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Presto - First Reaction


Lorraine
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I think it's great. It could use a remix. Calling Steven Wilson!

 

How about a vinyl release. I could go for bunnies on vinyl.

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Part of why I love Presto is that many of the songs feature very strong lyrics from Neil, which of course include references to literature and art. Like this, the "girl before a mirror"...

 

GirlBeforeAMirror.jpg

 

The yellow side of her face represents [the girl's] happy times with Picasso. The bright colors represent the times together. This side of her face shows her youth in the makeup free completion. This woman is painted with colors that increase her beauty.[2]

The reflection represents the other interpretation of how she views herself. The colors used here are dark and make her look very old. Instead of happiness the meaning here is more of hate and unhappiness, fear and as if aging is getting on to her indicative of her fear of losing her youth.

 

Paint the mirror black.

 

Did not know about that!

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I bought Presto when it first came out and I distinctly remember saying out loud during the first listen...

 

"What the f#%@ happened to my favourite band?"

 

I remember thinking, it's ok, but not digging it and thinking it was time for them to throw in the towel.

 

I'm happy they didn't, of course.

 

Over the years, the album has grown on me a bit.

 

I quite like the Audio Fidelity & SHM versions.

 

It just goes to show, a weak album by Rush is still better than a strong album by most bands.

 

You have to give them credit for going out on a limb with the album.

 

I couldn't take a steady diet of it (all the songs start to sound the same after while), but it's good to listen to every once in a while.

They sounded a little lost musically. It was if they were going through an identity crisis. They were trying to respond to changing musical landscape instead of just being Rush. Love 'em or hate 'em, that's what I love about Snakes and Arrows and Clockwork Angels...Rush was making music they "wanted to make" instead of making music they "had to make" to keep up with the trends at the time. The last two albums were, in my opinion, made on their own terms with little regard to record sales with brilliant results.

 

 

This is hilarious. Never realized this was RGLT.

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Presto I loved it at the time as it was the first Rush studio album since I had become a fan and they could have pissed in my face and I would have come back for more everytime. Time has not been so kind to it although I actually think it is a very nice sounding album.

 

It drags in the middle and Scars and Superconductor suck.

 

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Presto I loved it at the time as it was the first Rush studio album since I had become a fan and they could have pissed in my face and I would have come back for more everytime. Time has not been so kind to it although I actually think it is a very nice sounding album.

 

It drags in the middle and Scars and Superconductor suck.

I guess it WOULD be worse for them to literally piss in your face as opposed to the figurative pissing in the face to the fan base that was Presto.

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Presto I loved it at the time as it was the first Rush studio album since I had become a fan and they could have pissed in my face and I would have come back for more everytime. Time has not been so kind to it although I actually think it is a very nice sounding album.

 

It drags in the middle and Scars and Superconductor suck.

I guess it WOULD be worse for them to literally piss in your face as opposed to the figurative pissing in the face to the fan base that was Presto.

 

iIRC Presto was more along the lines of bringing back the fanbase who left during the mid 80's.

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Presto I loved it at the time as it was the first Rush studio album since I had become a fan and they could have pissed in my face and I would have come back for more everytime. Time has not been so kind to it although I actually think it is a very nice sounding album.

 

It drags in the middle and Scars and Superconductor suck.

I guess it WOULD be worse for them to literally piss in your face as opposed to the figurative pissing in the face to the fan base that was Presto.

 

iIRC Presto was more along the lines of bringing back the fanbase who left during the mid 80's.

By putting out an album that should have been expected to appeal to the Air Supply fan base?

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It was the end of good Rush music and the end of minimal use of keyboards with Rupert Hines on board. The compositions are not that bad but the epic atmosphere of the past was gone. It was a disappointment for me at that time. Today, I think I prefer Presto to RTB, Test For Echo and even Clockwork Angles.
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It was the end of good Rush music and the end of minimal use of keyboards with Rupert Hines on board.

"The end of minimal use of keyboards..."? Presto signalled a massive reduction in keyboards, post-HYF.
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Presto was the first album Rush released AFTER I began purchasing their catalog. It was a dramatic shift, in my opinion, and at first listen an unwelcome one. I was disappointed. Overall the music seemed sedate compared to any earlier album. Show Don't Tell was the first track I'd heard, as it was already in rotation before I bought the album. Show Don't Tell had an interesting beginning, and I really enjoyed the overall structure, but I did not like the chorus at all. It was too 'nice?' Hard to explain. Very poppy to my ears. The album itself was better than the single, at least.

 

Chain Lightning was beautiful. My take might belie the 'sedate' comment I made, but I don't care. Love that track. But I thought War Paint was too overtly pandering to adolescence. Yes, they wrote Subdivisions, but Sub was an echo of peer feeling while War Paint was a lecture from dad. Scars has very interesting music, but the tone has an adult contemporary/new age dullness. Presto was boring, Available Light was incredibly boring. I liked Hand Over Fist because I like the happy guitar. Sue me. Red Tide seemed more appropriate to Power Windows, and it doesn't fit this album. But I like it. Superconductor was fun but terribly silly and 'poppy'. The Pass was very nice. I wanted to be bored, but the song was great and didn't let me. Anagram has always been a favorite. I LOVE wordplay. I play word games constantly and this song was written for me. Musically it's mediocre, but the writing is a winner.

