CARESS OF STEEL

Caress of Steel is a mixed bag of blues rock with Rush also exploring progressive elements. Even though I really like the songs "Bastille Day" and "Lakeside Park", I consider this to be one of my least favorite Rush albums. Besides the two aforementioned straight-ahead rockers, the album includes a humorous throw-away in "I Think I'm Going Bald" (think of a bluesy "Benny the Bouncer") and two epics, The Necromancer and The Fountain of Lamneth. The two epics set the tone for Rush's future epics as far as lyrics are concerned. However, I think both of these epics really fall flat musically. Both of them are very disjointed, lacking any type of flow or musical cohesiveness.

The production also leaves something to be desired, in my opinion. Many portions sound "muddy" and Geddy's bass is oftentimes absent or completely drowned out. Lifeson is solid and is not afraid of including plenty of acoustic parts. Peart is such a good drummer, sometimes his technique is too precise. At times, his playing is almost robotic on this album. I believe that Peart develops his style more in later albums.

Fans of Rush will probably feel the need to include this in their collection, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.