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What does everyone think of Hold Your Fire?


cygnus_thegodofbalance
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HYF is one of my favourite albums and and all 3 of the guys really shine as well. There is also some of Neil's best work lyrically here. wub.gif 2.gif
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"feminine sounding" is kind of a shitty way to criticize an album (Rush aren't good because they're men, they're good because they're talented musicians and good songwriters)

 

Anyway, this used to be my absolute favorite album of theirs, but now it's somewhere in the middle for me. The lyrics to Second Natur & Lock & Key are kind of awkward and Tai Shan is... Tai Shan. The other 7 songs are top notch! (I like High Water!)

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Definitely my favorite. I love all the songs. Or course, I like some better than others. When I first got the album, I wasn't as impressed by the last two songs either and understand that they seem to be a different entity than the other songs, but they grew on me quickly.

 

It's such a personal album to me. Neil described Power Windows and Hold Your Fire as two of a kind just A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres are two of a kind.

 

He explained that Power Windows is a more extroverted album and Hold Your Fire a more introverted album songwise. I take that to mean that it's about personal feelings - looking inside of yourself.

 

Neil also said that if he was a fan that PoW and HYF would be his favorites.

 

Even though Geddy was sick for parts of that tour, I distinctly remember the HYF show as being the best concert I'd ever been to. It is still my favorite Rush concert of all time.

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Like most of the songs, however, the production is crap IMO.

Sounds too tinny with no lows.

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Fantastic album, and definitely underrated...especially by the Boys when it comes to picking setlists for their shows. So many great songs that continue to get ignored every tour.

 

Like most people, I would say that the last two tracks kill the album's momentum quite a bit. I don't hate Tai Shan or High Water like some, but if they had been left off HYF, you're looking at arguably one of the most consistent Rush albums from start-to-finish with tracks 1-8. Not a weak note.

 

My Top 3 songs on the album are Open Secrets, Prime Mover, and Lock & Key.

 

Also to close, OPEN SECRETS might just be the most underrated Rush song in their entire catelog. Seriously, it is criminally underrated...amazing tune that I really wish would see the light of day on tour. yes.gif

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I've heard Geddy describe it as an "arrival" record. I think he meant that Neil was finally saying things the way he wanted to say them. Also in BTLS he says that maybe they had gotten too "in the middle" of what they did. I agree on both counts.

 

Like all Rush albums from Signals to HYF I was not excited at first, but the passage of time has helped me really appreciate it. I love all the eighties albums now and I wish they would play more songs from it live with their return to a harder sound.

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Great album. The last two songs are a bit of a drop off from how high quality the rest of the album is but they're both OK enough songs.

 

There really is some great stuff on it though. The first eight songs are one of the best song flows they have on any album.

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I really enjoy HYF. It's an album that has aged remarably well over the years.

 

And I know, at the time it was released, that the band really thought this was the pinnacle of their career (perhaps Alex didn't quite feel that way, but I recall Geddy and Neil commenting as such).

 

My Review of Hold Your Fire

 

Think I'll pop that in the CD changer on my commute home tonight...

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Fantastic album! I agree with most everything that's been said about it in this thread, except... um... I f*ckin' love Tai Shan. Shoot me, but I don't see the problem with it. It's an incredibly beautiful and atmospheric song.
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I think "Turn the Page" and "Mission" are my fave tunes due to my own personal connection to them.

 

I love how "Turn the Page" ends. That long, drawn out synthesizer that slowly fades out. Everytime I look and hear the song on youtube I always move the bar back to where that part begins. It's something trippy about doing that in repetition (with headphones of course).

Edited by circumstantial tree
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QUOTE (ghostworks @ Jun 8 2011, 10:30 AM)
'TSS' suffers from a horrible arrangement - the song is almost as broken and uncomfortable as 'Caravan' - barely a groove starts when it's interrupted

no.gif TSS is a beautiful song. It has some of the most moving lyrics and music Rush has ever put out.

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QUOTE (Tommy Sawyer @ Jun 8 2011, 10:00 AM)
QUOTE (ghostworks @ Jun 8 2011, 10:30 AM)
'TSS' suffers from a horrible arrangement - the song is almost as broken and uncomfortable as 'Caravan' - barely a groove starts when it's interrupted

no.gif TSS is a beautiful song. It has some of the most moving lyrics and music Rush has ever put out.

TSS has some nice sentiments lyrically, but the whole package has to work for it to be a successful 'song'

 

the musical arrangement is a mess, and for that it's a 'skipper'

 

go back to back - Open Secrets VS. TSS - and you'll hear ok lyrics with a great arrangement and groove VS. good lyrics with a horrible arrangement and no groove

 

I'll take an entire album of fantastic performances and arrangements with 'ok to poor' lyrics over an entire album of terrible arrangements set to the best lyrics I've ever heard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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QUOTE (Show Don't Tell @ Jun 8 2011, 02:28 AM)
It might be my absolute favourite Rush album. yes.gif

Same here, I think it contains some of the best lyrics Neil has ever written, along with great playing from all of them.

 

And that includes Tai Shan and High Water.

 

wub.gif

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QUOTE (metaldad @ Jun 7 2011, 10:43 PM)
I think it sucks . Water flavor pop

laugh.gif

 

Pretty much.

 

It was THE album that woke me up to the fact that Rush must go in a new direction, or I would cease to follow them.

 

This view was confirmed by the documentary.

 

I have this album 15th out of 18.

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QUOTE (Rush Cocky @ Jun 8 2011, 11:16 AM)

I have this album 15th out of 18.

Bottom 3 for me, in order

1. RTB

2. HYF

3. S&A

I don't count Feedback

 

Yeah people, deal with it laugh.gif

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I don't know where it would rank, for me, among Rush albums. Somewhere int he middle, likely. But it's stilla great piece, and from start to finish, there's a lot of good material.

 

I don't think there are any clunkers on here, but that is highly about your mood. When I need it, Tai Shan is the perfect song for what it is. If I'm in a rocking mood, however, Tai Shan doesn't fit the bill.

 

This "feminine" accusation is crap. Who the f**k cares? It's music, evaluate it as such.

 

People are accusing it of sounding thin. I never really thought it sounded thin. Almost overproduced, yes, but that's more in an "every sound is crystal clear" way. Thin, to me, would mean no bass depth, which is what Presto and RTB suffered from.

 

But I think people are equating "thin" to "no crunchy hard rock guitars", which isn't really what I qualify "thin" as. Some of the least "thin" sounding material I've ever heard has no guitars.

 

Anyways, love it all. And I've always thought that High Water, on Neil's end, was very much a cousin to Mystic Rhythms. Both with strong, almost primitive rhythm and percussion, both closing out an album. It makes sense.

 

Sorry for the aimless ramble.

Edited by New World Kid
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Definitely a top 5 album for me. But with that said, though, they needed to get out of the synth period...to their credit, they recognized that and they did. That's not to say that they didn't produce some excellent music during that time.

 

There are several songs on HYF that I consider among my all-time favorites: Time Stand Still, Prime Mover, Force Ten, Turn the Page, Mission. In fact, if you look at my list of 25 most favorite Rush tunes, HYF is probably represented as much as any album. That doesn't make it my #1 album, though...have to dock it a notch because of the last 2 cuts. High Water doesn't do much for me and I don't know what they were thinking with Tai Shan...yeesh!

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Hold your fire is by far my least favorite Rush album. All of the songs sound EXACTLY the same. I'm glad that they switched from the synth stuff after that album, mabye they relized that they had gone to far.
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