Rush - Permanent Waves (1979)

A delightfully fast hammer-on/pull-off filled guitar riff, followed by the drums which come in with a crash and quickly move into an off time poly rhythmic cacophony that cascades into a train wreck that soon converges into a slowed down groove that picks right back up and enters into The Spirit Of Radio: Track one off Permanent Waves.

This first track is best described as 'the cure for the monday's'! For me at least...but it's a song I've definitely heard before on the radio and enjoyed it then, but I'm in love with it now!  Even the little reggae breakdown section near the end of the tune.

This whole album hit me somewhat differently than previous albums.  With Permanent Waves, I think Rush have changed up their game a bit, but thankfully they haven't abandoned the thing that makes them great (read: amazing musicianship). Everything is still rife with multi-movement songs and parts that make me say "there's no way in Hell I could ever hope to play that" but there's a lack of the side spanning epic and the song lengths seem to have evened out between the 5-8 minute mark (with the exception of the last song on the album "Natural Science" which clocks in at about 9 1/2 minutes.)

While still heavy on the complex musicianship, I would actually say that this is the most straightforward Rush album I've heard since their first few albums.  It would definitely make a great jumping off point for anyone looking to get into this great Canadian band.

I give Permanent Waves a recommendation of 9/10.  Permanent Waves was recorded in September-October 1979 at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec and was again produced by Rush and Terry Brown and spawned the singles "The Spirit of Radio" and "Freewill".



****I find I'm starting to really have a hard time writing review after review of the same band's music, as I find I pretty much have the same thing to say over and over.  The tricky part is that with the idea to review every album from 1974 - present may have been an overly ambitious undertaking along with being in 3 bands, doing a weekly podcast and contributing reviews and occasional articles to my home base website http://www.commaerror.com/ in addition to working a full-time job.  As such, I will be taking an indefinite hiatus from my journey to Rushification, but will be back hopefully before the snow melts with a review of Rush's 8th Studio album 'Moving Pictures', which features the most recognizable Rush tune to date: "Tom Sawyer"

Hope to see you all soon Kiddies!

Rush - Hemispheres (1978)

Wow....just wow!!

Coming off the last album 'A Farewell To Kings', I was a bit embittered, as it was the first album review where I found myself having a bit of trouble coming up with the right words to describe how I felt about the album.  I have found myself having a similar problem describing 'Hemispheres'. Although for vastly different reasons.

'Hemispheres' may very well be my favorite Rush album so far in my journey of rushification!  Although it is only four songs long, each one has it's own personality and vibe, each different from the last. 

From the opening track 'Cygnus X-1 Book 2' (companion piece to the final track of the previous album), this album takes you for a wild ride filled with multiple rhythms/time signatures, amazing bass grooves and intricate guitar work.  There's also a song that could be described as an homage to British satirical humour!  It's crazy!

So now for a track by track breakdown:

Cygnus X-1: Book 2: Another side-spanning epic track!  And a really good one at that.  The standard music tricks are all put to effective use in this song including multiple time signatures, constant groove changes, effects heavy guitar work and slick bass licks. 
Lyrical subjects seem to be heavily influenced by Greek mythology as seen through the sections dedicated to various Greek Gods such as Apollo and Dionysus.  Personally, this epic didn't really strike any major personal chords within me and the lyrics seem to be very open to interpretation and without any clear cut linear story elements (such as those seen in 2112 or the Necromancer from previous albums) but when the musical element is as good as it is on this track, somewhat mundane lyrical work is forgivable. 

Circumstances:  Pretty much the only song that is radio-friendly enough to be a single (the next track was actually a single as well back in the day).  This tune has an awesome groove, awesome lyrics that even have a couple of lines in french, as well as the same line in English "the more that things change, the more they stay the same".  Overall a very strong Rush track, but probably the least interesting on the album....at least to my ears.

The Trees:  Here we have a spectacular piece of music, juxtaposed against possibly the silliest Rush lyrics on any albums so far.  It's basically a song about how oak trees are bigger than maple trees and how maple trees are pissed off and feel oppressed in the shade of their larger counterparts.  Or I suppose it could also be a satirical metaphor for the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, with the former being the oaks and the latter being the maples...either way, there's trouble in the forest.  If you can get past the lyrics it's actually a really great song sonically.  But the lyrics kind of make me chuckle every time I hear the song.  But I suppose it keeps with the theme throughout the albums of divides (read: Hemispheres...)

