POWER WINDOWS

Power Windows is the eleventh studio album from Canadian progressive rock act Rush. Released between Grace Under Pressure ( 1984) and Hold Your Fire ( 1987) the album has a little of the sound from both Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire. The perfect link between those two albums. Grace Under Pressure contains some of my favorite Rush songs but that album also has a couple of very average songs that will never make it unto my list of favorites from the band. Power Windows is a notch sharper and more exciting IMO and all songs are excellent ( well almost all).

The sound on Power Windows is synth dominated but still with great bass, drums and guitar playing. There are actually some very good guitar solos from Alex Lifeson on the album. Very inspiring IMO. You have to have a strong stomach for eighties synth to enjoy this album, but it´s not a problem for me. I think it sounds great.

The album starts with The Big Money which I think is a great and powerful song. Other songs worth mentioning is Manhattan Project and Marathon but as I mentioned above all songs are excellent except for Emotion Detector which is a bit average. The beautiful Mystic rythms ends the album in grand style.

The musicianship is excellent. Neil Peart´s drumming is as inspired as always and Geddy Lee´s vocal performance is sharp and delivered with attitude. The band had at this point in their career reach a level of perfection that most bands will never reach.

The production is wonderful IMO. The bass is quite high in the mix and it suits me fine that you can hear the powerful basslines this clear. The synths are high in the mix as well and that´s an aquired taste if that will please you. I think it fits some songs better than others just as I stated in my review of Grace Under Pressure.

Rush eighties albums alienate many. Even some fans of seventies Rush dislike their eighties output. Mostly because of the excessive use of synth. My introduction to Rush was through their eighties albums so for me those albums have a special place in my collection ( except Signals which is not a favorite of mine). Power Windows is an excellent album and deserves a 4 star rating from me. Rush have corrected almost everything I wasn´t fully satisfied with on Grace Under Pressure and for that they receive the fourth star.