PERMANENT WAVES

In my opinion, Rush reached their progressive and artistic peak with the previous Hemispheres. After the masterpiece that was Hemispheres, Permanent Waves is a little bit of a disappointment. The opening track, Spirit Of Radio was the first ever "commercial" Rush track and as such pointed towards things to come on future albums. This song simply seems to be designed for radio play. Freewill similarly is a more simple and straightforward composition than what Rush offered us on 2112, A Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres. These two tracks bring this album down a bit for me, but the rest of the album contains more classic Rush material. But even the best and most progressive numbers add little to what we already was given on the aforementioned trio of great albums and really only Natural Science is up to the standards set by these previous classic albums.

Permanent Waves is for me the least good album of Rush's classic period (2112 to Moving Pictures) and, even if it is indeed another good Rush album, it was the first sign of Rush's imminent decline that started with Signals and culminated with the awful Power Windows.

Not Rush's best, but still part of their best period and contains some great moments

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