GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

As a second follow-up to an arguable pinnacle of the band's early life, Moving Pictures, this one seemed like a letdown when it arrived. I remember sitting and listening to it (cassettes, how did we stand it?), and feeling some kind of disappointment at the relative narrowness of the sound. I imagine Pictures as an expansive soundscape of mixed beats and complex musical structures. But gradually I I say that Grace was a second follow-up because this is the album that really delivers on what Pictures promised, and what Signals failed to do. (I am not a big Signals fan.) Compare "The Body Electric" with "Limelight", "Kid Gloves" with "YYZ" and "Between the Wheels" with "Tom Sawyer." I may be in a very small minority when I say that side two (songs 5-8 for the CD) seems to me to be the better side. Those songs above, combined with the malicious funk of "Red Lenses", most effectively capture Rush's off-kilter, not quite prog anymore sensibility. I don't think they sound like they were having this much fun since Villa Strangiato. This is also the first album to really experiment and play with the noise they could make using synthesizers, voices, and full-stringed guitar. Even Peart sounds playfully mischievous on "Red Lenses." Whearas past experiments were with structure and layering of sound -- producing a feel that was close to the preciseness of classical music, this album is really where they took their instruments out on the freeway to open them up and see what they could do. Considering what the rest of the music world was doing at this time, this is an astonishing album.