 

30 years later and my overall impression is better. I am far more engaged in the music. That review above was about FIRST listen, and since they changed course I hadn't yet changed with them. But I enjoy 'getting' music- as in I finally 'get' it. I will listen to any type of music and generally I will listen until I appreciate what was attempted. Rush of course are good at what they do, and I like every song now more than I did then. The aforementioned 'boring' tracks no longer bore me. They aren't favorites- but they're good songs. The juvenile aim they took with some songs remains exactly that. Like they were reachingout to the youth as wise and accomplished elders rather than peers, and those moments do not work. Same problem later with Virtuality. Don't preach about growing up to kids from the position of a wise elder. Go ahead and write about those things- The Pass works well afterall, but there's a way to do it without making me cringe.

 

So Presto is a good album, but not a great one.

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Hated, HATED, HATED IT !! The production sucks! The musical direction sucks! The songs suck!

 

It took almost a year before I really took the time to partially enjoy some music from the album. But it was a hell of a tour though!

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After Hold Your Fire disappointed I was not sure what Presto would bring, change of producer and record label. I find it a highly frustrating album where the songs do this sort of stop start stop start with bits that are good then bits that aren't. Some of the songs get into a hard rock groove then just as you nodding your head along, it stops into a slower bit. I like the chorus for Anagram but hate the build up verse bits for example. There are other bits where instruments sound so thin like that awful acoustic/semi-acoustic chord bit in the chorus of Presto, after I'm not one to believe in magic....rigadingrigading riga ding.
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After Hold Your Fire disappointed I was not sure what Presto would bring, change of producer and record label. I find it a highly frustrating album where the songs do this sort of stop start stop start with bits that are good then bits that aren't. Some of the songs get into a hard rock groove then just as you nodding your head along, it stops into a slower bit. I like the chorus for Anagram but hate the build up verse bits for example. There are other bits where instruments sound so thin like that awful acoustic/semi-acoustic chord bit in the chorus of Presto, after I'm not one to believe in magic....rigadingrigading riga ding.

I get that. Roll the Bones has that in spades, I think.
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Totally. Rock tunes that wimp out mercilessly:

 

- sun dogs fire on the horizon

 

- playing for time, don't want to wait for heaven

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Totally. Rock tunes that wimp out mercilessly:

 

- sun dogs fire on the horizon

 

- playing for time, don't want to wait for heaven

Or we are young..... Love is a battlefield...???
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It was AT LEAST a step in the right direction after Hold Your Fire, but RTB just took it back to "eh" .

 

Counterparts was good, but T4E only had a few decent tunes.... When Vapor Trails came out I was thrilled! (although I wasn't a HUGE fan of the tunes)

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It was AT LEAST a step in the right direction after Hold Your Fire, but RTB just took it back to "eh" .

 

Counterparts was good, but T4E only had a few decent tunes.... When Vapor Trails came out I was thrilled! (although I wasn't a HUGE fan of the tunes)

Pretty much this.
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My first reaction was amazement!! I bought it on cd from a thrift store that sadly closed both locations after the founder slipped into a coma. I played the cd a few days later on my way to a drum lesson/rehearsal (I think maybe it was during the time of the Rush tribute show I was doing) and I fell in love with it. Now a days I still love it but I prefer other bands (R.E.M., Talking Heads, etc etc) Edited by Permanent-Rush
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My first reaction was amazement!! I bought it on cd from a thrift store that sadly closed both locations after the founder slipped into a coma. I played the cd a few days later on my way to a drum lesson/rehearsal (I think maybe it was during the time of the Rush tribute show I was doing) and I fell in love with it. Now a days I still love it but I prefer other bands (R.E.M., Talking Heads, etc etc)

:goodone:
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Damn. this album has Neil's best most interesting drum work of his career.

 

and i still hold to that. and i always thought this was an amazing album. great tunes out the ass on here.

 

Mick

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Bought The Atlantic albums box set. I bought it just to fill all the gaps in my collection expecting to dislike them.

 

ABSOLUTELY ADORED PRESTO FROM THE FIRST PLAY

 

Songwriting for me is at its best on par with Moving Pictures.

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Damn. this album has Neil's best most interesting drum work of his career.

 

and i still hold to that. and i always thought this was an amazing album. great tunes out the ass on here.

 

Mick

:goodone:
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Bought The Atlantic albums box set. I bought it just to fill all the gaps in my collection expecting to dislike them.

 

ABSOLUTELY ADORED PRESTO FROM THE FIRST PLAY

 

Songwriting for me is at its best on par with Moving Pictures.

Some gems, for sure.
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... this album has Neil's best most interesting drum work of his career...

 

WHAT??? Presto has some his most pedestrian drumming. Check that: it is the most pedestrian drumming he did.

 

From the epics of COS - ‘Spheres to arena rock of MP & PeW to the electronica of GUP-HYF there’s WAY more interesting, challenging & experimental drumming then anything on Presto.

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