Rediscovering Rush

[Finbar]

QUOTE (The Writer @ Nov 17 2006, 01:22 AM)

QUOTE (Finbar @ Nov 15 2006, 12:37 AM) I have a number of different recordings of it, but I only consistently play one of them (the rest I've only played once each) and that's the one under the Naxos label with Antoni Wit conducting. Oddly, that would be the same recording I was listening to last week - I bought it in a little shop in the Roman wall in Chester several years ago for a pound (if memory serves; it may have been slightly more), and I like it - it doesn't try to do anything outlandish with it, and the singing is mighty fine. And I understand why people love 3, but 2 and 9 are more personal to me, so I love them more.   But I'm supposed to be listening to 'A Show of Hands'... I wish I had a recording of my uncle conducting it. I saw him doing it live once years ago in Cincinnati and that, for me, was a religious experience.

[The Writer]

Oh, and:

 

I only just realised that I reviewed the wrong version of Exit Stage Left. The CD I have (which is right here in front of me) has A Passage to Bangkok on it; the version I downloaded to my mp3 player does not. So now I have to squeeze in a review of that, too.

 

 

I'm feeling a little like Zeno now.

 

 

(Incidentally, I know about the reason for the fades in ESL, but I don't agree with them; it just sounds wrong. Although there's a live album somewhere - Sammy Hagar, perhaps? - which fades out in the middle of a song. Sheesh.)

[Finbar]

QUOTE (The Writer @ Nov 17 2006, 01:22 AM)

But I'm supposed to be listening to 'A Show of Hands'...

GREAT live album. I love the live version of Subdivisions. Hell, there isn't a bad track on that album.

And Turn the Page... that bassline... how does he do it!?

[Kid_Gloves]

I have to agree with my friend Finbar on this one. Exit...Stage Left is amazing! 10/10

[Ya_Big_Tree]

SECOND THAT ONE!!!

 

QUOTE

Finbar Posted on Nov 17 2006, 01:27 AM   QUOTE (The Writer @ Nov 17 2006, 01:22 AM) QUOTE (Finbar @ Nov 15 2006, 12:37 AM) I have a number of different recordings of it, but I only consistently play one of them (the rest I've only played once each) and that's the one under the Naxos label with Antoni Wit conducting. Oddly, that would be the same recording I was listening to last week - I bought it in a little shop in the Roman wall in Chester several years ago for a pound (if memory serves; it may have been slightly more), and I like it - it doesn't try to do anything outlandish with it, and the singing is mighty fine. And I understand why people love 3, but 2 and 9 are more personal to me, so I love them more. But I'm supposed to be listening to 'A Show of Hands'...  I wish I had a recording of my uncle conducting it. I saw him doing it live once years ago in Cincinnati and that, for me, was a religious experience.

 

What will he be conducting this time when we go?

 

 

 

[KublaKhan]

Wow. I forgot all about this thread.

 

I remember reading all these reviews, and I remember you stopped at GUP. At first I was hoping it would come back alive, but, it didnt.

 

It was nice reading PoW and HYF. Keep on writing

[goose]

TW, thanks for your work on this thread. This is going to be a fun winter read.

 

[Finbar]

QUOTE (Ya_Big_Tree @ Nov 17 2006, 05:27 PM)

SECOND THAT ONE!!! QUOTE Finbar Posted on Nov 17 2006, 01:27 AM   QUOTE (The Writer @ Nov 17 2006, 01:22 AM) QUOTE (Finbar @ Nov 15 2006, 12:37 AM) I have a number of different recordings of it, but I only consistently play one of them (the rest I've only played once each) and that's the one under the Naxos label with Antoni Wit conducting. Oddly, that would be the same recording I was listening to last week - I bought it in a little shop in the Roman wall in Chester several years ago for a pound (if memory serves; it may have been slightly more), and I like it - it doesn't try to do anything outlandish with it, and the singing is mighty fine. And I understand why people love 3, but 2 and 9 are more personal to me, so I love them more. But I'm supposed to be listening to 'A Show of Hands'...  I wish I had a recording of my uncle conducting it. I saw him doing it live once years ago in Cincinnati and that, for me, was a religious experience.    What will he be conducting this time when we go? No idea.

[The Writer]

OK, so...

 

 

A Show of Hands

 

History

 

I've already done this, a bit. I bought this (my first Rush CD!) when we'd only had a CD player for a few weeks. I didn't play it as much as the other live albums, and haven't played it as much as the live albums I've bought since then. Something tells me it's a better album than I give it credit for, but we'll have to see.

 

Of course, because I bought this before Hold Your Fire, there were tracks on here which were new to me at the time. I wonder how it all fits together now? Let's find out...

