CARESS OF STEEL

The third album shows RUSH starting to find their uniqueness as a power trio somewhere between hard rock (think of DEEP PURPLE without organ or other keyboards) and prog rock (they must have been listening to bands like Yes, Kansas and Genesis at the time - there's even a side-long multi-part epic). There were some hints of it all in Fly By Night, but the step forward is very visible between these two albums. Geddy Lee's singing still sounds too pushed at higher register but he can sing with serene emotion too, as this album finely demonstrates.

This album would be almost great if it was as good as the best parts, but it's quite uneven. 'Bastille Day' is a strong, if not very original hard rocking opener, but the next one is a total filler both for music and banal lyrics, 'I Think I'm Going Bald'. Also 'Lakeside Park' comes close being one with its repetitive structure, but I like its mood. 'The Necromancer' is a three - part and 12-minute epic with naive fantasy. What irritates me there is the mutated voice that sounds ridiculous.

The second side is RUSH's attempt to do a massive epic à la 'Supper's Ready' - and it succeeds quite well. It may not reach the highest pantheon of prog epics but it's clearly the best thing RUSH had done that far, and even if they were to do many better prog compositions, I appreciate this among them. There's a lot of dynamics as the epic keeps changing from edginess to delicacy. The fourth movement 'Panacea' is a beautiful acoustic ballad, and the epic ends with cathartic peace, coming to a full circle.

At this point RUSH used no keyboards at all, but Alex Lifeson does wonders with his guitars; the sound of this album is colourful and warm, somehow nicely aged and ageless at the same time. Someone said it's the most underrated RUSH album. I agree! 3½ stars.