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Rush - Grace Under Pressure CD (album) cover

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

Rush

 

Heavy Prog

3.69 | 1299 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Rogue Cheddar
5 stars This record deserves a better rating than what it has so far, for the following reason. RUSH has always been a product of their environment, regardless of how they seem to rise above all the other bands of their era. We forget that the 70's were at times a playful, optimistic time and experimental, thus we get RUSH songs that were such. A lot of the criticism people have for this album is that it is dark, cold, and bleak, too synthetic. They are all true.

Anyone growing up in the 80's and remembering the fear that Reagan's America and the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union instilled in a generation, will relate to this record. It more than any album captures "The Day After" zeitgeist. Is this a prog record? No, not in the traditional sense, because the record is bound to it's period, not ahead of it. However, it is something far more than being a progressive record, it is an important record. For a lot of reasons 1984 was looking to be "1984" and it wasn't until the 1985 Summit in Iceland did the two superpowers start to calm the rhetoric. RUSH like all the other people living in the middlelpower countries felt trapped "between the wheels" of the US military-industrial complex and the Big Red Machine. This was a warning call that the future is happening now and it's not pretty. The only way this album wouldn't sound dated or synthetic is if we actually had a nuclear war and it became fact.

Fortunately, an optimism prevailed and returned, and again this was reflected in RUSH's music. To use the cliche, hate the game not the player, if you think the subject matter is dark and depressing. The musicianship and lyrics are top notch with Alex's guitar work removing the ganja from his reggae riffs and replacing it with fear and paranoia. In doing so, he's took one style of music and melded it with another to form something unique sounding. Sounds like the essence of progressive music to me. The first side of the record stands up there with Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon; is emtionally and physically draining as anything from King Crimson and is the best first side of any RUSH album. There are no weak tracks, just not a pretty album to listen to on a sunny day (It's best played in late winter). If you remember the time, you'll realize that this album is simply brilliant. If you are too young for it, just be thankful. Best Hugh Sym cover to boot.

Rogue Cheddar | 5/5 |

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