RUSH

Review Nº 708

This Canadian rock size enjoys worldwide popularity, but strangely, Europe was an exception. The power trio consists of the copywriter and drummer Neil Peart, the singer, bassist and drummer Geddy Lee and the guitar virtuoso Alex Lifeson. The latter two are responsible for the compositions. All musicians of the band are regarded as absolute top performers and appear in many acknowledgments of renowned progressive bands or are called role models to follow.

"A Farewell To Kings" is the fifth studio album of Rush and was released in 1977. This album continues the band's explorations of their music style and sounds. It's the album that represents the final musical and stylistic breakthrough.

"A Farewell To Kings" represents the first studio album of the band that belongs to their second musical phase that ended with their eighth studio album "Moving Pictures" in 1981. The other two albums released by the group between this two studio albums are "Hemispheres" in 1978 and "Permanent Waves" in 1980. In this musical phase, the band moved more into the progressive rock and for the first time synthesizers were now employed by the band. This musical phase marks the end of transition from their long epic pieces of music to shorter, more concise and intricate songs.

The line up on the album is Geddy Lee (lead vocals, bass, twelve string guitar, Mini Moog and bass pedal synthesizers), Alex Lifeson (electric and acoustic six and twelve string guitars, classical guitar and bass pedal synthesizers) and Neil Peart (drums, orchestral bells, wind chimes, bell tree, vibraslap, triangle, tubular bells and temple blocks).

"A Farewell To Kings" has six tracks. All lyrics were written by Neil Pearl and all music was composed by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson except "A Farewell To Kings" and "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" composed by Lee, Lifeson and Pearl, "Closer To The Heart" with lyrics by Lee and Peter Talbot, and "Cinderella Man" with lyrics by Lee. The first track is the title track song "A Farewell To Kings". It's a nice slow paced song with a unique and very beautiful acoustic introduction and a great feeling in the singing. This is the kind of songs that makes a magic trick and confuses all of us with its enjoyable and hypnotic rhythm. This is a very strong opener for the album that shows the growing power and the magnanimous force of Rush's songs. The second track "Xanadu" represents the first great epic on the album. It has an atmospheric introduction and a multiple exchange between bass lines and the guitar, and it's impossible to forget after we heard it. As an electric storm, the strong grows until the grand entrance by the vocals. Lee sings this song magnificently and he simply owns you. The simple sole presence of this song makes of this album a truly masterpiece. The third track "Closer To The Heart" is a short, peace and love song that starts with an acoustic guitar riff that is joined by vocals, drums and bass. This is a nice and enjoyable track to hear. After hearing the serious opening track and the epic second track, this is quite welcome. It's a song with simple lyrics, simple music and simple and short solos. This is an uplifting and very good song. The fourth track "Cinderella Man" is a mid-tempo song with a slower chorus. It's another simple and good song, especially appropriated for those who still feel the powerful effect of the two first tracks. It only picks up a little bit than "Closer To The Heart". Lyrically is a lovely song and it has musicianship enough to make of it a very good track. The fifth track "Madrigal" is the shortest track on the album. This is a simple love song, very slow and almost too simple even for a ballad. This is, in my opinion, the weakest track on the album and represents its Achilles' heel. Fortunately it doesn't last for long and we soon get what we were waiting for. The sixth track "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyager" is the album's second lengthy track. With it Rush managed to perfectly convey what a daring and dramatic quest into space would sound like. Completed with dark unsettling synthesizers this track is akin to "Xanadu" in that it opens quietly and then explodes into its musical splendour. It's dark and brooding, slow and pulsating, and builds into a great spiral of chaos, and then it leaves the listener in a soft and contemplative mood. All over the song there is a real feeling of menace and of mystery. It closes the album in a brilliant and fearless manner.

Conclusion: "A Farewell To Kings" is one of the best Rush's albums. This is also probably one of their most balanced albums with great progressive songs and short but catchy songs. Faster tunes and slower ones are also another point of balance. The flow of this album is just amazing and the warm sound, tons of unconventional musical instruments and brilliant lyrics make of it a classic. "A Farewell To Kings" was the first in a series of must have Rush's albums. The only weak point "Madrigal" doesn't spoil the album and even is excusable for being under two and a half minutes in length. As I wrote above, this was the beginning of the second chapter in Rush's musical career and unequivocally the most successful of all. "A Farewell To Kings" would set the stage for years to come. This is a great entry point for those willing to explore the most acclaimed portion of Rush's musical catalogue and a great album for all progressive lovers.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 674

"2112" is the fourth studio album of Rush and was released in 1976. The album features an eponymous seven part musical suite telling a dystopian story about a man who discovers an ancient guitar and learns to play his own music in the year of 2112. The "2112" suite fills the entire A side of the album. Besides that suite, the album has more five tracks on the B side. Rush repeated this musical arrangement on their sixth studio album "Hemispheres" released in 1978.

