Album Battle- Permanent Waves VS Signals

[rftag]

Double posted for some reason; don't see a delete option.

[Digital Dad]

Double posted for some reason; don't see a delete option.

 

I always just edit the post and say something goofy.

[DirkPrattLerxst]

Permanent Waves! Natural Science might be Rush's masterwork. Signals has some great music and other music that I don't care much for. Still like the album though.

[TexMike]

A very short battle if you ask me. PeW trounces Signals. Edited August 9, 2016 by TexMike

[Lucas]

Double posted for some reason; don't see a delete option.

 

I always just edit the post and say something goofy.

 

I've noticed you edit a lot

[Digital Dad]

Double posted for some reason; don't see a delete option.

 

I always just edit the post and say something goofy.

 

I've noticed you edit a lot

 

nm

Edited August 9, 2016 by Digital Dad

[goose]

Double posted for some reason; don't see a delete option.

 

I always just edit the post and say something goofy.

 

I've noticed you edit a lot

 

nm

:laughing guy:

[condemned2bfree]

Permanent waves on nearly every aspect that makes a great album. Production, song structure melodies lyrical content, universal yet personal. This transition period

is just so damn compelling and great. There are Rush classics here for sure. Just love the production, its presented in a way that fans understand - the instruments are captured in a familiar way, yet the guys capture their magic!

 

I love Signals too, it also has many great attributes, lyrically it forges ahead for me, and is still very engaging on many levels. However things are beginning to settle here, unlike pew; where the exploration starts! I do like each album for what they are, and what they say, but pew just pips it.

[Mystic Slipperman]

Yeah, it's not really a fair fight. Permanent Waves is absolutely PERFECT. Most days it's my favorite Rush album.

 

BUT... Signals has classics in Subdivisions, Digital Man, and especially Analog Kid.

[grasbo]

I must say that i am not the greatest fan of Alex's guitar tone and the way it was recorded on PeW.I know I will be in the minority here.That swirling guitar (chorus effect) at the start of SOR always grates me as does the solo in Freewill.It sounds too claustrophobic.I felt the same about Tom Sawyer for years until the Sector remasters opened it up a bit.I guess I just prefer the brighter tone he got on Signals and subsequent albums.That was because he started using Fender type guitars which have a brighter tone than his old Gibsons which are darker.Same for Geddy ,switching to Wal and Stienberg's snappy tone compared to Fender and Rickenbackers thicker sound.Oh Neil found electric percussion too.Stop!Gear nerd alert.But Rush are gear nerds.Look at any guitar or drum mags.One of the reasons Rush changed so much from Hemispheres to the eighties was music gear and recording techniques changed and Rush were on top of it.I have mags from the eighties where Geddy complains that his red Wal bass is brighter sounding than the black one because of the colour!.No wonder Spinal Tap had a field day.Anyway still Signals by a whisker. Edited August 9, 2016 by grasbo

[grasbo]

I prefer the bands haircuts,or lack of, on PeW.On Signals they went for the fashionable New Wave look especially Alex.The clothes changed too.

[Lorraine]

Permanent Waves was (still is) a perfect album.

 

Signals almost, but not quite.

[rftag]

Don't share your preferences but love the information. Always interesting to hear new insights as to why their sound changed so radically after MP.

[Phantom]

I can't rank a Rush album that has Chemistry ahead of one that doesn't. For me, Permanent Waves and it's not close.

[Todem]

Permanent Waves by a mile. Signals was the beginning of the end. ;)

 

Oh dear lord no.

 

The end for you maybe and some others, but to me it kept Rush interesting...progressing.

 

Permanent Waves is my #1 Rush album. It is the perfect cocktail or prog and pop. Really just an amazing record. The finest in the bands storied catalog. And while I realize the band considers Moving Pictures to be perfect.....I digress. Waves was perfect, had more punch and more heart.

 

Back to Signals though. Such a polarizing Rush album. You had two camps put a line in the sand when this record was released.

