The Criticism of Grace Under Pressure to Hold Your Fire...

[Brucey]

They do use a lot of synth, I agree. But Hold Your Fire is probably my all time favorite album. You can actually hear the more guitar oriented sound coming back in HYF. Just the sound of it is calm yet upbeat. It's my kinda music.

 

PoW and GUP are amazing too. Then again, is there a Rush album that isn't amazing?

 

 

Hold Your Fire is one of my favourites too

[Todem]

I think it depends on whether or not you regard MPbas the bands defining moment. As time goes on, MP is starting to become one of my least favourite of the great albums! I prefer p/g and PeW over MP, and Signals and PoW are getting better and better with repeat plays, whilst MP just sort of stops impressing me.

 

I hate saying this, as MP introduced me to Rush and I did absolutely love it, but I think its the bands most overrated work!

 

Then again, like I said, I do think it was the perfect introduction to the band for me. It was a tasty introduction!

 

 

Thats crazy talk. Your just tired of the album.

 

Side one is absolute perfection. Sonically.......the album is their defining moment. And although it is not my number one either...it is in my top 3.

 

Red Barchetta maybe the bands most incredible song front to back. It has it all. Incredible playing, wonderful visual lyrics, and just an incredible sense of wonder and imagination.

 

That song is what really hooked me.

[BanksPDaniels]

They do use a lot of synth, I agree. But Hold Your Fire is probably my all time favorite album. You can actually hear the more guitar oriented sound coming back in HYF. Just the sound of it is calm yet upbeat. It's my kinda music.

 

PoW and GUP are amazing too. Then again, is there a Rush album that isn't amazing?

 

 

Hold Your Fire is one of my favourites too

 

 

HYF is easily in my top 3 Rush albums. Mission was actually the first song that got me to check out more Rush, so it's really got that going for it in my book

 

And then on top of that Power Windows is my favorite Rush album

Edited January 15, 2014 by BanksPDaniels

[Narps]

I think it depends on whether or not you regard MPbas the bands defining moment. As time goes on, MP is starting to become one of my least favourite of the great albums! I prefer p/g and PeW over MP, and Signals and PoW are getting better and better with repeat plays, whilst MP just sort of stops impressing me.

 

I hate saying this, as MP introduced me to Rush and I did absolutely love it, but I think its the bands most overrated work!

 

Then again, like I said, I do think it was the perfect introduction to the band for me. It was a tasty introduction!

 

 

Thats crazy talk. Your just tired of the album.

 

Side one is absolute perfection. Sonically.......the album is their defining moment. And although it is not my number one either...it is in my top 3.

 

Red Barchetta maybe the bands most incredible song front to back. It has it all. Incredible playing, wonderful visual lyrics, and just an incredible sense of wonder and imagination.

 

That song is what really hooked me.

Don't worry. Next week it will be his favorite along with Going For The One..... :sarcastic: :D-13:

[Mr. Not]

GuP is great

Half of PoW is great

HYF is an acquired taste, the entire album seems too mellow for a Rush album though.

[Rod in Toronto]

I only got into Rush by the time Test for Echo came out, but since I grew up in the 80's I guess it somehow makes it easier for me to enjoy this period of their discography more. The 70's are absolutely stellar, but my preferred period of Rush is 1980-1988. HYF is great, it's just the production of the time was VERY clean.

 

Also worth mentioning: the 80's were the time when Neil wrote his most complex drum patterns. Grand Designs, Lock and Key, The Weapon, Prime Mover, and anything on GUP are good examples of that. And YES, I love his electronic kit!

[Segue Myles]

I think it depends on whether or not you regard MPbas the bands defining moment. As time goes on, MP is starting to become one of my least favourite of the great albums! I prefer p/g and PeW over MP, and Signals and PoW are getting better and better with repeat plays, whilst MP just sort of stops impressing me.

 

I hate saying this, as MP introduced me to Rush and I did absolutely love it, but I think its the bands most overrated work!

 

Then again, like I said, I do think it was the perfect introduction to the band for me. It was a tasty introduction!

 

 

Thats crazy talk. Your just tired of the album.

 

Side one is absolute perfection. Sonically.......the album is their defining moment. And although it is not my number one either...it is in my top 3.

