Rush - Caress of Steel (1975)

Just 7 short months after the release of their second album in February 1975 and the ensuing tour, Rush came back in full force with their 3rd album 'Caress of Steel' and God Damn have they come into their own. The thing for me that stands out about this album that sets it apart from their previous 2 releases is the fact that Rush seems to be taking themselves less seriously on this release and just having a good time. 

The songs get cheekier, the epics get longer and more experimental and the musicianship, again, shows both improvement and strangely enough what seems to be a bit of restraint and focus. 

The opening track 'Bastille Day' starts with a catchy guitar riff accompanied by Neil Peart's fancy drum work, which builds towards and launches into one of the most serious (at least in subject matter) songs I've yet to hear from Rush, with lyrics describing the storming of the Bastille during the French revolution. Oddly, the first song then leads into 'I think I'm going bald' which is probably the LEAST serious song I've heard from Rush, lyrically speaking.  It has a bit of a KISS vibe to it, but in a good way!  And of course, awesome guitar solo!
We then move into the last typically structured song of the album 'Lakeside Park', which is basically a love letter to a park that Neil Peart worked at in his younger days and I would say this song has the catchiest groove of the album, it really gets your head bopping around like a bobble-head (oh...am I the only one who does this shamelessly in public...?)

Now comes the portion of the album where the magic happens.  I'm of course referring to the back to back epics 'The Necromancer' and the side-spanning 'Fountain of Lamneth' (back in the day when records were two-sided affairs, it must have been really odd to find one side filled with one song).

Personally, I enjoyed the 12 minute 'Necromancer' to the 20 minute 'Fountain of Lamneth'.  20 minutes is actually a really long time to commit to one song, even if it is technically an amazing song, it's still just shy of the amount of time a half-hour show runs when you watch it on DVD (which is totally the way to go for watching TV shows...it's advertisement free on DVD!)

In the Necromancer, there are 3 clearly laid out sections, each with an intro voice-over and their own groove and feel (Into the Darkness, Under the Shadow and Return of the Prince) and this was also billed as being 'a short story in 3 parts'.  It section also boasts its own breathtaking guitar solo.  This song is pretty much mind-blowing at every turn.

Fountain of Lamneth, which is itself broken down into 6 parts: In the Valley, Didacts and Narpets (a play on words for teachers and parents, narpets being an anagram of the latter), No One at the Bridge, Panacea, Bacchus Plateau and The Fountain.  Points of interest for me were the 4 minute mark (some amazing drum work in this passage), just past the 8 minute mark there's a slower groove which leads into a steadily building guitar solo which tapers out into the next section 'Panacea' that starts up with some sweet-sounding acoustic guitar just before the 10 minute mark. This seems to be the point where I start to lose interest.  Thankfully, at 13 minutes the 'Bacchus Plateau' section brings the groove back up a notch, but not too much and slowly builds over a few minutes until peaking at the guitar solo section which hits at about 15:30, but then fades out pretty quickly and leads back into the main riff of the song and just as quickly back and forth between the hard and soft main sections of the first section of the song, one last solo from Lifeson and one last verse before slowly fading away.

Throughout the album I was treated to many groove changes and breakdowns and of course a bunch of great Alex Lifeson solos and Neil Peart's amazing drums skills. What impresses me most about the guitar solos throughout the album is the use of off-time rhythms contrasted with the uber-tight rhythms set up by Lee and Peart, who have really solidified themselves as a force to be reckoned with, which is in itself impressive considering this is the second album the band has written with Peart as drummer/lyricist.

With all that said, when addressing the album as a whole, all the ingredients of the album are there, but for some reason the resulting mix just doesn't add up and has a hard time consistently holding my attention like the previous 2 albums.  Don't get me wrong:  This is a really good album and is totally worth giving a couple full listens to, but I highly doubt that this will end up being my favorite Rush album.

I give Caress of Steel  a recommendation of 6.5 out of 10.

Caress of Steel was recorded in June-July of 1975 at Toronto Sound Studios and was released September 1st 1975 on Mercury Records (Anthem Records in Canada) and was produced by Rush and Terry Brown.

The ensuing tour was dubbed the 'Down the Drains Tour' by the band as the album did quite poorly in sales in comparison to the previous 2 albums.  The bands label began to demand that they stick to radio format more and that their next album include more marketable singles.  The bands response was not what their label was expecting, but the result of their defiance will go down in rock history.

Join me next week when I review Rush's infamous 4th studio album, '2112'