CARESS OF STEEL

A commercial flop for Rush. Not only do I think the band were ready at that point to write extended passages, but I think that they didn't have good musical ideas overall: whatever they had were wasted on the two long songs here. The short songs range from mediocre to decent, there is a typical energetic rocker which fails to grab my attention, an ok pop song, and a kind of irritating hard rock tune that tries to be funny "I think I'm Going bald".

Why do the long songs fail as being good music? They are very poorly constructed, incoherent and some passages feel way too long. "The Necromancer" is the better one of those, starting with a dark slow section full of electric guitars, then having two sections which seem to have no musical connections and some unintentionally funny narration that hurts the song. "The Fountain of Lamneth" is the longest one, and the songwriting is awful. It starts with a bit of potential with a good hard rock riff, but then goes a drum solo and the singer randomly shouting lyrics and when music turns decent again, you have a very dull and overlong acoustic section and the rest is all hit and miss, making it hard to listen to it. Overall, it has its moments but is very inconsistent and ends up leaving me cold and unsatisfied. I can't believe how poor their songwriting skills were at this point and I'm glad they proved the world wrong with 2112, containing a classic hard rock epic of excellent musicianship and songwriting.

Recommended for hardcore Rush fans and completionists. There's no reason to get this album when you could buy their next set of albums, which are superior.

1. Bastille Day (D+)

2. I think I'm Going Bald (D-)

3. Lakeside Park (C-)

4. The Necromancer: (C)

5. The Fountain Of Lamneth: (D)