[Finbar]

YES! YOU'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Writer]

Intro

 

The Three Stooges, isn't it? I remember knowing that at the time, but I'm not sure if my memory's playing tricks on me now. I know I have never seen the live show, so I don't know what visuals go with this, but it makes me smile anyhow. And we burst into...

 

The Big Money

 

Look, I'm sorry about this. I really don't get along with this song, and it's nobody's fault but mine. I've been over this ground before, so I'll try to find something else to say about it. Two things jump out at me. Firstly, that it's eerily accurate to the studio version. I mean, we know that's what these guys do, but I wonder if that's why I have this blank spot about this album - that it feels like a compilation with crowd noises? Maybe I'm wrong; I'll have to do some research on it.

 

The other thing about this song is just to underline that I cannot conceive of playing that bass line while singing that melody; I'd need a second brain.

 

Oh, I like the ending - and not just because it means the song's over.

 

Subdivisions

 

This gives me shivers - I so clearly remember seeing this live - the intro line is so much more bass-heavy than you expect, and I can still feel the rumble of it coming up through my feet.

 

Dear God, that was 1982. 25 years ago.

 

And I can hear things going on here which aren't on the studio version - or are hidden in the mix. Of course, I know what's going on with the sudden crowd noise; I've seen whatever happens on the screen, although I've forgotten exactly what it was...

 

An early observation - this feels much more like a 'show' than Exit Stage Left - these songs appear in the right place. Of course, there won't be anything particularly old, so some of the show must be missing, but it seems to fit together better. And no fading out.

 

Marathon

 

So, I'm trying to find what this brings to the party that the studio version didn't. And it's hard. Don't get me wrong; I love this song, and this is a beautifully played version - but so was the original. I'm listening carefully to the structure of the thing, and it's a finely crafted work, but somehow it doesn't quite fly, although the ending is quite effective, and I really do like the way this cuts into a different show without an audible seam.

 

Turn The Page

 

Ah, this is better. There's much more energy here. It's another impossible bassline, and it pulls the song along. I think I've commented on this before, but songs which are newer always seem to have an edge. This would have been one of the first times they had played this song live, and it does seem to give it a certain 'bite'.

 

This would have been the first of the songs which were new to me when I first heard this, but I'm such a fan of Hold Your Fire that I can't make that distinction now. I love the crowd noises - theres an immediacy and excitement about them for some reason; I know this is a different venue from the first three tracks (and the Birmingham dates were probably in the particularly soulless NEC, which may have made it sound a little flat), and it seems to have injected a little life into proceedings.

 

Manhattan Project

 

Ooh, echo.

 

I wonder if that's deliberate or environmental? Either way, it gives Geddy's voice an odd resonance which fits the song perfectly. I'm actually bouncing along in my seat now, but then I love this song. I'm just going to pause while I wait for the bomb to drop...

 

And the reverb on the voice just blows a hole in the song - perfect. Staggering that in a live situation, they can actually create that hole without causing the song to trip over. And no idiot in the crowd yelling out into it either. I don't know why I thought there might be; it just seemed possible. Onward; we're coming nicely to the boil now.

 

Mission

 

Mission doesn't get the rapturous reception it might have done if it was a little more familiar, I guess; but then I'm probably putting my own prejudices on it. Perhaps not everyone feels the way I do about this song.

 

In any case, there's enough audible excitement through the opening bars to make me reconsider. Is it me, or is this just a little fast? Not a bad thing, but there's something about it which sounds different. Perhaps not.

 

About time I paid attention to the Voice.

 

Geddy's voice is never given the credit it deserves, I feel. It may be distinctively pitched, but that's a huge asset for any singer. What's often overlooked is that it is actually a highly flexible thing - just listen to the bridge here. We take it for granted, or even like Rush in spite of it, but maybe we should actually listen to it a little more.

 

Just a thought.

 

Distant Early Warning

 

From the moment it first came out, I wondered how the songs from Grace Under Pressure would go over live - they lack (in the main) that certain bounce and swing which makes a live show rock along, and I couldn't help feeling that they wouldn't necessarily sit well with some of the other live material.

 

Well, we don't exactly get much of a chance to find out, but here goes...

 

It starts with a little doodle, just to set the mood, I suspect, and then comes barreling over the horizon towards us. Again, this feels a little faster than the original, but I don't know why - maybe I'm expecting it to be more sombre than it is.

 

But it does have a bounce and swing; it fits just fine.

 

I am, however, searching in vain for anything else... hang on, there's Red Sector A down at the end. OK, I'll really be interested to see how that fits with the normal 'end of show' vibe.

 

Back in the present (the 19 year old present, but let's not go there...), I am mainly wishing that I'd been somehow able to see the show from this period, because it's rocking.

 

Much more so than I remembered, which is gratifying.

 

 

I'll break here - it's about halfway. Damn, I miss vinyl.