 

Red Barchetta maybe the bands most incredible song front to back. It has it all. Incredible playing, wonderful visual lyrics, and just an incredible sense of wonder and imagination.

 

That song is what really hooked me.

 

I know I am tired of it...but for some horrible reason it feels like I am letting go of an old friend. I long to play it and still feel so enthralled!

[Segue Myles]

Oopsies! I doubledy postagey! Edited January 16, 2014 by Segue Myles

[Segue Myles]

I think it depends on whether or not you regard MPbas the bands defining moment. As time goes on, MP is starting to become one of my least favourite of the great albums! I prefer p/g and PeW over MP, and Signals and PoW are getting better and better with repeat plays, whilst MP just sort of stops impressing me.

 

I hate saying this, as MP introduced me to Rush and I did absolutely love it, but I think its the bands most overrated work!

 

Then again, like I said, I do think it was the perfect introduction to the band for me. It was a tasty introduction!

 

 

Thats crazy talk. Your just tired of the album.

 

Side one is absolute perfection. Sonically.......the album is their defining moment. And although it is not my number one either...it is in my top 3.

 

Red Barchetta maybe the bands most incredible song front to back. It has it all. Incredible playing, wonderful visual lyrics, and just an incredible sense of wonder and imagination.

 

That song is what really hooked me.

Don't worry. Next week it will be his favorite along with Going For The One..... :sarcastic: :D-13:

 

Lol, MP doesn't need to grow on me, I just need to get back into it!

 

As for GFTO, um...Topographic Oceans is still the winner...but yeah...wait til next week!

[Pound of Obscure]

I've pulled these albums out the last week and listened, as I haven't for a while. My answer is this period is when Rush started writing "pretty" music. It got softer, prettier. Neil's lyrics took a down turn he (with some exceptions) never recovered from. Borderline feminine. They quit being rock lyrics and became something else. An example would be when I played Middletown Dreams in the car a few years after it was out and my friend asked "Who is that,Tears for Fears?" Then he said, "No, the drumming is too good."

[Grover]

I think the criticism comes from a few places or for a few reasons.

1. They had a strong hard and progressive fan base who loved longer tracks and instrumentals. They've felt abandoned.

2. Until Moving Pictures there was always something that was obviously improving, either musicianship, or songwriting or popularity or production. After Moving Pictures the style changed but they no longer surprised us with greatness, merely kept a high standard while searching for new sounds.

 

I think the addition of more keyboards gave them a larger sound palmate and that Alex learned a lot from having to find a different place. I think they overreact sometimes. They didn't need to go really heavy on keyboards on all the tracks but also didn't need to react by going to a wall of guitars or eliminating keyboards. Their strengths are drums bass and guitar but Geddy can come up with some good lead keyboard parts and they can enhance the sound when used sparingly. Geddy is not as good a musician on keyboards so I think they should use them where they work and enhance a song but don't rely on them to define their sound and song structure. Looking back, p/g PW and hyf are not worse than most later albums, but the band were no longer hungry for progression and success (however they would define it).

[Segue Myles]

Load of rubbish. They may not have been guitar heavy but p/g PoW and even HYF were brilliantly inventive and thoroughly entertaining. I get a strong, reverie like vibe when I play these albums, they are layered and textured and full of complexities and a crystalline beauty that none of their early releases had!

 

Sorry, but Signals through to PoW was not at all a weak period, and they were hungry for progression, they kept on and on pushing the envelope, only changing the sound once they had tired out the format (in much the same way as Hemispheres took the bands proggier phase to its grand finale).

 

The eighties was an incredible era for the band, and the music, though shiny and shallow on the surface, was actually full of depth and power.

 

Marathon alone is perhaps the greatest example. It was not the Rush of ten years earlier, but there was no need for it to be.

 

Presto was the start of the weak period, because the band stopped progressing and seemingly decided to try and go back in time. But Signals through to HYF was a fantastic evolutionary period for Rush. The albums still sound incredible today, somehow Rush took loads of 80's elements, used them to the max, and made them timeless. How could a tired band do that?

 

If you want to knock a classic band for no longer being "hungry for progression and success (however they would define it)", look to Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Journey or possibly Yes (possibly...still making my mind up). Rush were one of the few to really take the plunge and make the new decade their own. They owned the eighties, however...the nineties? Not so much...