 

Camp A - Pioneer Rush fans. Die-hard fans from the debut album through Moving Pictures. This was my camp counselor in the summer of 84. He asked me if I was a Rush fan and I said hell yeah. he said what is your favorite albums? I said no question Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures along with Hemispheres as well. He said do you like Signals and Grace Under Pressure? I said I love them. He frowned. I was like...WTF? He was raised on 2112 and Hemispheres and only liked Jacobs Ladder and Natural Science on Waves. He really did not even care for Moving Pictures at all...hated Signals and left them in the dust.

 

Camp B - Discovered Rush with Moving Pictures.......that's me and a few million Rush fans. The band was born for us with Moving Pictures. I did not have enough time to get entrenched in their back catalog before Signals came out. I listened to 2112, Hemispheres and Waves a lot after Pictures came out, but never went hard into the first albums nor Kings till after Signals. When I heard Signals I was blown away by the warmth of the key's and Mini-Moogs mixed with the water breaking on glass chorus sound of Alex's guitar. I was in love. What a gorgeous mix of key's and guitars and it was so different from everything before it.

 

That was my love affair with the band. The fact they refused to rest on past sonic landscapes and keep reaching for new ones. They lost a lot of fans doing that...but gained a legion of newer ones.

 

Thank God for Signals. Or this band does not go on for another 34 years like they had IMO. They would have been just another nostalgia act at county fairs playing 2112 all the time instead of making another 9 studio albums.

 

Signals led all the way to Roll The Bones. And while some consider that era of the band far less satisfying than say 2112-Moving Pictures....I find it to be filled with great songs, lyrics, riffs and Rush joy.

 

 

Top 5

 

1) Permanent Waves

2) Hemispheres

3) Moving Pictures

4) Signals

5) Power Windows

Edited August 17, 2016 by Todem

[Disk98]

I like Signals, but Permanent Waves is WAAAAY better. You can't argue with an album that has TSoR, Freewill, Jacob's Ladder, AND Natural Science (unless we're talking about Moving Pictures, which we're not)!

[EagleMoon]

Permanent Waves by a mile. Signals was the beginning of the end. ;)

 

Oh dear lord no.

 

The end for you maybe and some others, but to me it kept Rush interesting...progressing.

 

Permanent Waves is my #1 Rush album. It is the perfect cocktail or prog and pop. Really just an amazing record. The finest in the bands storied catalog. And while I realize the band considers Moving Pictures to be perfect.....I digress. Waves was perfect, had more punch and more heart.

 

Back to Signals though. Such a polarizing Rush album. You had two camps put a line in the sand when this record was released.

 

Camp A - Pioneer Rush fans. Die-hard fans from the debut album through Moving Pictures. This was my camp counselor in the summer of 84. He asked me if I was a Rush fan and I said hell yeah. he said what is your favorite albums? I said no question Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures along with Hemispheres as well. He said do you like Signals and Grace Under Pressure? I said I love them. He frowned. I was like...WTF? He was raised on 2112 and Hemispheres and only liked Jacobs Ladder and Natural Science on Waves. He really did not even care for Moving Pictures at all...hated Signals and left them in the dust.

 

Camp B - Discovered Rush with Moving Pictures.......that's me and a few million Rush fans. The band was born for us with Moving Pictures. I did not have enough time to get entrenched in their back catalog before Signals came out. I listened to 2112, Hemispheres and Waves a lot after Pictures came out, but never went hard into the first albums nor Kings till after Signals. When I heard Signals I was blown away by the warmth of the key's and Mini-Moogs mixed with the water breaking on glass chorus sound of Alex's guitar. I was in love. What a gorgeous mix of key's and guitars and it was so different from everything before it.

 

That was my love affair with the band. The fact they refused to rest on past sonic landscapes and keep reaching for new ones. They lost a lot of fans doing that...but gained a legion of newer ones.

 

Thank God for Signals. Or this band does not go on for another 34 years like they had IMO. They would have been just another nostalgia act at county fairs playing 2112 all the time instead of making another 9 studio albums.