[The Writer]

Mystic Rhythms

 

I once read something by an aerobatic pilot, who explained that some of his stunts were seemingly mundane to the layman, but had a high degree of technical difficulty; they were the ones he did for the other pilots.

 

This song strikes me as something similar - it sounds perfectly straightforward, but there's stuff going on under the surface which will impress those who have ever tried to do it themselves. Like I said before, put the word 'rhythm' in the title, and you're asking for trouble, but this delivers, and - much to no-one's surprise, of course - the drumming is precise and perfect.

 

Live, that cannot be easy. Respect.

 

Witch Hunt

 

Yeah, the crowd goes mad, and so do I. I remember reading somewhere that this was one of the songs which was too complex to do live when it was written, so I remember being really excited to hear it start up.

 

It brings the pace down, and the mood as well, but it's just such a powerful song that it really stands out in this company. and it sounds faithful to the studio version, so I wonder which piece of technology had to evolve sufficiently for this to be done live.

 

Although it feels short - has it been edited? Never mind; more important things to deal with...

 

The Rhythm Method

 

Aah, bliss. It gets it's own star billing now, and it's also evolved. Spectacular, dynamic; all the things we've come to expect, and more. I remember hearing this for the first time so clearly (it says 'drum solo' on the sleeve; I got it home and put it on first, then listened to the rest of the show) - all the familiar fills and rolls, mixed up with some new stuff, and then the percussion, sounding more complex than before.

 

And then - yes, I know they're triggered sequences, but come on - those horns! I pretty much jumped for joy the first time I heard them. And the ending: so much fun. I grinned then; I grin now. Please don't tell me drum solos are boring.

 

Force Ten

 

I can't think of a better way to follow that. Barely a pause for breath, and we are plunged into the drum-driven surge of this. I know it's an album opener, but it fits so well down the order here; really picking up the pace.

 

But I wish we had a record of the whole show. I know it's policy to showcase material which hasn't been heard live before, but I'd love to hear this juxtaposed with some older songs as they race for the finish line. Must go and look up some running orders from around this time...

 

Oh, and just how complex is this one to play?

 

Time Stand Still

 

Of course.

 

They just fit together, like two sides of the same coin. If I have my mp3 player on 'random', I actually feel uncomfortable if Force Ten isn't followed by this. My only criticism would be that they need to be ever so slightly closer together - there needs to be barely a pause between them.

 

And it's become such a personal song that I'm just getting lost in it. Not being objective at all here for a moment, this is pretty much the best sequence of songs on any live album - from Witch Hunt to here, it might have been designed just for my personal satisfaction. Remind me why I don't listen to this album much...

 

Red Sector A

 

Well, this can't possibly work, can it?

 

I don't know where you put a song like this in any live show, but way down here ain't it. Of course, I'm neglecting the force and drive of the music because I can't help hearing the words, but even so.

 

I imagine (and, yes, I will check - or someone will post it here for me) that this was towards the end, and the shows around this time wrapped up with three or four real crowd-pleasers, rather than the last song before the encore.

 

Or, I suppose, it might have been first encore. Actually, that might have worked - something to calm us down before the final party. I don't know, but having got the running order pretty much spot on after the randomness of Exit Stage Left, this seems to me to let the side down.

 

All of which cannot obscure the fact that this is a magnificent song, magnificently played.

 

In the wrong place.

 

Closer to the Heart

 

What? After the wonder of the Glasgow crowd last time out, how can you possibly hope to improve on it? Because this'll have to be a bit special to be better, otherwise there's no point in having it here.

 

And, yes the *checks* Birmingham audience do the singalong thing, although a little further down the mix, and it's just a lot of fun, but I wonder what else might have been here instead, until...

 

Until the ending. Ah, now I understand. That is just too cool for words, and sends me on my way with a huge, silly grin. But I do wish... No, I'll save it for the summary.

 

 

Summary

 

I wish two things about this album, neither of which can be fixed now. Firstly, I wish it could have been just a little more representative of a whole live show of the time - I know why it's all newer material, and I do enjoy it, but I'd like to have heard some contrast to the 'Eighties sound' before the end.

 

And I wish that the fun they had with the ending had been a little more evident elsewhere. For a live recording, it really does sound a little too close to the originals for comfort. Yes, I know it's an amazing achievement, and I know I wouldn't want to sacrifice the integrity of these songs to silly showboating, but - ah, in the end, it is what it is, and what it is is a damn fine live album.

 

But it won't be the one I play when I need a live Rush fix, I'm afraid - it's going back on the shelf now, and I don't know when it'll come out again. It was fun, but I have new stuff to get my teeth into. I'm really looking forward to that.

[The Writer]

Oh, and a complete aside - the actual disc is, of course, relatively early CD tech, and it's - odd. It's made in West Germany, for a start, and it's thick; quite substantial, with a neat, rounded-off edge. Feels quite different to handle than modern discs.

