Building Upon "Grand Designs." Does The Synth

[lerxt1990]

Good tune.

 

What these songs had, way back, was "space", quiet space between notes, even with all that synth, parts come and go and theres some space and breathign room within the song. One of the things I dont like these days is how layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of sound is put down, crowding my ears...

[1 of the 7]

While I love the sound of the synths (and Geddy's voice, of course) on this one, they do seem a little loud at times, especially when compared to some of the Hold Your Fire songs like Prime Mover, which I find similar for whatever reason. Great guitar solo, the bass stands out nicely, and it's lyrically fantastic. Love this part:

 

So much poison in power

The principles get left out

So much mind on the matter

The spirit gets forgotten about

 

[sonicjams]

song rules but i gotta turn down the sound in that keyboard intro

[Rush Cocky]

Power Windows to me marks the start of a decline for Rush. To me the rock bottom of that decline was Hold Your Fire, and they never really recovered until Counterparts.

 

The key to that decline? Abuse of the synth.

 

If Rush had returned to guitar driven rock at Power Windows, their material....and to some extent their popularity.....would be much greater.

 

I still like Power Windows a good bit, as I have it #8 out of 18, but I think it would be higher if not for the overuse of synth. It just doesn't do it for me.

[GrandDesigner]

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!

 

Probably my favorite Rush song. It's got Geddy's best vocal performance ever, and the other instruments are just tight and played perfectly. I seem to recall Alex mentioning this song in the very early stages of discussing possible setlist inclusions for Time Machine, but I'm guessing the sheer amount of synth probably killed that idea.

[RUSHHEAD666]

QUOTE (Rush Cocky @ Oct 17 2011, 06:17 AM)

Power Windows to me marks the start of a decline for Rush. To me the rock bottom of that decline was Hold Your Fire, and they never really recovered until Counterparts. The key to that decline? Abuse of the synth. If Rush had returned to guitar driven rock at Power Windows, their material....and to some extent their popularity.....would be much greater. I still like Power Windows a good bit, as I have it #8 out of 18, but I think it would be higher if not for the overuse of synth. It just doesn't do it for me.

Interesting Cock!

 

I think the synth was over the top on "Signals" and "GUP" too.

I love those two records but I bet the real old school Rush fans who were able enough to see the band live in the frigging Seventies would say that "Signals" was the beginning of the Rush Decline.

 

Hope I'm wrong.

[New Digital Man]

QUOTE (RUSHHEAD666 @ Oct 18 2011, 12:25 AM)

QUOTE (Rush Cocky @ Oct 17 2011, 06:17 AM) Power Windows to me marks the start of a decline for Rush.  To me the rock bottom of that decline was Hold Your Fire, and they never really recovered until Counterparts. The key to that decline?  Abuse of the synth. If Rush had returned to guitar driven rock at Power Windows, their material....and to some extent their popularity.....would be much greater. I still like Power Windows a good bit, as I have it #8 out of 18, but I think it would be higher if not for the overuse of synth.  It just doesn't do it for me. Interesting Cock!   I think the synth was over the top on "Signals" and "GUP" too. I love those two records but I bet the real old school Rush fans who were able enough to see the band live in the frigging Seventies would say that "Signals" was the beginning of the Rush Decline.   Hope I'm wrong. Probably the same people that harp on about Geddy getting his old Rickenbacker and Taurus pedals out all the time! I'm glad the band has moved forward and experimented with fresh sounds and ideas even if it doesn't allways work out 100% and i hope they continue to do so!

[RUSHHEAD666]

[danielmclark]

QUOTE (Rush Cocky @ Oct 17 2011, 07:17 AM)

If Rush had returned to guitar driven rock at Power Windows, their material....and to some extent their popularity.....would be much greater. I still like Power Windows a good bit, as I have it #8 out of 18, but I think it would be higher if not for the overuse of synth. It just doesn't do it for me.

Because 80's guitar-driven rock is all the rage right now?

 

Mild sarcasm aside, I honestly don't see how things could have gone any different for the band. Practically nobody in guitar-driven rock survived the 80's to have a massive career in 2011. Those that did are, more often than not, playing nostalgia tours, not putting out new material (opinions about the quality of Rush's new material notwithstanding lol). There are exceptions of course, but they are the very, very small minority, and Rush in 2011 outsells them, I think.

