POWER WINDOWS

This is Rush trying to survive the musical abyss of the 80s. As expected, the sound of Rush is much more digital, polished, tight, and drowned with technological [dated] sounds and guitar pedals. The keyboards take a bigger role than in their 70s period and include digital synthesizer, electric piano, and typical keyboards. The guitar is reverb-heavy and Alex Lifeson tends to use the pedals quite a lot. Geddy Lee avoids the falsetto, plays the keyboards surprisingly decent, and keeps using a big bass sound. Neal Peart luckily has good taste and doesn't leave it all to dull electronic drum sequences. His drum sounds are a bit synthesized but they fit and Neal plays the heck out of them! The first half of the disc is especially inspired and you might enjoy those first four tracks if you accept the fact that they sound very different to classical Rush.

Rush starts the album with a bang: the energetic rocker "The Big Money." It has all the elements I described above and the rhythm section especially shines. "Grand Designs" is a poppy tune dominated by Geddy Lee's vocals and keyboards. Pay attention to the short piano solo halfway, it sounds complicated and caught me off guard. Rush's composition skills are shows in "Manhattan Project", which features good melodies, instrumental breaks, and dynamics. in "Marathon", Geddy Lee shines again in all areas, especially his bass performance.

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound very original after the first half. "Territories" has good parts but it sounds too much like a hybrid of "Grand Designs" and "Marathon". despite the interesting bass lines and guitar solo, "Middletown Dreams" is quite boring during the singing parts. "Emotion Detector" is easily the bottom of the barrel here, a dated-sounding mediocre pop song. Fortunately, "Mystic Rhythms" is a quite solid track with good guitar-synth interplay and another moment where Geddy Lee shines. great vocals in the choruses and great use of a synthesizer that manages to be emotional.

If you're interested in Rush and don't mind a mellower and more keyboard-oriented album, give it a try.

1. The big money (B) 2. Grand designs (C+) 3. Manhattan Project (B) 4. Marathon (B) 5. Territories (C) 6. Middletown dreams (C-) 7. Emotion detector (D) 8. Mystic rhythms (B-)