 

It's not important - it's just... interesting...

[The Writer]

Presto

 

History

 

I've already explained this; the driving through the highlands of Scotland bit. I didn't have a copy of this for my late night Autostrada hurtlings, though, so I'm coming to this a litle fresher than with 'Hold Your Fire'.

 

But I do have another insight to offer. Until a few weeks ago, I had only listened to this album in the car. Unlike the first ten or so albums, which I would have studied obsessively while sitting in my poky rented room somewhere in Edinburgh, I never really had a chance to look properly at the lyrics for Presto. So encountering it recently through crystal clear headphones has intrigued me greatly; I probably appreciate these songs more now than I did then.

 

The other thing to say about Presto is that it was the very last Rush studio album I bought a physical copy of; everything else from now on has been downloaded (perfectly legally, I'll have you know). I bought this (I don't remember where from) on cassette and it lived in my car. That was early 1990; the next time I spent money on a Rush recording was when I bought 'Different Stages' in 2000. What on earth made me abandon them for an entire decade? Not sure I'll find out, but let's see.

[Kudzu]

Ah, yes. The album with possibly my two favorite "short" Rush songs on it. Despised by many here, loved (aside from the Robert Palmer vocals on "Superconductor" and all of "Hand Over Fist", as well as the too-polished Rupert Hine production) by me.

 

I look forward to this one, because while Presto lacks the integration and fluidity of Moving Pictures and Grace Under Pressure for me, some of its individual pieces say a lot of great things for Rush. If those ultramale vocals had been left off of "Superconductor" and "Hand Over Fist" had been cut, this would be a stupendous album from start to finish.

[The Writer]

Show Don't Tell

 

Straight off, I love the opening. Of course, it's designed to get you to turn the volume right up to catch what's going on, then sock you between the ears with Alex giving it both barrels. Nice. I like the sound of this, too - there's a jangly guitar part drifting in and out which catches my ear, and the expected fluid bassline loses nothing for being entirely expected.

 

Lyrically, it comes across as a bit lightweight at first, but subsequent listenings straighten it out for me; I sympathise entirely with the sentiment - the only caveat I would offer in today's environment is that showing me might still not be enough - you'd probably have to put it in my hand, these days - even my elderly father can use Photoshop, you know.

 

Now I discover (after all these years; I told you I didn't have time to study the sleeve) that it's produced by Rupert Hine. What, the guy from Quantum Jump? The Howard Jones guy? Well, so far it sounds - different, for sure, from 'Hold Your Fire', but not radically so. Kind of clean, and I just love what they've done with the middle eight, where the guitar solo might otherwise be - the bass part in particular is spectacular.

 

Good start; I kind of remembered it, but it sounds a lot better than I remembered.

 

Chain Lightning

 

This is the new Neil, isn't it? Enthusiastic for natural phenomena, and much more tuned in to his environment than before. Sure, we've been hearing it for a while now, but this is a clear sign of a different set of concerns, from the awe at the natural world around us, to the responsibility of the musician (or anyone performing to an audience) to think carefully about what is said.

 

And 'love'? I don't think we've heard too much about love in the last 15 years or so, have we? Interesting; very interesting. Neil may be a very private person (and good luck to him), but there are hints and clues everywhere, if you know where to look.

 

And musically? It's good, but not outstanding, I think. Some neat ideas - again the middle section is refreshingly different, even if it is essentially a guitar solo. And I love the end - the bass voice which has already been popping up here and there rounds out a well-crafted denouement.

 

Unfortunately, "that's nice" is also pretty much the verdict on the song.

 

The Pass

 

It opens with a spare, echoey melody, shared between the three parts (not much in the way of keyboard work here as yet, I notice), and seems to be following the sound of the previous two songs - now I'm getting used to it, I can clearly hear how the production has affected this, giving it clean edges, but also getting it somehow closer to the older Rush sound than we've heard for some time - bass, guitar, drums, voice balanced evenly.

 

But all this is a sideshow, because just as I'm beginning to wonder if the band still have it in them to pull out classic songs, here comes one of the very best.

 

Lyrically, it's incredibly powerful ("nothing's what you thought it would be" - we've all been there, haven't we?) ; structurally it isn't interested in the verse - chorus - verse stuff; there are three parts (again!), and they rotate very satisfyingly; musically, it's stunning - the melody is as good as any we've heard in the past, and there's a wondrous resolution after the middle eight (we're heavily into middle eights this time out; maybe it's just me) when the downbeat nature of the lyric seems to be pulling the melody line down; the bass is rumbling along and the drumline is downplayed; all triplets on the hi-hat, and Alex tries to get a solo off the ground.

