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As expected. Recommended
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Rush are one of my favourite bands, but this is an album that splits opinion among Rush fans. Some consider the mid 80's albums (Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire) to be the bands' weakest, but I personally love everything they did up-to-and-including Hold Your Fire in 88. For me, everything that has come since seems a little same-y and bland, with synth sounds banished to the background, and Neil Peart's lyrics rather lacking the fantastical. However, Power Windows from 1985 is Rush at it's most synth driven - and at times it is Alex Lifeson's guitar work that is in danger of being pushed out - something which I gather he wasn't entirely happy about. That said, the musicianship throughout this album is sumlime - you can see why Rush are sometimes referred to as a musician's band, i.e. one that is appreciated best by other musicians. Geddy Lee has lost none of his vocal power either, although he only really pushes his voice a couple of times. I can't help but try to sing along with the finale of track 3 "Manhattan Project", which normally leaves me unable to speak for about 5 minutes afterwards. Most of the prog-rock bands (Genesis, Pink Floyd, etc.) abandoned the long song format in the 80s and switched to radio friendly 3-4 minute songs. Rush never quite got to grips with this concept, and every track here is a least 5 minutes long. No-one could accuse them of bland lyrics either. In the first 4 songs, we have lyrics about commercialism, modern design, the development of the atomic bomb and running a marathon. Although predominantly songs about the state of the world, this manages to be a much lighter album than its rather foreboding, cold-war themed predecessor "Grace Under Pressure". This is really an album that deserves to be listened to LOUD !!! Especially the aforementioned first four tracks. Perhaps the second four are a bit weaker by comparison, but only becuase the first half is SO good. Too many people have never heard a Rush album, and that's a shame, becuase for my money, they're one of the best rock bands of the last 30 years (and one of the longest lasting too). This would be a great place to start. I've just changed car, and the new one has a CD player in it, rather than a cassette player. This means I can't put it off any longer - I've got to replace my extensive music collection with CDs. And this was one of the first CDs I wanted to get - I can't think of higher praise than that !!!Read full review
good Rush cd bought because I bought Snakes & Arrows, could have been more guitar influence but great songs as usual from Rush who always come up with great hooks in their songs.
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