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Does anyone else dislike P/G?


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Though I don't dislike it (in fact I like every song on it except "Distant Early Warning") I think it's one of their weaker '80s albums. "The Enemy Within" is the only song on it i'd put in my best-of list, with a few other possibilities ("Kid Gloves", "Between the Wheels", "Red Lenses"). In comparison their other '80s albums except Hold Your Fire all have several definitive best-of songs.
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Grace Under Pressure is where I boarded the Rush train, so I'm not totally sure if my feelings about it are musical or sentimental, but I have always loved that album. I get that it's not PW or MP, but "Kid Gloves" and "The Enemy Within" were great, up-tempo, catchy songs (always disappointed they didn't get played live more) with important lyrics. It had variance in tone, pacing, themes, and could accompany any number of moods.

 

That said, I usually skip over "The Body Electric" . . . .

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Thanks for the link to that review, Goose. It was good and the links to the videos was a plus. I was late to find Rush but Grace was my introduction and still my fave. I listen to it at least once a month, it always make me feel good.
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Thanks for the link to that review, Goose. It was good and the links to the videos was a plus. I was late to find Rush but Grace was my introduction and still my fave. I listen to it at least once a month, it always make me feel good.

Some describe it as dark, but I find that it always lifts my mood.
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Dislike is too heavy. Maybe more “disappointed” with it but there is too much good music to dislike it.

 

Yes it has a lot of good songs, unlike other bands of that time. They were talking about serious themes; loss of a friend through death, remembrances of concentration camps and the possibilty of AI going rogue. Then struggle with fitting in and battling your demons.

It pales in comparison to their greats; 2112 and Hemispheres (which I listened to back to back the other night) but it had that infectious feeling of 80's music. The boys showed they could mimic the style of the era but keep to their seriousness in Neil's lyrics. Geddy didn't have to wail, his voice is very easy on the ears. And I could go on but...that says it all for me. :rush:

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Thanks for the link to that review, Goose. It was good and the links to the videos was a plus. I was late to find Rush but Grace was my introduction and still my fave. I listen to it at least once a month, it always make me feel good.

Some describe it as dark, but I find that it always lifts my mood.

 

 

Absolutely. Playing the drums to "Between The Wheels" makes me want to pop out of my skin in glee.

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Thanks for the link to that review, Goose. It was good and the links to the videos was a plus. I was late to find Rush but Grace was my introduction and still my fave. I listen to it at least once a month, it always make me feel good.

Some describe it as dark, but I find that it always lifts my mood.

 

 

Absolutely. Playing the drums to "Between The Wheels" makes me want to pop out of my skin in glee.

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Not only is is a great album to listen to, it's also one of their best album covers to look at as well.
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Slow day at work so I have really overthought this. To the OP, I wouldn't say dislike but I'm not a fan. When it came out I liked it more than Signals, which had profoundly disappointed me (though I've now grown to like it). Though GUP wasn't a return to form at least it was kind of edgy and aggressive whereas at the time I had thought Signals a flaccid, wimpy puzzlement.

 

Over time though it hasn't worn well with me, unlike Signals, for three reasons I think. First is that it so sounds like a product of its time. Unlike MP and others, which seem to me timeless, GUP sounds pure mid-'80s, like a brooding, angry The FIXX. The second is that though the songs work very well together -- and the album is full of good songs (objectively, I think it is a really excellent album, just not a great Rush album) -- those soungs have such a unique sound compared to other Rush releases, even contemporaneous releases like Signals and PoW, that they don't mix well with other Rush material. Stylistically, GUP lives on its own island, an island living right in the middle of the '80s no less. The third is that though the songs do work very well together, making a very cohesive whole that flows well from beginning to end, the songs themselves don't work well to me apart from the flow of the album. CttH, TSoR, Limelight, etc can stand on their own apart from their albums; I don't hear any songs on GUP that can do that. Again, not that they aren't good songs, but that the album's sound is so distinctive that I can't really listen to any of the songs apart from the others. It's like listening to a song from a concept album separate from the album (like "No One at the Bridge" apart from The Fountain of Lamneth). In short it: 1) is distinctly '80s; 2) doesn't mix well with other Rush; 3) is made up of songs which don't stand up well separated from their album mates.

 

So, I think musically -- songwriting, production, musicianship, etc. -- it's a really impressive album, I just don't like it much as a Rush album. I'd almost like it more if it as done was a side project under a pseudonym, like Stephen King's Richard Bachman. It would really be a favorite of mine then, I'd guess.

 

p.s. a younger geekier self used to group Rush albums together, in ways different from the conventional studiox4/live/studiox4/live/etc sequence. The two albums that were always hard to deal with were the debut and GUP as they just didn't play nicely with the albums around them. Both great albums in isolation though.

Edited by Rutlefan
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Slow day at work so I have really overthought this. To the OP, I wouldn't say dislike but I'm not a fan. When it came out I liked it more than Signals, which had profoundly disappointed me (though I've now grown to like it). Though GUP wasn't a return to form at least it was kind of edgy and aggressive whereas at the time I had thought Signals a flaccid, wimpy puzzlement.

 

Over time though it hasn't worn well with me, unlike Signals, for three reasons I think. First is that it so sounds like a product of its time. Unlike MP and others, which seem to me timeless, GUP sounds pure mid-'80s, like a brooding, angry The FIXX. The second is that though the songs work very well together -- and the album is full of good songs (objectively, I think it is a really excellent album, just not a great Rush album) -- those soungs have such a unique sound compared to other Rush releases, even contemporaneous releases like Signals and PoW, that they don't mix well with other Rush material. Stylistically, GUP lives on its own island, an island living right in the middle of the '80s no less. The third is that though the songs do work very well together, making a very cohesive whole that flows well from beginning to end, the songs themselves don't work well to me apart from the flow of the album. CttH, TSoR, Limelight, etc can stand on their own apart from their albums; I don't hear any songs on GUP that can do that. Again, not that they aren't good songs, but that the album's sound is so distinctive that I can't really listen to any of the songs apart from the others. It's like listening to a song from a concept album separate from the album (like "No One at the Bridge" apart from The Fountain of Lamneth). In short it: 1) is distinctly '80s; 2) doesn't mix well with other Rush; 3) is made up of songs which don't stand up well separated from their album mates.

 

So, I think musically -- songwriting, production, musicianship, etc. -- it's a really impressive album, I just don't like it much as a Rush album. I'd almost like it more if it as done was a side project under a pseudonym, like Stephen King's Richard Bachman. It would really be a favorite of mine then, I'd guess.

 

p.s. a younger geekier self used to group Rush albums together, in ways different from the conventional studiox4/live/studiox4/live/etc sequence. The two albums that were always hard to deal with were the debut and GUP as they just didn't play nicely with the albums around them. Both great albums in isolation though.

 

Hey, that was a well-reasoned and organized cogent explanation. They're gonna kick you off the internet if you keep that up.

 

I disagree with most of it, but it was good to read! Here's to slow work days.

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