 

Signals led all the way to Roll The Bones. And while some consider that era of the band far less satisfying than say 2112-Moving Pictures....I find it to be filled with great songs, lyrics, riffs and Rush joy.

 

 

Top 5

 

1) Permanent Waves

2) Hemispheres

3) Moving Pictures

4) Signals

5) Power Windows

 

The winky meant I was being sarcastic. We all know how Rush fans can be separated by era, because it's an old joke. Change was very noticeable at Signals and not for the better, just different. The creativeness changed and they became less experimental and more mainstream. I was one of the original fans but I've come to appreciate the later stuff but it still doesn't hold a candle to the Moving Pictures and prior albums inventiveness and energy.

 

 

[catherine]

I love Signals but Permanent Waves is my happy place. If I could only have one Rush album (unthinkable but just for the sake of argument) It would be PeW, no contest.

[Blue Barchetta]

Double posted for some reason; don't see a delete option.

 

I always just edit the post and say something goofy.

So THAT'S why there's so much goofy stuff from you!

[TNT on PMS]

I prefer jamming to the Signals album.

so I am going with Signals . . . .

[treeduck]

I imagine two LPs hitting each other with the corners until one falls... Edited August 21, 2016 by treeduck

[Tombstone Mountain]

Permanent Waves by a long shot,

though this release does carry some weight beyond the original pressing.

One for the ages:

http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o371/x1yyz/signals-cover-singular_zpsmevgptuh.jpg

[ytserush]

Permanent Waves by a mile. Signals was the beginning of the end. ;)

 

R40 is the beginning of the end. Just sayin'

[ytserush]

So, both albums reflect a turning point in Rush's progression (Permanent Waves marked the beginning of the AM-Radio era, whilst signals introduced more elements into the bands music in the form of Geddy's keyboard playing and added samples)

Debate on which is better in terms of: lyrics, popularity, pro's/con's and anything else you can find to bicker about!

 

No offense to Signals fans but IMHO it's not even close; Permanent Waves.

 

PeW arguably represents Rush at its best. There are relatively short radio friendly songs such as The Spirit of Radio and Freewill but still epic length prog tracks like Natural Science and Jacob's Ladder.

 

PeW is a strong contender for my favorite Rush album and possibly the one I've revisited most over the years.

 

Signals on the other hand was the very first of their albums that disappointed me on the first listen. I've talked about this on this forum before.

 

Before buying it I had heard Subdivisions and New World Man and really liked both a lot. It was obvious they had moved into a new direction but, hey, that was what made new Rush albums back then so exciting act interesting; you KNEW they would change with each release and the anticipation of what would come next was particularly exciting in the latter Terry Brown years.

 

I remember after buying the album,looking at all the songs I hadn't heard yet and thinking how the names of these songs meant nothing to me now but doubtless done of these yet unheard tracks would be as near and dear to my heart as, say, Entre Nous or Witch Hunt or The Trees etc.

 

I was stunned at how bland each track sounded.

 

I remember reading the album liner notes as I listened and thinking how the words seemed to perfectly correspond to what I was hearing: These were now affluent, mature, young adults with families. They had lost their edge.

 

I didn't abandon Rush at that time obviously, as many did, but none of their albums from that point on ever effected me in the way all of the previous ones had.

 

I was older, they were older.

 

I know all the arguments.

 

I know it's blasphemous, but after all is said and done, and as much as I LOVE So much of Rush's post MP catalogue, I think the stuff they did before Signals had a certain 'specialness' to it that nothing afterwards even came close to.

 

So, even though I've subsequently come to really like most of Signals, that album for me represents the point at which their music was never quite as exciting and magical and goose pimple raising as it had been.

 

You may have been also stunned because only six songs in the Signals set were from 1978 and before and four of those were part of the encore medley..

[EagleMoon]

Permanent Waves by a mile. Signals was the beginning of the end. ;)

 

R40 is the beginning of the end. Just sayin'

 

You can say it but it ended a long time ago.