Goddammit I have to stop trying new internet music sites. Did you try that DIPA yet?

Not yet. Don't think it's going to happen tonight as I've already had a few other beers. Maybe tomorrow night?

I don't even think this review makes sense.

Hemispheres (1978)
4 songs, 37 minutes. It’s another Rush album that has a track that is the entirety of one side of an LP, the difference being – this one is actually worth the time it takes to listen.

Yeah, 1978 – the year Rush finally lived up to their prog promise. While I stated “Xanadu” is probably the best Rush song, “Cynus X-1 Book II” is probably their best REALLY long song, one that improves with repeat listens. On early listens of the song, it didn’t seem nearly as fun as their other side-long tracks, because it didn’t seem quite as silly or quite as audacious, but then I realized, it’s because it ALMOST makes sense musically. What Rush does with the opening track on “Hemispheres” is basically build this tension for the first 10 minutes of the song. The instrumentals throughout are never their most bombastic nor are they the most mind-blowing, but by keeping a basic guitar, drum and bass riff throughout the beginning half of the song, peppered with different musical passages, both loud and quiet – they make you listen intently. It can be grating if what you’re looking for is just something that is awesome, but where the difference is between this and something like “2112″ is that it almost sounds like a complete song. You are listening for 18 minutes, and it feels like 18 minutes, sure, but when it ends you say “yeah, that one sort of made sense.”

Which is to say nothing about the lyrics and storytelling which are just as ridiculous ever. Neil Peart, you lovable goof, you.

Lifeson’s guitar solo at the 6:35 mark is sloppy and Van Halen-esque (it IS 1978 after all), but serves as a nice transition back to the constant riff through the song. It’s a song I hated at first and enjoy now…except for that acoustic outro, which still just doesn’t sit well with me.

“Circumstances” is maybe one of the most forgettable songs in the entire Rush catalog. It might be because it’s after “Cynus” and before “The Trees” – but listening now closely in headphones, it even sounds like it was recorded and mastered poorly. The song just does nothing for me. It’s not the Rush that was becoming awesome and hilarious by 1978, nor is it the straight-forward Zeppelin act of the early albums, it’s just a meddling rock n roll song that sounds like anything else released in 1978, and sound about 5 minutes too long (and it’s only 3 minutes long).

“The Trees”…ah, “The Trees”. This was the very first song I knew was a Rush song and knew it well. It’s about trees after all right!? No, it’s about racism! No, it’s about labor unions! No, it’s about – ah, can it. I will always love this song, because it has trees in the lyrics, something we lack in pop music, and hell, I can think the song is about forest succession and competition if I want. It’s a great song, a total anthem.

And Lifeson’s instrumental mini masterpiece “La Villa Strangiato” is so much better without any lyrics, it’s hard to fathom how terrible it would be with them. It veers all over the place musically, but sits well in the album. Would love to hear it in the middle of an album that isn’t quite so good, but where it is now, it leaves a pretty good taste in your mouth as the album closes and is one of the few moments where Lifeson really takes center stage on a Rush album, something that should have happened a lot more. Can this song get louder? Please, let’s make it louder. LOUDER.

It’s not my favorite Rush album and it sucks that “Circumstances” is included here, because 3 of the 4 tracks are good, which means like 33 of the 37 minutes of the record is good. It’s one of t he more solid albums, start to finish, and should be included as one of the definitive releases of the band, something for the basement nerds, something for the prog-o-philes and something for those looking for something a little bit new in Rush’s sound. It might not rock quite as hard as some of their other records, but it DOES rock.

Permanent Waves (1980)
Computer shorted vocal effects and

Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band.

Oh man, “Permanent Waves” is definitely a Rush album.

In fact, according to Rush fans, it might very well be THE Rush album. While “2112″ is very well known and respected by critics (it was the first album where Rush was really…Rush. And “Moving Pictures” is probably the one album considered a “classic” (5 stars on AMG!), “Permanent Waves”, based on research and reading review after review over the last couple of weeks seems to, more often than not, be considered maybe the actual essential Rush album, the one where things just went right. People note the stronger writing, the tighter musicianship, the less-high Geddyvoice. It is an album that is more focused, sounds more like an actual album, and could definitely be considered a classic rock album, but for me – it just doesn’t go to the extremes that some other Rush album goes. Which, and get this – means that while it is the first album in the discography that doesn’t have a song that I totally hate, it also only has one song that I totally love.