 

For what seems like several minutes, the guitar pushes and prods at something, and just when all hope is lost, it finds the way through, breaking out into the sunlight as if to offer hope; but our protagonist is still on his rocky ledge, and there's a real feeling that help has come too late. It says so much, with such a simple set of tools.

 

Yes, they can still do it.

 

 

War Paint

 

And now it's rocking along nicely; still spare and sparse in the arrangement, but I think that's allowing the various parts to shine separately - here, I'm hearing the drum part; there, the bassline - all good.

 

And just to go back to my previous theme, what's going on in Neil's life here? Teenaged children, perhaps? Possibly not, given what I've read - I think his daughter would be slightly too young to have directly inspired this, but I'm intrigued by what it's saying - the self-delusion of the teenager desperate to be grown up and independent (and it ties back to 'The Pass' in that respect, too).

 

All that, and a shout out to the Stones. I like it.

 

Scars

 

I always liked this, but I couldn't have told you why. Until I started to listen to it again, and listen more closely. For a start, there's a particularly un-Rushlike funky beginning - bongos, unless I'm mistaken - and the vocal truly rattles along; it's like being on a train as Geddy zips through the first couple of verses.

 

The guitar is missing for large parts of it, too, so when it comes in, it's almost as if Alex has to play in double time to catch up. And then I realise that I recognise the drum part - of course I do; I've heard it more than a few times since (I can't be the only one who digs out the DVDs just to watch the drum solos when I need cheering up, can I?)

 

In the end, two things - no, make that three - make this stand out. Firstly, Geddy erases several years of painful memory by putting the Serengeti Plain in a song and having it scan properly (Toto, I'm looking at you). Then, there's the fact that for much of its length, this doesn't really sound like Rush at all, but it still couldn't be anyone else. Then there's the ending - even after all this time, I'm still complaining about fade-outs, and this ends properly, really properly.

 

 

(And I think this is where my old tape turned over, but I could be wrong. I'll break anyway.)

[goose]

Presto. Nice to see this piece of work getting the proper respect it deserves. I'm not quite sure why it is so derided on this board, but to each his own. I love it. I look forward to the rest of your review...

[Finbar]

I've never gotten Presto, but maybe now, your reviews will breathe new meaning into the songs and I'll be able to appreciate it more. Hopefully anyways. My goal is to learn to appreciate every Rush album.

There was a time when I didn't like Roll the Bones.

There was a time before that I didn't like Power Windows or Signals.

Hell, there was a time before that when I detested 2112 and Moving Pictures and anything Rush! O how far I have come.

[The Writer]

Presto

 

Ah, Rush unplugged! (aside: how much would you like to hear that?)

 

I just love the sound of this - the change of gears works really well (and if I'm right, and this was the start of Side 2, then it is all the more striking). But what I hear now are the words. As I said, I probably didn't pay as much attention as I might have to the meaning of these lyrics, because I as hearing them over road noise, and the distractions of traffic. I have been considerably surprised to rediscover this song in particular, and to discover that Neil is getting all metaphysical on us.

 

Now, I've evoked metaphysics once before, way back around 'Caress of Steel', I think, and there's always been an element of the layered meaning in even the most straightforward of Neil's lyrics, but this is the first time (I think) that we've been in the world of dreams and allusions. It's an unusual Rush song (up to this point, at any rate) in that it doesn't just come out and say what it means; it invites you to put your own interpretation on it.

 

Like I say, you can sometimes read things into Neil's words which give a clue to what he was experiencing at the time. But this? No, I have no idea - it sounds like an apology to a loved one for being apart, but there's a shrug of the shoulders at the end ("don't ask me/I'm just improvising") which is unexpected.

 

Who'd have thought that a song I'd previously dismissed as a bit lightweight actually had all this going on under the surface?

 

Superconductor

 

Now, this is saying exactly what it means. At the time, I thought I understood who he was pointing the finger at (Michael Jackson and Madonna, in case you were wondering); now, I think it's a lot more generic than that (although there will have been someone in mind as a template.

 

But we're all the way back to the concerns of 'Spirit of Radio' - can music survive in a place where it's packaged and marketed rather than felt from the heart?

 

(and as an aside, Geddy's 'That's Entertainment' is in one placed phrased exactly the way Paul Weller did it, which makes me smile)

 

I do think the 'Superconductor's are a little overdone - they kind of overpower the chorus a little, but in a way, that's the point - the subjects of the song aren't always interested in the integrity of the music they make; they just want to have an impact. 'Superconductor' is doing just that; I don't think it's being played with a straight face, but I could be wrong.

 

Anagram (for Mongo)

 

OK, I know. I know this is not to be taken so seriously, but I can't help it; I'm a pedant.

