GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

For this they counted on the regular producer of Supertramp, Peter Henderson, together with a luxury team that includes the legendary mastering engineer Bob Ludwig. The album, how could it be otherwise, sounds luxurious, very rich in detail and leaving prominence for all the instruments. On this record Alex Lifeson's guitar is more prominent as on other Rush works, and perhaps for this reason it seems to me one of the guitarist's most outstanding works.

For the rest, we have a collection of songs that are somewhat more oriented towards radio formulas, shorter in length than what Rush had us used to, and with choruses that try to be catchy at first listen. They also delve a bit more into the use of synthesizers and certain pop and reggae influences that distance this album from what was heard in works like "Permanent Waves" and "Moving Pictures", "Signals" acting as a bridge between both sounds.

In any case, the compositional and instrumental level is so high that, how could it be otherwise, "Grace Under Pressure" is a good album, very good at times, but which in my opinion is below the great classics of the band, making a kind of break of the incredible streak that the group had had since the mid-70s.

In any case, Rush proved that they were still in pretty good shape in the mid-'80s, something many prog-rock bands that had their heyday a decade earlier couldn't say. Yes were putting out mediocre records, King Crimson weren't at their best, Emerson Lake and Palmer had all but disappeared... But Rush kept rocking out with good records, which was cause for celebration!

Sometimes, the Prog-Archives rating system is a bit unfair, because I consider that "Grace Under Pressure" is a clear 3,5 / 5 record.

Best Tracks: Distant Early Warning (a powerful and energetic opening), Red Sector A (best chorus on the record), The Body Electric (amazing bass and a great Lifeson guitar solo) and Kid Gloves (maybe not a great song, but I love its light-heartedness and rock energy and (again) the excellent guitar work on this one)

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