Grace Under Pressure: Rush

Atavachron wrote: At the time, it felt like a huge slap in the face.   Grace Under Pressure indeed, but what "pressure"?   And this was "graceful"?   It wasn't just the overgroomed and flatly-produced music either; the whole look of the album was alarming with its gloomy grey tones and the band's weird new homoerotic haircuts.   Something awful had happened between Signals and this one.   It might've been Terry Brown's absence or maybe someone convinced them to step into the new world of rock, but whatever it was it indicated just how far prog rock had slid down the hill.   A very bad year for a lot of longtime Rush fans, 1984 was.

It is not could be based and delivered such all the things

I really like it, it's not my favorite but still really solid. Distant Early Warning, Afterimage, The Enemy Within, and The Body Electric are all great songs.

Tom Ozric wrote: Gosh - I haven't listened to this album for years - Red Lenses is my pick from this (very good) album. I recall my buddies giving me sh*t that it sounds like The Police...........

Weird thing for them to give you $H|t about--The Police are one of the best bands ever. ;-)

Anyway, I love Grace Under Pressure, but it and Power Windows would probably be close to the bottom of a ranked list of Rush albums for me.  But it's difficult to rank so many albums when you love all of them.

GUP is a funny record for me. I rarely listen to it these days because overall the songs just don't resonate with me. Can't really explain it more than that or better than that. It's not that I think they're bad songs, they are mostly just kinda meh for me. Well, except Between The Wheels which is one of my all time favorite Rush songs. 

It's strange, I'm not much of a Rush fan, but it's the late 70's/early 80's albums from them that are the only ones I frequently return to (although I don't have `Moving Pictures' yet). I've worked out I much rather them because they don't have the screeching singing of the 70's stuff, even though those albums are their most overtly `proggy'. But everything else - the upfront bass, the sleek synths, the interesting drumming and the more restrained singing of intelligent rock/pop arrangements is really rather good.

I think `Grace...' was probably the first Rush album I kind of REALLY liked, and with the exception of `Red Lenses' (some of the vocal spots are irritating, but the rest has cool instrumental fills here and there), I think it's a top-notch rock/pop album, and I seem to spin it a heap in the background at work, very easy to enjoy.

Blacksword wrote: If you could HEAR ice, it would sound like GUP... I do love it though. I found it a little harsh on the ears at first, and a complete change from Signals with the guitar coming screaming to the foreground in the mix, but still offset with synths and electronic percussion. It's a pretty consistent album and Between the Wheels and Afterimage are among my top Rush songs.

^Bolded part is so perfect....

An awesome album, their last great one in my opinion.  Much more consistently interesting and rocking than Signals.  It is very hard hitting and heavy but in a cold, calculated way that Blacksword noted.  It did and still does seem so intricate.  Great concert too, I remember it well.  3rd row I believe.  But some of the criticisms about production and mood are certainly fair.  I think both work to the album's ultimate advantage though, looking back.

I agree with David about the haircuts

Hate the production,  but love the album.  If it were produced more like the three albums that came before it, it would be legendary.  Despite the production, GUP, along with Hemispheres, are my favorite Rush albums.  

Gosh - I haven't listened to this album for years - Red Lenses is my pick from this (very good) album. I recall my buddies giving me sh*t that it sounds like The Police...........

^ It does have a few sparse moments