 

These are not (with one or two exceptions) anagrams. I know it doesn't matter, but it bugs me. It bugged me then, and it bugs me still. Partly because, in the spirit of the song, it should have been possible to come up with a clever title which explained it all without invoking anagrams (or Blazing Saddles, but I suppose once you've thought of it, you can't unthink it).

 

Musically, here comes the piano (and I wonder if the song structure is a little wasted on this, which is as close as Rush come to a disposable song).

 

But.

 

But still, it makes me smile, and still I sing along, even after all these years. I love this kind of cleverness (remember I said that Rush didn't do witty? They do now) and I find it annoyingly irresistible.

 

Damn it, even when I have good reasons not to like something, these three still get under my defences.

 

Red Tide

 

So, side 2 is the piano side? It takes a few listens to get used to, but I like it; it's classy, and seems to add gravitas to a song.

 

And here is a song not short of its own gravitas in the first place. I say again, who else was doing this stuff at this time? By now, a few, I guess, but these concerns go back a ways with Neil. And again, I point the casual listener in the direction of Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital series. This is, indeed, not a test.

 

And Dylan Thomas, too. Too good.

 

You know, this song is, in it's own understated way, an absolute classic. I'd not exactly forgotten it, but it has really jumped out at me from this set - powerful, direct, and musically inspired. Like I said, these guys can still do it.

 

 

Hand Over Fist

 

If I didn't know better, I'd wonder if this was a song which was added to try to make sense of some of the cover art. It has a hurried feel to it (which probably means it was the one which took longest to write and record), and I'm afraid it just doesn't say that much to me.

 

I suppose it's a kind of 'lay down your arms' kind of song, but I can't help feeling that it's a bit forced; that the conceit doesn't quite fit the message, so it's just been squeezed in as best it can.

 

And musically, I'm not sure there's that much to it, either. there have been weak tracks before now, and this isn't so objectionable, but it suffers because of what's on either side of it.

 

Available Light

 

Because here, to round things off and to send us into a new decade, is another classic. From the first piano chord, I feel I'm in safe hands. Again, I could evoke the word 'gravitas', and it's not out of place, but there's more to this than that.

 

It's a distillation of the 'new' sound, but it does it without losing touch with the past - Geddy's vocal on the 'chorus' is right up there with the early days - and he sings it rather than shouting it, which I half expected - he's not getting any younger, you know (I wonder if he could still hit those notes today?)

 

Here we have quiet moments of reflection, where the music opens out and gives the melody room to move, followed by a tight rocking band, a confident bounce, and the confidence to stop and start where needed. Add to that, the lyrical concerns of the past couple of albums, and a lovely passing mention of 'moving pictures', and you have just about the perfect way to round off an album which has - ah, no, wait - that's for the summary.

 

Summary

 

Well, I liked it. More than I thought I would, because it was the one album I didn't hurry back to when its turn came. I've had to make myself sit down and listen to it because (I suspect) I knew it was a) the one which caused me to stop listening to Rush, and the last one I'd be familiar with, and I'm not sure if I'm ready to go on a voyage of discovery.

 

But it's a fine piece of work. If I want to be critical, I'd note that for a while, Rush albums came in at 8 tracks long, and every one was a classic. You could pare this down to 8 songs, and it would feel much stronger. I don't think this was unusual for bands at this time - it took a while to get into the mode of writing longer albums (and taking longer to record than as well - remember when we had at least one every year?)

 

I have another thought, but it's for another post.

Edited January 22, 2007 by The Writer

[Kudzu]

Very nice little sum-up. I think I agree with everything that you said about Presto.

[The Writer]

So, that's it, then. For the next three albums, there will be several - indeed, a majority - of songs I have never heard before. I suppose I'm a bit concerned about that; am I ready to learn Rush songs from scratch after all this time? I have owned and loved 'Vapor Trails' for some time now, so I know I can do it, but three albums in a row? We'll see.

 

And the missing thought from the summary of 'Presto':

 

Why did I stop again in 1990? A lot of things happened to me that year; I moved house, country, and job. I stopped doing a job I detested, and started doing something I was reasonably competent at. I stopped spending half my life in my car, and I started working much longer hours, so I had a much smaller 'listening window' than before. I was living close enough to London to be able to go and see things I wouldn't have considered before, and I suppose that I opened my ears to things I'd only dabbled in before, and some of the things I had loved until then just fell away.

 

But it seemed a particularly brutal cutting off; I had just got back into Rush through the last three albums, but I stopped dead for ten years. Every now and then, I'd see an album in a record store, and I'd wonder what it sounded like, but never enough to actually pick it up and listen to it,and I can't explain that. I stopped listening to Rush in my twenties; I was past 40 when I properly started to listen again.

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next three albums with a little trepidation. Wish me luck...

[Kudzu]

Good luck. It's a mixed bag.