And “Spirit Of The Radio” is that song – one of the all-time classic Rush songs.

Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

It is incredibly earnest, but that’s why it works. It’s a love song for a radio station, and it has some of Rush’s most anthemic lines, most impressive musicianship and even when it dips into faux-reggae, you just can’t help but smile. It’s FUN, and not fun because of how ridiculous it is, like most fun Rush songs, it’s just…fun for fun’s sake, which doesn’t happen too often in Peart song. “Freewill” has some of my least favorite lyrics of all time, I even recently made a message board post just about the lyrics, it’s Ayn Rand for the Broadway stage – but man, it IS catchy. Not my favorite, and except for the chorus almost seems too subdued to really become a classic.

“Jacob’s Ladder” doesn’t really go where I want it to go, it never fully explodes like it should, but it’s a decent enough 8 minute song – though ultimately forgettable in the grand scheme of things. The “ballads” on the second half of the album are probably the best mid-tempo songs so far of their career, but again, they don’t really do anything TOO memorable, they’re just solid. And “Natural Science” is great. Hilarious lyrics, science based! It doesn’t quite entertain me as much musically as some of their 9 minute songs, but it still finds itself towards the top of those lengthy ones. It’s no “Xanadu”, but it’s maybe the closest thing.

All in all, it is a GOOD album, but it’s not a great album, and thus – I can’t give it the classic status that many want to give it. It shows the band finally more comfortable of who THEY are, what they want to do, and really is the album that ushers in their sound in the 1980′s.

Just realized how different mine and Squirrel's opinions of Permanent Waves are.

"If you choose not to decide, YOU STILL HAVE MADE A CHOICE!!!"

Man, that's heavy.

I had a buddy way back not too long after this album came out and was getting regular airplay who misheard, "I will choose a path that's clear" as "I will choose a bathysphere." On those rare occasions when I hear that song these days, I'll still sing it that way in his honor.

Point of fact, Peart has given up very much deifying Ayn. He credits the US Libertarian movement with his apostasy.

He's the Paul Haggis of Objectivism. Right down to the being Canadian part.

(& somewhere in Hell, Ayn Rand & L. Ron are 69ing.)

Moving Pictures (1981)
Look guys, no matter how you slice it, “Tom Sawyer” is one of the best “classic” rock songs that exists. It’s such an undeniably fun, catchy and awesome combination of hard rock and awful power synthesizers, that you just can’t really deny it. Hear it a hundred thousand times and you’re still going to be like “THE RIIIIIIVVVVEEER” and probably air drum and air synth like anything you’ve ever played along with in your life. It’s a classic, one of the best – really.

And for many, “Moving Pictures” on the whole is one of the best hard rock albums ever created. Certainly by Rush at least, right? Well I don’t know. It’s good, almost really good.

I mean, the first 4 songs on this record are basically the 4 favorite songs by many people just getting into Rush – as this is usually the entry point for lots of those same people, and they’re all really good songs. But the whole record classic – I don’t know. Like every Rush record, there just seems to be something missing here and there.

“Tom Sawyer” aside, “Limelight” is actually perhaps an even more interesting song and one of the better 80′s power radio rock tracks. It’s pretty interesting musically, has this weird screeching, scronky guitar solo and still sounds totally dated, yet as a jaded listener – I can still enjoy it. “YYZ” is a music nerd’s dream instrumental, but to me it’s almost too robotic. I like robots, so I like the track – but you just want it to like explode and just freak out. And it doesn’t.

On the whole, it’s probably the most “rocking” Rush album since their debut. It’s loud, Peart is killing the drums on each track, Lifeson is really extended the guitar solos as much as he can, and they are going back to songs that are actually catchy – but just because it’s fun, doesn’t mean everything. For instance: I hate “The Camera Eye”. Musically, it has some interesting touches, lyrically it is actually one of the better Peart metaphors or topics, but as a song itself, it just annoys me. I can’t explain why – like all the pieces together, the length, it’s just too bombastic. The weird synthesizer sounds at 9:00 are my favorite part of the song, but the odd guitar solo immediately following them is one of my least favorite parts. It’s just a song where the whole time I’m going “Ok…let’s do this…let’s do this…ok fuck this.” I’ve listened to it about a dozen times and liked it maybe once. Kills the album for me.

“Witch Hunt” is probably the heaviest synthesizer song Rush had done up to this point and it really makes the song sound hollow to me. It’s an ok track, it’s a nice change of pace, but is really reliant on gimmicks and not on rocking when it should.