 

Bare in mind I wasn't even concieved in the 80's, so my ears are not biased to being acclimatised to that decades sounds...I know what sounds dated. Rush, p/g and PoW at least, have aged brilliantly, and they are NOT the sound of a great band coasting. They are phenomenal.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Segue Myles

[jnoble]

HYF, as much as it's gotten rightly critized for it's softness and total lack of anything close to really 'rockin' out, is still one of my favorite '80s era albums. It sounds so much warmer and melodic than the two albums that came before it.

 

That being said, I'd love to hear a remix with all the oh-so-80s reverb stripped off the tracks a bit. And Second Nature, Tai Shan and High Water edited out. That album would've been so close to almost perfect if it wasn't for those three songs, definatly the last two that finished the album. Turn The Page would have been such an apt last song. In fact, I like to pretend that Tai and High Water are just extra bonus tracks the label threw on at the end and TTP was really the last one :D

Edited January 20, 2014 by jnoble

[bluefox4000]

all I know is synth era is hands down my favorite era. Such great music. Great melodies hooks and all that good stuff. Blows away most 70's Rush. Just my opinion. No need to rip my head off, lol

 

Mick

[goose]

all I know is synth era is hands down my favorite era. Such great music. Great melodies hooks and all that good stuff. Blows away most 70's Rush. Just my opinion. No need to rip my head off, lol

 

Mick

http://www.sebastianvonbuchwald.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/god_of_war_rip_head_off.jpg

[bathory]

synth era kicks ass

[RobC]

I thought Signals was a great mix of the old and the new and still is one of my favorite albums to this day (amazing live)

When I listened to GUP for the first time I was dissapointed by the general sound and I kind of knew at that time it was the beginning of the end of my love affair with Rush

I stuck through it as you do with a relationship but it just got worse and worse for me, when you go to a show and are only really enjoying the encore?!

Its time to leave.

Made it to the RTB tour before that actually happened

 

I listen to GUP now and enjoy most of the tracks on it but have tried to listen to PoW and HYF but just cannot get into them even now bar one or two tracks

[Segue Myles]

I thought Signals was a great mix of the old and the new and still is one of my favorite albums to this day (amazing live)

When I listened to GUP for the first time I was dissapointed by the general sound and I kind of knew at that time it was the beginning of the end of my love affair with Rush

I stuck through it as you do with a relationship but it just got worse and worse for me, when you go to a show and are only really enjoying the encore?!

Its time to leave.

Made it to the RTB tour before that actually happened

 

I listen to GUP now and enjoy most of the tracks on it but have tried to listen to PoW and HYF but just cannot get into them even now bar one or two tracks

 

I think its great you held on so long. Did they ever get better for you later on in their career?

[Geddy's Soul Patch]

I definitely find GUP to HYF to be some of their strongest work. Yes it was very synth heavy and Alex took a sort of backseat but he managed to write some of his best guitar work during those three albums. They were definitely softening their some but IMO they were still writing very progressive music

[goose]

I thought Signals was a great mix of the old and the new and still is one of my favorite albums to this day (amazing live)

When I listened to GUP for the first time I was dissapointed by the general sound and I kind of knew at that time it was the beginning of the end of my love affair with Rush

I stuck through it as you do with a relationship but it just got worse and worse for me, when you go to a show and are only really enjoying the encore?!

Its time to leave.

Made it to the RTB tour before that actually happened

 

I listen to GUP now and enjoy most of the tracks on it but have tried to listen to PoW and HYF but just cannot get into them even now bar one or two tracks

Welcome! :cheers:

 

Have you met Narpet? Kindred souls, I think.

[Bluefunk]

I listen to GUP now and enjoy most of the tracks on it but have tried to listen to PoW and HYF but just cannot get into them even now bar one or two tracks

What do you think of Vapor Trails, Snakes and Arrows and Clockwork Angels?

[RobC]

I thought Signals was a great mix of the old and the new and still is one of my favorite albums to this day (amazing live)

When I listened to GUP for the first time I was dissapointed by the general sound and I kind of knew at that time it was the beginning of the end of my love affair with Rush

I stuck through it as you do with a relationship but it just got worse and worse for me, when you go to a show and are only really enjoying the encore?!

