MOVING PICTURES

"Moving Pictures" is a Rock and Prog Rock classic, that maybe isn't at a compositional level Rush's best, but it's still an excellent album, with some classic songs that will be reminded forever like "YYZ", "Tom Sawyer" and "Red Barchetta", and are a nice introduction to the band. The sound here is excellent (almost like a CD) and the production is top notch, as every song is played perfectly, with the clean, innovating and transparent drumming of master Neil Peart, the cool Geddy's bass lines, something that makes me fun to play Rush on my bass, and the fantastic guitar playing of Alex Lifeson, and his correct use of effects, as well as the guest appearence of Hugh Syme again on synthesizers on the song "Witch hunt (Part III of Fear)". Not a masterpiece, but one of those classics any (Prog) Rock fan must have. I think I'll not add to much information to what was said by the enormous number of reviews have said before, but I really want to review this album Here goes a description track by track:

"Tom Sawyer" is an all time classic and definitely Rush most known song. This is one of those tracks you'd show to a person who has never tried prog. The beggining is unconfusing: stmospherical synths, characteristic thythm given by the drums and the kind of 'rap' Geddy's vocals, that give a personal feeling to this classic. Also, here is featured a killer riff used on the pre-chorus ("And what you say about this company is what you say about society"), and a crazy guitar solo. Great opener. A total classic.

Then goes another classic, "Red Barchetta". At the start, I can hear some hypnotic synths and a bass solo that's very nice and creative. The song goes through different transitions like the one on the beggining ("My father owns a contry place that no one knows about"), and the rocker parts with Lee screaming "Run like tha wind, as excitement shivers up and down my spine!!", oh, this ROCKS !! Excellent and very original song. Another classic.

Then goes, without a doubt, one of the best instrumentals ever written: "YYZ". This is the first song I've ever heard from Rush and I'm still amazed by it. "YYZ" is incredibly unique, mainly because of that incredible and unconfusing riff and the use of odd time signatures. Also, it has some pauses with bass solos (and the bass lines along the song are really cool). I love the part in the middle after the main guitar solo, with the drums osed like a bridge to the solo, and then the fantastic solo Lifeson provides (and I can hear come drum 'craches' during it. This another one of those tracks you'd show to a person who has never tried prog. Instrumental classic and masterpiece, excellent !!

"Limelight" is more like a conventional song. It starts with a nice guitar riff, followed by nice vocal melodies, and some rhythms with a rushed drum. Catchy vocals on the chorus and nice slow guitar solo. Well, this song is far of being as good as the first 3 ones, but it's still a good song.

The 10 minute epic on the album is "The Camera Eye", very dark song. It starts with some synths sounds and effects and a kind of atmospherical (?) guitar. THE riff that is repeated along the song is KILLER. They did very good on repeating the riff several times during the track, because it's ingenious, simple and beautiful !! The song has two parts that are very similar, I think the only difference is the obscure and very overdistorted guitar solo on the second part (around 10 minutes). Up to this song, I could say "Moving Pictures" is a masterpiece. Nice epic.

The following song is "Witch Hunt, Part III of 'Fear'", that is used as the third part of the previous song and has, as expected, a constant feeling of suspense. Hugh Syme is the featured guest performer once again, playing synthesizers. Unfortunately, I think that with the last two songs the album starts to decay, because these last two tracks are far of having the quality of the frist five tracks, so I can not call this a masterpiece.

"Vital Signs" is the most common and commercial song on "Moving Pictures", with very catchy vocals (specially on the chorus) and a pop (?) drum on the pre-chorus. The album fades away with Geddy repeating once and again: "Everybody got to elevate from the norm ...".

Overall, this is a classic and an excellent addition to any prog music collection. It may be too much to call this a masterpiece because of the last two songs.

Rating: 4.2/5

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