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Signals is their best ever. Grace is also one of their best, but the production kills it for me. The songs are great though, and sound so good live!

 

Ha!

 

I hate Signals production, and just LOVE GUP's cold, crisp and ultimately atmospheric sound!

 

Crazy haha...what's wrong with Grace's production might I ask?

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The production kills me but i've said it's to Police for me. I know i know..........some people will say it's not there. to me it's all over. more so then Signals which features police influence to. but it sticks out more for me on Grace.

 

Mick

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The production kills me but i've said it's to Police for me. I know i know..........some people will say it's not there. to me it's all over. more so then Signals which features police influence to. but it sticks out more for me on Grace.

 

Mick

 

I hear The Police all over Signals way more...on GUP, only one track: The Body Electric. The rest just sounds very eighties (in a good way).

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Count me as another who greatly prefers Grace, both in songs and production. Signals has always sounded a bit 'soft' to me; Grace has more punch to my ears. I also find Grace to be consistently good throughout, whereas Signals starts off with 2 great songs and then is consistently mediocre. Oh well, this place would be boring if we all just agreed on everything.
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Count me as another who greatly prefers Grace, both in songs and production. Signals has always sounded a bit 'soft' to me; Grace has more punch to my ears. I also find Grace to be consistently good throughout, whereas Signals starts off with 2 great songs and then is consistently mediocre. Oh well, this place would be boring if we all just agreed on everything.

 

Some of us need constant reminding of this, sadly!

 

But glad I am not alone! Only, I rate the last two songs on Signals highly, and the rest as pretty meh, aside from The Weapon (which isn't the greatest song ever either...a very good 8/10).

 

I think the fact I don't live Subdivisions as much as other fans Hurts my enjoyment of this album. I love the video for the song, and in that format I enjoy the song more (which leads me to conclude I will love it live), but on record, like much of Subdivisions, it is just a nicely written song, with admittedly great lyrics. Musically it does little for me (but it is improving with me, so maybe one day it'll click!).

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Count me as another who greatly prefers Grace, both in songs and production. Signals has always sounded a bit 'soft' to me; Grace has more punch to my ears. I also find Grace to be consistently good throughout, whereas Signals starts off with 2 great songs and then is consistently mediocre. Oh well, this place would be boring if we all just agreed on everything.

I think the fact I don't live Subdivisions as much as other fans Hurts my enjoyment of this album. I love the video for the song, and in that format I enjoy the song more (which leads me to conclude I will love it live), but on record, like much of Subdivisions, it is just a nicely written song, with admittedly great lyrics. Musically it does little for me (but it is improving with me, so maybe one day it'll click!).

 

Interesting, your opinion on Subdivisions. It may be in my top 5 favorite Rush songs. I never get tired of it. Absolute masterpiece. And in Signals defense, I like Subdivisions more than any single track on GUP. As a whole album though, Grace is stronger.

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Count me as another who greatly prefers Grace, both in songs and production. Signals has always sounded a bit 'soft' to me; Grace has more punch to my ears. I also find Grace to be consistently good throughout, whereas Signals starts off with 2 great songs and then is consistently mediocre. Oh well, this place would be boring if we all just agreed on everything.

I think the fact I don't live Subdivisions as much as other fans Hurts my enjoyment of this album. I love the video for the song, and in that format I enjoy the song more (which leads me to conclude I will love it live), but on record, like much of Subdivisions, it is just a nicely written song, with admittedly great lyrics. Musically it does little for me (but it is improving with me, so maybe one day it'll click!).

 

Interesting, your opinion on Subdivisions. It may be in my top 5 favorite Rush songs. I never get tired of it. Absolute masterpiece. And in Signals defense, I like Subdivisions more than any single track on GUP. As a whole album though, Grace is stronger.

 

It's not something that bugs me, Subdivisions is a good song, but I just don't enjoy it very much! Everyone seems to be of the opinion that Rush made a mistake losing Terry Brown, but the direction they were heading in only improved once they let go of him!

 

He was great in the seventies, but Rush evolved and Brown didn't. GUP to HYF is a run of albums to rival the best of any great band, and they clicked with the right producers! But hard rock was Terry Brown's strength, and I think Signals suffered a lot because of the confused sense of direction, and Rush were right to let go.

 

My opinion, and those who rate Signals higher than me have every right too, especially if this style of rock fits their taste more than mine!

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I also agree that it was time to part ways with Broon when they did. I would argue that the balance that he and the band created was absolutely perfect on both Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures...but as Geddy in particular continued to be influenced by more modern or of-the-moment keyboard sounds, and as Alex and Neil both seemed to be more influenced by contemporary pop in the early '80s...yeah, it wasn't working as well between band and producer.

 

I love five out of eight songs on Signals. On Grace, it's seven of eight. And that alone is not what makes me favour it- the production also definitely plays a part. The songs on Signals that I love, I absolutely love. But I do think that Grace just "worked", better. I feel it's the stronger album.

 

Funny, because I've always been such a rock and roll kid, and outside of Rush, there isn't much music in the '80s that I like or love (okay, there's Maiden). But...the more firmly synth-rooted album works better than the sometimes muddled one that preceded it.

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Glad it is so close!

 

Personally, Signals is a decent album, but unlike most on this forum, it isn't top ten. Grace Under Pressure, meanwhile, is one of my favourite albums by any band ever. Red Lenses has never been a true masterpiece to my ears, so like CoS, it misses out on my shortlist of 10/10 albums die to this slight moment of weakness. I like it, whereas I truly love and enjoy every other song immensely.

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Glad it is so close!

 

Personally, Signals is a decent album, but unlike most on this forum, it isn't top ten. Grace Under Pressure, meanwhile, is one of my favourite albums by any band ever. Red Lenses has never been a true masterpiece to my ears, so like CoS, it misses out on my shortlist of 10/10 albums die to this slight moment of weakness. I like it, whereas I truly love and enjoy every other song immensely.

 

I agree, Red Lenses is, umm...not even close to masterpiece territory- it's closer to clunker.

 

But as for all the rest of Grace Under Pressure, it's really, really strong. 9/10 for me.

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I can understand why the vote is so close between these two. The last two "great" ones in my view. Great 80's...
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Signals:

Subdivisions- 7/10

The Analog Kid 7/10

Chemistry 5/10

Digital Man- 6/10

The Weapon- 8/10

New World Man- 8/10

Losing It- 10/10

Countdown 9/10

 

Average rating: 7.5

 

Grace Under Pressure:

Distant Early Warning 10/10

Afterimage 10/10

Red Sector A 10/10

The Enemy Within 9/10

The Body Electric 10/10

Kid Gloves 9/10

Red Lenses 7/10

Between The Wheels 10/10

 

Average rating: 9.375

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Signals!!!

 

 

The analog synths were the best. I love p/g too. HYF and Power Windows are much higher on my ranking though.

 

 

Subdivisions - 10/10

The Analog Kid - 11/10

Chemistry - 10/10

Digital Man - 10/10

The Weapon - 10/10

New World Man - 9/10

Losing It - 10/10

Countdown - 11/10

 

-----------------

 

 

Distant Early Warning - 7/10

Afterimage - 8/10

Red Sector A - 10/10

The Enemy Within - 10/10

The Body Electric - 9/10

Kid Gloves - 11/10

Red Lenses - 8/10

Between The Wheels - 10/10

Edited by DistantEarlySignals
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The first voting thread of this. I think, and feel there shouldn't have the need to be comparing by voting. Both c.ds, and albums have been, and are equal, and even.
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