POWER WINDOWS

With almost consistent similarities between Rush's previous albums, Grace Under Pressure and Signals, Rush took another somewhat significant departure in their sound. The song lengths were still short making them meet the qualifications of 1980s mainstream radio, but Geddy Lee took his synthesizers to new heights, so much so that they dominated (some might say overwhelmed) Rush's overall sound. To my ears, this is a neo-progressive album. It may not keep to the Genesis-inspired stuff other neo-prog bands were partially doing at the time, but nevertheless it has its feet firmly planted in accessible, synth-dominated prog.

Taking a back seat is Lifeson's guitar. Like many guitarists in the 1980s, Lifeson experimented with echoey chord bursts and thin leads. The heavy use of keyboards doesn't bother me much (in fact, I like good keyboard melodies and backdrops), but Lifeson's experiments I found disappointing. You could see hints of this same type of guitar work on their previous album.

The songs are still elaborately arranged, Peart's drumming (even with electronic drums thrown in for good measure) is it's usual quality of excellence, Peart's lyrics are still well written and thoughtful and often covering subject matter much lacking from the fodder being played on 1980s radio stations.

For an album called Power Windows, where the themes tended to be about power, one wonders why the music lacked this power, often leaving the feeling of coldness. If it wasn't for that one quality lacking, I would rate this a masterpiece. Still it was exceedingly better than other neo-prog releases from 1985. Four stars for an exceptional, but somewhat flawed album.