SIGNALS

RUSH presented to the world with their 9th studio album SIGNALS a major surprise. First of all they said bye bye to both the progressive and the metal sounds that had been their defining classifications up to this point. They boldly went where no band went before. There had been hints of what's to come in their two previous releases but no one could have predicted that they newly adopted synthesizers, reggae guitar, sequencers and shorter songs would become the dominate feature of their music. They even have a guest electric violinist. After the huge success of "Permanent Waves" and "Moving Pictures" it seems like a clone or two of that same style would have surely sold gazillions of copies much in the same way that AC/DC rode out the whole 80s by using the "Back In Black" formula. But nope. This is RUSH. They decided they wanted to try something new and for that I commend them wholeheartedly. The album sold well and even had a their only US top 40 hit with "New World Man."

To me much of this sounds like RUSH was very inspired by The Police as well as the whole New Wave sound of the early 80s except RUSH incorporated these sounds and kept a slightly progressive edge that really set this sound apart from anything else even remotely related. A noble experiment indeed but what about the result? Well, for me, I have to admit that I prefer the old RUSH to this new one, however, I am a staunch supporter of bands taking risks and changing up their sound even if the results are less than successful. In this case I think they succeeded in what they set out to prove. Stylistically I love everything from Gorguts to the Go-Go's so that is not the problem. What I do expect is good songwriting and they deliver that here creating strange synth pop / rock tracks that give emphasis to the lyrics which I find very tastily laid out and performed. I know this was a huge disappointment for metal fans and RUSH would indeed go on to put out some very low quality releases in the future, but for me this is an pretty interesting album to listen to. And how can you not love a cover with a fire hydrant on it? I love them so much that I have to keep myself from peeing on the album cover.