PERMANENT WAVES

Permanent Waves was announced as departure from style Rush presented in 70's but in fact it was recorded and released in 70's cos 1980 it's still 70's decade. So I don't know why guys wanted to have this 01-01-1980 date of release and first album of 80's. But it doesn't matter. Permanent Waves still sounds like everything they did in 70's and the difference between this and Hemispheres lies somewhere else. Guys decided to add some new experiments and new riffs. That's why people say it was major departure from archaic style of 2112, Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres. Of course they are right because Rush on Permanent Waves are more mature band and explore new levels. But the sound couldn't differ much. Alex still uses his Gibson ES 355 and it's that raw meaty sound. Spirit Of Radio was a hit and because guys played that reggae like part in the end of that song people could dance to that. In fact it was parody of Paul Simon song but thick head prog fans didn't care. They said "Rush went commercial" so they didn't care Jacob's Ladder was fantastic piece of music with lots of pure instrumental parts and amazing solos, they didn't care Natural Science is great epic concept of three parts played with passion and precision not to mention that technically it's light years ahead of Cygnus 1,2,3,123,456656 and the other stuff they probably wanted to hear on this album. They don't care for Freewill and Entre Nous and of course that beautiful ballad Different Strings which is very similar to Twilight Zone of 2112 they praise. We have 6 songs here, same as on Farewell To Kings. But on Farewell To Kings only 2 songs were truly progressive (the longest ones though). Here it's a real progress. Many progressive bands of 80's and 90's copied Rush and ideas from this album. Voivod on their masterpiece Nothingface or Fates Warning on their perfect Perfect Symmetry. So don't even ask me if it's classic cos it's so obvious. Better than anything done before by Rush.