La Villa Strangiato:  Quite possibly my favorite Rush instrumental track to date.  Uses sections of the 1937 Raymond Scott Composition "Powerhouse" which you may recognize from 'Honey I shrunk The Kids' or just imagine a crazy factory scene and I'm sure you'll probably have this tune in the back of your mind.  It should also be noted that at this point in thier career, Rush was still recording all parts in one solid take with no overdubs....so with that in mind, this song is all track long takes (apprently it only took about 40 tries to get it right....I think I would require about 4000 on any of the instruments)

Being that this was the last album released during the 70's, which is thus far my only real exposure to Rush, I have high hopes for the 80's!  My understanding is that the 80's became somewhat of a synth-heavy, new-wave period for the band, followed by them returning to more rock n roll inspired sound sometime in the 90's. 

Hemispheres was recorded during the summer of 1978 at Rockfield Studios in South Wales, UK and was produced by Rush and Terry Brown.  This is the second album the band recorded in the UK and in my opinion, is far more enjoyable than 'A Farewell to Kings'

I give Hemispheres a recommendation of 8 out of 10.

Next up for review:  Permanent Waves (1980)

Rush - A Farewell To Kings (1977)

Rush is back and musically, they're as awesome as ever!  Or rather, MORE awesome than ever....in many ways.  Although not so much in others, unfortunately.

The first thing that jumped out at me about this album is the complexities in the arrangements have improved greatly.  There's a good mix up of grooves, time signature changes, epic tracks and radio friendly ones as well.  Oh... and one really soft love ballad.  The lyrics didn't really stand out to me as much as the last few albums.  In fact, I think I may have burned myself out a bit by being so ambitious as to only spend 1 week with each album.  As such, I've actually taken 3 weeks to fully immerse myself and really get a feel for this album.

The further I delve into this journey of rushification, the more intense the albums become, despite the fact that the more recent albums have fewer 'tracks', the songs get longer.  The arrangements get more complex and the subject matter of the albums becomes less and less relatable and more rooted in fantasy and literature.

I've been listening to A Farewell To Kings for weeks now and while I've pretty much memorized every nuance of the album, I feel no real personal connection to this particular Rush album(and I really tried!).  The arrangements and instrumentation are quite outstanding and I wouldn't have a hope in hell of being able to play along to this album accurately on any instrument (and I'm pretty good at Guitar, Drums and Bass).  But highly technical instrumentation will only get you so far.  I would have to say that as far as songwriting goes, this is the weakest album I have heard from Rush, thus far...

That being said, all the songs on this album are, indeed, quite technically amazing. 'Closer to the heart' is one of Rush's more recognizable tunes and is easily the best song on the album.  It's catchy, up beat rhythm, and the fact that it isn't switching between 7/4 and 6/8 time signatures makes it great for the radio.  Cygnus X-1 is also one of the best Rush epics I've heard so far in the journey.  At the very least it's the best epic on the album. I didn't much care for Xanadu, although the keyboard part towards the end is catchy, but also so high pitched it makes the back of my head feel like it's going to explode in both joy and pain.

This album has taught me a lesson:  amazing musicianship will get you in the door, but you gotta keep up the songwriting skills or you run the risk of growing stale.  I've also decided that as the technicality of Rush's album seems to be progressing, I will be taking 3 weeks to fully listen to and appreciate each album.  This is a journey towards rushification and I just don't want to burn myself out.  I have 15 more albums to get through after all.

I give A Farewell To Kings a recommendation of 5/10 as it just didn't hold my attention as well as previous albums, while the amazing musicianship is there, some element in the songwriting just seems to have been lost.  Here's hoping the next album makes up for it.

Notably, this is Rush's first album recorded outside Canada.  The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales in June of 1977 and was produced by Rush and Terry Brown.

Up next in the Rush catalogue is 1978's Hemispheres.  I'm really hoping I like it better than this album, but I'm very excited as 'La Villa Stangioto' is on it and I've heard nothing but mind blowingly good things about that track.  See you in a few weeks!  Stay Rushified kids!