[RUSHHEAD666]

QUOTE (danielmclark @ Oct 18 2011, 01:41 PM)

QUOTE (Rush Cocky @ Oct 17 2011, 07:17 AM) If Rush had returned to guitar driven rock at Power Windows, their material....and to some extent their popularity.....would be much greater. I still like Power Windows a good bit, as I have it #8 out of 18, but I think it would be higher if not for the overuse of synth.  It just doesn't do it for me. Because 80's guitar-driven rock is all the rage right now?   Mild sarcasm aside, I honestly don't see how things could have gone any different for the band. Practically nobody in guitar-driven rock survived the 80's to have a massive career in 2011. Those that did are, more often than not, playing nostalgia tours, not putting out new material (opinions about the quality of Rush's new material notwithstanding lol). There are exceptions of course, but they are the very, very small minority, and Rush in 2011 outsells them, I think. I think of one of my other favorite bands that still is around, Y&T.   Y&T was a kick ass guitar hard rock band from the Bay Area back in the late Seventies and early Eightes, but then 1985 hit. Y&T put out "Down For The Count" and A&M Records dropped the band like a hot potato.   Rush was smart moving with the musical evolution of that time.   When the grunge scene hit the boys put recorded "Stick It Out."   Just watch the video. Is that Chris Cornell?

[go2wrk@95974]

Yeah, It's slightly " over the top"...not TOO much,though.

...still a decent tune.

[sco703]

I don't find the synths overpowering at all. I think they sound good. It's a very 80's esque touch, but I think it sounds good.

[psionic11]

Great song, great energy, great lyrics, great musicianship. Not my most favorite song, but definitely will be listened to over and over till I die.

 

Imagine a Rush without any keyboards. Less than half the grandeur of where they would be now. A good deal of forgettable material like their myriad other contemporaries. So much stuff without stock.

 

I love 2112 and Hemispheres, but without all those other colors and melodies that the synth era gave us, the world would just be that much more bland. Grand Designs!

Edited October 20, 2011 by psionic11

[patjnev]

Somewhere there is a Wave PPG 2.3 sobbing a little

[Code Red]

QUOTE (RUSHHEAD666 @ Oct 13 2011, 12:36 AM)

Just ran a search on the Forum for "Grand Designs" and I didn't find anything. I had to put in my Japan SHM "Power Windows" cd tonight for the first time. So we typed a bit about "The Big Money" but what do you guys and gals think of "Grand Designs?" I think that opening synth part is too much to handle yet through all of the keyboard layers Alex and Neil save the day on that tune. I love Lifeson's guitar parts throughout the entire song. The solo is fantastic but I love the guitar riff even more. I can't explain it on a Forum in type, but it's that killer Alex groove underneath all of that synthesizer stuff. If you listen to the song, Alex's guitar part that I am talking about is at 1:38. The guitar part goes "duh duh duh.......... duhnanananna." Underrated tune. If Rush were to play this song on their next tour I would be one happy camper. It's yet another polished diamond in the rough of a "mass production scheme." Pun intended.

 

 

 

What Alex is doing at the 1 38 mark of the song are Harmonics. To do this the finger is placed on the string but not pushed down onto the fretboard. He uses harmonics at the begining of Red Barch and also the breakdown during Hemispheres,....Red Sector A is possibly his best work utilizing harmonics.

 

Brilliant song all round imho, one of the strongest on the album I think as well....the Duel between Geedy and Alex during the solo is in fact 2 solos all at once.....BrillianT!

[losingit2k]

I'm a keyboardist, so no not on this song! However Emotional detector is a different story! I feel that song would be much better without the keys in there!

 

[GUP1771]

I really enjoy Grand Designs. The keyboards can rub me the wrong way sometimes, but overall I find it to be an awesome song. I think if I were to select one song from Power Windows that over did the keys, it would probably be Grand Designs. All other songs seemed to use them appropriately for what they were doing at that time. Edited October 24, 2011 by GUP1771