[The Writer]

Roll The Bones

 

History

 

There ain't none. Well, that's not entirely true. Thanks to my love of live albums (and live DVD these days), I know three tracks on this album. And they are the first three, which at least gets the familiarity out of the way, I suppose. Apart from that, the first time I listened to this album all the way through was about three weeks ago. It's been on pretty heavy rotation since then, and I'm fairly happy that I know it well enough now to have some opinions of it.

 

Here goes...

[The Writer]

Dreamline

 

Straight off, I love the opening - the passing car in the rain, the guitar figure, the bassline.. We're eased into the album with some real Rush staples and it feels comfortable. Incidentally, I note with some amusement that I love the sound effects here, where I railed against them for so long. I think it's partly because that swish is intrinsic to the song; a musical element, rather than something added to clarify things.

 

And what of the song? It's funny - I know it quite well, yet listening to the studio version has clarified a few things for me. For a start, it reminds me of a Douglas Coupland novel - Miss Wyoming, not for any direct connections, but more for the feel of things, particularly the second verse. And now I can clearly hear, rather than suspecting, that 'we are only immortal for a limited time' (it sounds like 'mortal' when you're not paying enough attention, and that makes no sense at all); it instantly becomes one of my favourite Rush lyrics of all. It captures that teenaged worldview perfectly, I think.

 

And it ends properly, too. I like it.

 

Bravado

 

For a long time, I knew that something about this was naggingly familiar. Not the music (although it harks back to 'Hold Your Fire') but something in the lyrics. And then, last year, I read 'Traveling Music', and Neil explained it to me. John Barth is one of my favourite authors, and 'We will pay the price/But we will not count the cost' is from Barth. Of course it is - and it made me go back and listen properly to the words here.

 

And what strikes me is the word 'love' - here it is again; not exactly common in Rush songs before now, it's starting to show up in all sorts of places. Here, it's just another aspect of human nature - we tend to over-reach, but as long as we don't lose sight of what makes us human, then we'll be OK. The music is simpler than it has been for some time now, more direct, more focussed on the core guitar/bass/drum sound, and I think it's all the better for it. I loved the fuller sounds of the eighties albums, but this is more muscular and purposeful - I like it just as well.

 

Roll The Bones

 

And here, we're going to have a problem. Because you can't ignore it. it still sounds like Rush, and in fact, in many ways, it pushes the Rush sound in interesting directions. And, let me say right upfront, it is a powerful and striking lyric, delivered with just the right amount of shrug - I quote it to people all the time. there's a fabulous bass part, and it's really driving the song along. the keyboards are back, but they're a critical part of the structure, and it's rolling (rather than rocking, you understand) along nicely, then:

 

You can't ignore it; it's a rap. Or, rather, it's an impression of a rap. And there's something odd going on here. Almost as if they knew that they couldn't carry it off with a straight face, the whole sound goes artificial - all the parts sound treated and synthesised (there's even a little breakout back into the real music in the middle) and Geddy's voice snarls all over it without ever sounding like he really means it.

 

And how could he really mean it? He's a middle-aged white boy from Toronto; he can only sound ridiculous. But, you know what? In a funny way, this isn't ridiculous - it's a pastiche, another attempt to not just push the boundaries (remember how strange 'Vital Signs' sounded at first), but to incorporate something else into the Rush sound. It doesn't quite come off, I think, but it's not as terrible as it could have been, and I kind of wish that they'd taken it a little further, just to see what would have happened.

 

Face Up

 

And now I have to deal with a song which is entirely new to me. The first thing I notice is that there's a little of the Presto sound about this, and it's driving along forcefully enough. I'm enjoying the wordplay, too - there are layers of meaning here which don't all jump out at you on first hearing. I like the way that the gambling metaphor is subtly woven into it; I like the 'all squeezed up inside' moment - which of us hasn't felt like that?

 

But ultimately, this is a little plodding - it doesn't really go anywhere. Interesting enough at first, I quickly found myself ready to move on.

 

Where's My Thing? (Part IV, 'Gangster of Boats' Trilogy)

 

(I hope I got that right)

 

Ah, instrumental! I had to listen to this several times before I got the hang of it - it's simpler and more straightforward than 'YYZ' or 'La Villa Strangiato'; indeed, it sounds mostly like a song for which there were no words written. But repeated listens got the point across - firstly, it's seriously funky - play this to someone out of context and ask them to guess the band: Rush is going to be a long way down the list (unless they recognise the drums - at last, the drumming is coming out of hiding here).