"2112" represents the last studio album of the band that belongs to their first musical phase. That phase started with their eponymous debut studio album "Rush" released in 1974, followed by "Fly By Night" released in 1975 and "Caress Of Steel" also released in 1975. This musical phase is a less progressive phase that is more characterized by the hard rock and the blues tunes and some more complex progressive tracks that "2112" is the greatest testimony of that.

Rush has always been regarded as one of the very most important bands in the progressive rock and metal history. Their intricate song structures and the use of outside influences has become a staple of countless of the band's sound. The complexity of their masterpiece suite, the twenty minute epic track "2112" is undeniably one of the greatest achievements that this legendary power trio have ever put their name on. However, the album to which it lends its title contains no other really worthwhile music. Sure, there are some fine riffs on the last five out songs, but none of them can rival with the colossally layered mastery of harmonies and atmosphere displayed consistently on the title track. Nor do the display the unbelievable musical intensity that Rush could often take on effortlessly. The acoustic parts everywhere, but the first song feel thin and lifeless, but it's all made up for before you even get to those songs, really.

About the individual tracks, "2112" is the lengthiest and the greatest track on the album. So, I must talk more deeply about it than the other five tracks. Lyrically and briefly, "2112" tells the story of a futuristic society run by a priestly intelligentsia that brainwash the masses into believing that they are happy. One day a boy finds a guitar and being expressing himself through music. The boy wants to share his music with others, which infuriates and terrifies the priests. Musically this is really a great piece of music with a magnificent huge sound. It's on a par with some other great progressive pieces of music like Yes's "Close To The Edge", King Crimson's "In The Court Of Crimson King" and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". What distinguishes more "2112" is that the band manages to create such a giant sound with not much than a guitar, a bass, drums and vocals. While there is some doubling of guitar, mostly during solos or when acoustic guitar is added, and a few keyboard passages, the vast majority of "2112" is produced with only three music instruments. So, all of this elements and the story makes of "2112" a true masterpiece in the way that it sounds.

Relatively to the other five songs on the album, while "2112" rightfully gets all our attention, side B is praiseworthy in its own right. While side A perfected their progressive rock elements, side B is the group's more direct hard rock dimension. On side B, Rush move out of a shadow of Led Zeppelin to create a hard rock sound with a very distinctive Rush touch. I'm not saying that the second half of this is completely bad, or even that it doesn't rock face times. There are definitely some riffs driven joints to be found here. These songs tell vivid stories or describe intense emotional experiences and in each case, Rush finds good melodies and hooks to convey these stories and feelings. For instance "A Passage To Bangkok" captures the energy and exoticism of travelling in far of lands while "The Twilight Zone" creates a spooky ambience. Even the ballad "Tears" is quite impressive, with Lee delivering a beautiful vocal performance, while guest musician Hugh Syme provides excellent atmospheric backing melodies with his Mellotron. When I want to hear these songs, I usually choose the respective live versions. But I admit this is a personal preference.

Conclusion: "2112" isn't truly a cohesive effort due to the great differences between both sides of the album. The side B of the album isn't as progressive and as good as the side A is. I think it suffers from the same problem that "Tarkus" of Emerson, Lake & Palmer suffers. However, I sincerely think it has enough quality not to spoil the general musical quality of it. Probably, the main problem with the both sides of the album is that Rush, in my humble opinion, was never a pure progressive rock band and always had a more direct hard rock aspect to their sound, at least, through "Moving Pictures". By the other hand, with "2112", Rush took a real giant leap into their music and began the release of a true amazing set of studio albums that shuttling them definitely to the stardom. With "2112", Rush made exactly the album that they wanted to make, rather than the one the label was being for. Few bands haven't been brave enough to maintain their artistic integrity in that situation. Thus, "2112" became so important that neither progressive metal nor alternative rock bands would be what they are today without it. As a whole, "2112" stands out because of its title track.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

With the successful "Moving Pictures" as their flagship, Rush concludes one of the most progressive and splendid stages of their career, releasing their second live album "Exit... Stage Left", title taken from the character "Snagglepuss" from a Hanna Barbera cartoon series. A band in a state of grace, able to play live complex studio tracks and transmitting the intensity of the adrenaline generated by the direct contact with the audience, surrendered to the staging of the Canadians.