Its time to leave.

Made it to the RTB tour before that actually happened

 

I listen to GUP now and enjoy most of the tracks on it but have tried to listen to PoW and HYF but just cannot get into them even now bar one or two tracks

 

I think its great you held on so long. Did they ever get better for you later on in their career?

I listen to GUP now and enjoy most of the tracks on it but have tried to listen to PoW and HYF but just cannot get into them even now bar one or two tracks

What do you think of Vapor Trails, Snakes and Arrows and Clockwork Angels?

 

Yes I like Vapor Trails & Snakes and Arrows and that got me back to going to see them live again in 2007.

I was a bit apprehensive as were a few friends I went with that hadnt been to see them in years either but I had heard R30 was great (missed that one, damn) and we all had a great time and I have been going to the tours since then, twice for the Time Machine tour London/Rotterdam.

Now CA I do think is an excellent album but I just cant get on with the sound of it, I think the production/master just makes it sound a bit dull or muddy as I have heard said before and I know it cant be the tracks as they sound immense live and very powerful.

Im still getting into CA even now but just cant get as excited about it as it seems the rest of the planet has.

[goose]

So...on YouTube I stumbled across this 1984 track from Frankie Goes to Hollywood. A problem I have with RUSH's synth era is that there are plenty of bands that did that genre much better.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4VcKoSSwnk

[sitboaf]

So...on YouTube I stumbled across this 1984 track from Frankie Goes to Hollywood. A problem I have with RUSH's synth era is that there are plenty of bands that did that genre much better.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4VcKoSSwnk

 

Well, if "doing it much better" includes a two-album career, then… uhhh…more power to them?

[dtpoet]

Well - I was in high school and college during this period. When P/G came out, I don't think (memory fading) that I heard a lot of the older stuff or at least I didn't own it. P/G was the first concert of any kind I had ever attended. I was blown away from the energy. So long story short, P/G became my foundation for the band. It's what I knew and loved. The older stuff was the icing. Yes, I enjoyed that as well, but to me at the time, not having lived through the 70's Rush, it was all one in the same. Sure it sounded different, but it was still them. I was also in a band and have a naturally high voice (Will that be all, ma'am?) so I guess P/G was a little easier melodically to grasp as a new singer.

 

Now also, I love writing and I think that the lyrics on these 3 albums are some of the best. I was 16 and Afterimage came out. Can't get any more nerdier drama than that. I remember being engrossed in POW's lyrics; Middletown Dreams (hey I'm from a small town area and I have dreams), Territories (what was that stupid cold war thing I just lived through as an adolescent), and of course - Emotion Detector.

 

"Sometimes our big splashes are just ripples in the pool"

17 year old mind blown......

 

I was senior in high school when POW came out. WOW! The Big Money rocked in its own way - not like Hemispheres or FTK, but it's own groove. The production is flawless. Everything blends and flows so well together. I mean - CA and SAA are great but the mixing is god awful. Not so with POW and HYF.

 

In college, HYF was released. I remember walking 3 miles to the mall so I coul get the CD. HYF built on my already infatuation with superior lyrics, well mixed sounds, and melodies blended with perfect harmonies. Second Nature? One of the best "emotion" songs they have ever done. At 19 - 20, that concept of an "open letter to the powers-that-be" was not only enlightening, but empowering. At the same time, I also had a philosophy class so I was learning about Existentialism so Lock and Key hit home there. My favorite song on the CD is probably Prime Mover. Love the introduction. Love the entire melody. 16 years as a coach, I am still quoting the lyrics to that song today ("the point of the journey is not to arrive. Anything can happen, boys...") LOL. I guess I can say the ideals within that lyric helped shape my coaching philosophy.

 

Anyway - In the end, I guess these 3 albums probably mean more to me than any of the other albums. It was that time when I was so still finding out about myself and the world beyond my little neighborhood. That dreams flow across the heartland. That I wanted to see more of the people and places that surrounded me now. That anything could happen. That, yes, even so young, I knew how that rabbit felt. These 3 albums were my prime. They developed my passion for the band and no mater what they did from there - I would follow....

Edited January 28, 2014 by dtpoet