 

And then I'm listening carefully to all the parts, and understanding that they're full of good ideas and workouts - not as showcased as on the earlier instrumentals, but all present and correct. I'd never have a problem identifying the earlier instrumental tracks, but this one - I don't know, it might take me a minute to figure it out and put a name to it (and not just because it's got such a clumsy name. Yeah, very funny, guys)

[The Writer]

The Big Wheel

 

Straight into it, and it sounds a little like 'Presto' (the song, not the whole album), but it's quickly off in a new direction - fate again, but more of a personal reflection. I'm just wondering if this is the young Neil, the narrator of 'Circumstances' when he answers it for me ('victim of circumstance') - well, it made me smile.

 

Actually, the more I think about it, this is a strong song. I like the keyboard parts; they really add someting to the structure, and there's no dimunition in the ability of these guys to write a catchy chorus. And I really love 'leap of fate / twist of faith' - not done for effect, they really mean something in the context of the song. And it's about chance and fate again, but it never sounds forced.

 

Heresy

 

I've been listening to these on the mp3 player mostly - usually in the car, so I don't always know what these songs are called - I spent ages trying to track this one down because I imagined it was called 'Wasted Years'. Heh. The end of the eighties was an extraordinary time, and it is still surprising to me that more songs weren't written about it - everything we knew about the way the world worked was suddenly torn down, and no-one seemed really sure what was going to happen next.

 

So, time to lay my cards on the table - I don't really like this song (and there are not too many I've said that about before), and I think it's because it was written too soon after the fact. There are a lot of comfortable, Western assumptions in it about forgiveness and waste, but I've been to some of those countries, and there's much more ambivalence about the Soviet years than you might think - and certainly more than was assumed here.

 

And musically, it just sounds a little plodding (save for the snare drum opening, which I'd like to think was a deliberate nod to Shostakovich, but probably wasn't) - not quite thought through. I kind of wish they'd put this aside and come back to it a few years later - I think there's a lot more to be said about this whole subject, perhaps with the benefit of a bit more hindsight.

 

Ghost of a Chance

 

This, on the other hand, seems to be on much firmer ground. There's a proper rock riff and a really effective breakdown. Geddy's voice fits this part particularly well, and he sounds like he really means it.

 

And we're back on the subject of love, which is kind of cool. The more I listen to this, the more I realise that there are plenty of un-Rushlike moments in it - the guitar sound is kind of unusual, the sentiment is more hopeful than definite, there's an orchestral swell in there. It's a song with some depth, and some real beauty.

 

Neurotica

 

Are we back in 'Anagram' territory here? I thought so at first, but I've listened a bit more. Before we get there, have a liten to the opening couple of bars - woah, what's going on there? Odd and interesting sounds are, in a way, part of what this band has always been about, and that bass opeining is one of the oddest and most interesting.

 

So, it's not just a list of neat rhymes (although it partly is just that), there is a real story here (although if I was being cruel, I could sum it up as 'chill out, man') and I particularly like the 'snap's at the end. I also like the 'song without words' element of the chorus - easily dismissed as filler, a properly applied 'ooooh' can lift a song above the mundane, carrying another melody line just as well, if not more effectively than any of the instruments.

 

And - for the first time since 1974, Geddy gets to sing 'baby'. Do I mind? A little, yeah, but it kind of fits with the vibe (man) of the whole thing. Just don't make a habit of it, thanks.

 

You Bet Your Life

 

And so we sum up an album with a theme of chance and gambling with the most obvious song of all. Except it isn't obvious at all, and just might be my favourite of them all.

 

The sound changes again - I really like that about this album ; there isn't a 'sound' to it, each song uses the elements it needs to work. After all the points we've reached along the way, this is back to the 'muscular' sound of the beginning, but with all sorts of other things thrown into the mix on the way.

 

And then there's another rap. Yes there is, but we don't hear it at first, because this one works perfectly. Hiding under the refrain of 'bet your life' is what, perhaps, the 'Roll The Bones' one was reaching for - it's sung rather than spoken, but then Geddy's a singer not a rapper, but there's no mistaking it for what it is. As soon as I heard it, I had to find out what the words actually were, which is just about the perfect thing a song can hope to achieve. It raises this song form 'pretty good' to, well, somewhere above that, and that's no faint praise.

 

 

Summary

 

I think, in the end, that I'll only really know what I think about this album in a couple of years time; when I can identify songs instantly from the opening few bars, rather than waiting for the chorus (or guessing wrong, as I did with 'Heresy'), but for now, I'll say this. It isn't at all bad - there are, perhaps, a couple of weaker moments on it, and I'm not sure that any of these will count as 'classics', but for a (where are we now) 14th album, it's pretty good.

 

I'm going to finish this survey (eventually) with a list of songs which will stay on the mp3 player in a playlist called 'Rush surprises' - songs which over the course of this whole exercise have surprised me, either because I'd forgotten them or underestimated them, and there's going to be at least one from this album on there, because I hadn't heard it before, and I was very pleasantly surprised by its quality. But I'm not going to tell you which one; you'll have to stay the course...