The setlist represents the stellar moment the trio was going through, highlighting specially pieces like the energetic and participative "The Spirit of Radio", or the impressive "Xanadu", where Alex Lifeson induces us with his guitars and pedals to a trip of unique sensations, or the instrumental "La Villa Strangiato", a sample of the band's virtuosity, to which are added some of the most outstanding songs from "Moving Pictures", such as "Red Barchetta", the novel and mega successful "Tom Sawyer", and the huge drum solo of the master Neil Peart in "YYZ".

A more than interesting curiosity is the brief instrumental Broon's Bane, a classical guitar solo by Lifeson that precedes the beginning of "The Trees".

Although the original recording presents a somewhat dirty sound, improved somewhat by subsequent remasterings in 1997 and 2011, "Exit... Stage Left" is one of the best live albums of the genre in the decade of the 80`s.

4/4.5 stars

My God, this is about as dull, boring, and unimaginative as an album could possibly be. Is this the same group who put out the mighty 2112 and Farewell to Kings?

July 2023 = I just get tired of so many mediocre compositions.....should I burn them and piss on them, or just come here to PA and complain? It really is bad when I know a song sounds identical to one if its predecessors, but I can't figure out WHICH predecessor? Yikes. A 3-star rating is bad, bad because PA is about excellence; thus a 2 or 3 star rating stands out, as it should.

Maybe people upvote Rush because they're Canadian, they like Canadians, or because Rush is simply prog royalty.

Structurally, I'm not even going to get into a song by song break down (I always resist doing that). Also, some of these reviewers must be paid to say good things about certain artists (duh).

The synthesizers, which had almost completely disappeared on "Presto" return, and while they are no longer the protagonists, their supporting role is joined by Geddy Lee's flawless vocal performances, Alex Lifeson's riffs, and Neil Peart's percussion, mainly focused on merging with the melodies, so that "Roll the Bones" transmits a sense of more harmony and feels less rudimentary than its predecessor.

Keeping the scheme of short songs, the best is in the first part, with the anxious "Dreamline", the neat "Bravado" very clean and lively, surely the best track on the album, and the striking "Roll the Bones" with its catchy chorus and that more than surprising nod to rap, in a new demonstration of the versatility of Rush to incorporate elements of other musical currents without complexes.

After the stunned "Face Up" and the instrumental "Where's My Thing ..." (the melody could easily be part of "Power Windows" or "Hold You Fire"), the album remains coherent, but the spark seems to lose strength, it is reactivated with the intense "Heresy", and ends up taking the car correctly to a cruising speed without major emotions on the road until the closing with "You Bet Your Life".

Without being the most brilliant of Rush's discography, "Roll the Bones" is a good album, and it's well worth betting a few coins on...

3 stars

"Caress of Steel" put Rush against the wall and made the band's continuity questionable, after its meager commercial repercussion and a promotional tour that went unnoticed.

Although the band maintained its influences related to classic rock, as with the warrior "Bastille Day" and its unbeatable riff, or the nostalgic "Lakeside Park", they also begin to sail in progressive waters with two songs that occupy most of "Caress of Steel": the hypnotic and fantastical "The Necromancer", the best achieved composition of the album, standing out clearly Lifeson's guitar solos that go through its three parts, and Geddy Lee's active bass; and "The Fountain of Lamneth", one of the longest songs in the band's discography. And this last song, in spite of its promising acoustic beginning and Neil Peart's fleeting and incisive drum solo, fails to coalesce in all its development as a fluid structure, and perhaps that is the main point that works against not only the song but the album as a whole and its relationship with the record label.

Becoming a cult album over the years, in part perhaps because of the guilty indifference it suffered at its release, and in part perhaps also because of that mysterious character of lost gem and, separating the wheat from the chaff, "Caress of Steel" has above all the merit of having been the fundamental basis for the release of "2112", the band's first international mega-hit. And the end of the discussion with their record company...

