HOLD YOUR FIRE

This is where I gave up on Rush completely. Every album starting with "Signals" was getting worse and worse, and this one is probably as bad as it only could be... There was a moment when I really tried hard to get into this album, and then I've found some positive elements, for. ex. in "Force Ten", "Time Stand Still", "Mission" and "High Water", I mean some melodies here and there, but still the best songs are far under the usual standard. Now, when I look at it with a perspective, I find it totally uninteresting and I'm not putting this CD into my player anymore...

The songs that I've mentioned had some potential to be really good, but that awful 80's production kills it all. It seems like everything except keyboards has been buried deep in the mix. You just don't feel the power behind all that instruments. The result is that they don't ROCK. All songs sound soo poppy...

Fortunately, they've started to change their direction a bit, and ultimately returned to their rock roots in the 90's, but unfortunately, not so progressive any more...