3 stars

After the exploration and use of synthesizers taken to the limits of their imagination and something more, Rush strips themselves of all that tucking and, finishing the 80's, they turn with "Presto" to a less pyrotechnical and more hard rock style, with short and direct themes, and at times rudimentary.

The loss of prominence of the synthesizers is evident from the opening "Show Don't Tell" or the accelerated "Superconductor" and "Anagram (for Mongo)", where Alex Lifeson's guitars shine with more than interesting riffs, although the strength and power of the raspy riffs of their beginnings were long gone and are missed.

As true as the ability of the Canadians to create pieces that overcome the passing of the years and settle in the timelessness of legends, as with the delicate "The Pass" and its calm and precious harmony, or the crystalline acoustic beginning of "Presto".

Beyond its intense moments, "Presto" is wrapped by a mantle of underhanded melancholy that remains strong throughout its development, and that is crowned with "Available Light", the song where Neil Peart shows his unsurpassable mastery in percussion, in general more rhythmic in the rest of the album.

All in all, a correct work with primitive airs, but with less explosiveness.

3 stars

And this is where Neil Peart's story with Rush begins. Although the success and general recognition would come later with "2112", the band gained a lot as an entity with its own personality and an identifiable musicianship with the addition of the drummer for "Fly by Night".

It is true that they were still influenced by Zeppelian riffs, where short songs with a lot of hard rock muscle, such as the forceful and overflowing energy "Anthem", "Best I Can", "Beneath, Between and Behind" and "Fly by Night", are combined with the drops in revolutions as with "Making Memories" and especially the fragile "Rivendell".But it is with "By Tor", the mythological victory of good (the heroic Snow Dog) over evil (the demonic and powerful By-Tor), where Rush glimpses the path they are about to travel, with great changes of rhythm, stories with fanciful elements and an exuberant instrumental display, from the impeccable Peart and Alex Lifeson on percussion and guitar respectively. A future more closely related to the currents of progressive rock was already looming on the horizon.

From "Fly by Night" onwards, Rush would no longer change their formation, remaining a stable trio for more than 40 years, something that not many bands could sustain.

3/3.5 stars

In both "Signals" and the subsequent "Grace Under Pressure" the synthesizers had a preponderant role, and with "Power Windows" the Canadians would submerge themselves even more in that universe of endless textures, colors and atmospheres. A universe that, according to Geddy Lee, they had not finished exploring.

Miles away from complex instrumental developments and their original hard and raspy sounds, Rush is closer than ever to synth pop, focusing on direct and short songs, very dynamic and independent from each other. The undisputed skills of the trio are once again at the service of the melodies as a whole, to the detriment of the individual protagonism.

The result is uneven, with very effective songs like the vertiginous "Big Money", the restless "Grand Desings", "Marathon" and its luminous chorus, or the mysterious and exotic "Mystic Rhythms"; and others that not so much, like "Territories" or "Emotion Detector", that cross borders beyond what is permissible, at least for me.

In spite of the irregularity of "Power Windows" and the controversies generated by their radical evolution, Rush continued enjoying a great success in the general consideration.

3 stars

If "Signals" implied for Rush a clear evolution towards musical metrics more related to currents such as new wave and even ska in the eighties, with "Grace Under Pressure" experimentation along those paths gained even more strength. It is worth noting as an interesting fact that Peter Gabriel's album IV (later renamed "Security") is considered by Geddy Lee to be one of their inspiring sources.

With the change of roles of the intense guitars of Alex Lifeson and the remarkable percussion of Neil Peart, less protagonists in both cases in favor of more simplified and less intricate harmonies, the synthesizers and their infinite variants became the musical backbone of the album. . Shorter and more direct songs, such as the dynamic "Distant Early Warning", the very interesting fusion with ska of "The Enemy Whitin", the dizzying "Kid Gloves", or the painful and dark "Red Sector A" are clear samples of this, all within the packaging of a disturbingly bleak theme regarding the existential concerns of that time such as the cold war or the nuclear threat.

"Grace Under Pressure" drew a larger contingent of supporters, but without losing many of the followers of their more rabid early days. And this is due, in my opinion, to the fact that the musical evolution was not perceived as a derailment of the road, but rather as the process of developing a proactive band that respected its roots and transformed them without losing its essence.

Without being outstanding, "Grace Under Pressure" is a good album that kept Rush solid in the consideration of rock fans in general and progressive rock fans in particular.

3/3.5 stars