“Vital Signs” alternates between awesome and like a fake radio station jingle. Personally, I love the reggae vibes and the fast blooping synths, but when it picks up is when the track doesn’t work as well. It’s the opposite of most Rush tracks.

So…another Rush album that is front heavy. This might actually be the most front heavy of all their albums though, which is saying a lot. I really do like the first 4 tracks a lot, 2 of them more than others, hate one song and just sort of dislike 2 others. A classic album? Naw…but it gave us “Tom Sawyer”.

And that’s enough.

Exit Stage Left (1981)

If nothing else, “Exit…Stage Left” further cements my opinion that “Xanadu” is far and away the best Rush song. Oh and that for the most part, their big “hits” are justifiably their big “hits”, super die hard fans be damned. This live album demonstrates to me that Rush is not really a band about “deep cuts”, but about rocking the fuck out to anthems you know and love.

And that’s why this album and performance rule.

I don’t actually know how authentic of a live performance it is, what is added in after the concert, what is straight from the source, what is missing – surely all of those things have happened to make this release, because the fidelity is really quite good for a live performance in the 80′s, so whether this is a combination of real performance recording and studio trickery is likely – it doesn’t matter, because the songs? They hold up.

Apart from “Xanadu” and “The Trees” and “Spirit of the Radio” and “Tom Sawyer” which all sound awesome here (I’ll go ahead and say “Tom Sawyer” isn’t as good as the album version) – this performance get me excited about tracks I don’t really like either. You take something like “Jacob’s Ladder” – which on record is a track that just goes on too long and doesn’t really go onto anything, but here, it just seems amped up. The solos are more impressive, the playing is more passionate and the robotic feel is gone. It’s the same thing with the instrumentals “YYZ” and “La Villa Strangiato” – some of that studio stiffness is gone, though it’s replaced with some extra length, but it’s good. It just feels like a band at the prime of their career, playing the songs that people really want to hear and loving every minute of it.

And when “Closer to the Heart” starts – the people go buckwild, it’s hilarious that song is so big, and every time I hear this performance – I cringe. And I like the song, but it might actually be the low point of the album.

Another awesome surprise is the inclusion of “Beneath, Between & Behind” which is an earlier cut and really fucking rocks. It’s just like a transition from CTTH and JL but it amps up the energy for it’s 2 minute duration.

I don’t like putting “La Villa Strangiato” at the end and would have loved for “Natural Science” to be included (even if people don’t really give a shit about that song), but on the whole – this is my favorite Rush album from this period. It’s a greatest hits played live. Not much filler, some silly experimental effects and it has a solid fidelity. It’s the Rush that I want without all the bullshit.

And it’s great.

Signals (1982)
Well hello 1982.

Right from the get go – you get a blast of synthesizers, synthesizers that never go away. You get a lack of guitars and you get songs that are just a bit more glossy than what you are used to with Rush – already a glossy band. But hey, at least “Subdivisions” is about the suburbs and alienation rather than wizards and labor unions, right?

And it’s a solid song, even if I’m waiting for Alex Lifeson to blow it open for it’s entire duration (and the duration of most of these songs), but they’re going for something new here. Do these songs lean more towards pop music? Not necessarily – they’re just…different? “The Analogy” is almost like a pre-cursor to pop-punk, but with this awful, near Contemporary Christian “you moooooovvvveee me, you moooove me” chorus. I don’t know, it’s an accomplished sound and for people who prefer the improved musicianship and the new wave sound more than the arena rock sound – it’s going to be awesome for them (see most Progressive Rock fans), but for me – it mostly leaves me well, feeling nothing.

I’m a pretty big fan of “Subdivisions” on the whole, it’s like the fanciest song about the horribleness of growing up in the suburbs – a topic that was all but reserved for punk rock up until this point. It’s different and not the usual style of rock music that I dig, but it’s fun enough and like most Rush albums – as an album opener, it’s one of the strongest tracks on the album. “Digital Man” I really love. It basically apes The Police entirely. The guitar tones are completely Alex Summers, the bass lines just reek of Sting and the “reggae” breakdowns, I mean – take your pick at which Police song you want it to be. I love The Police, so it works out – but Rush’s little obsession with reggae breaks in the early 80′s is awful and awesome – but it makes “Digital Man” memorable for me, something that most of the rest of these tracks are not.

And look – I don’t think the album is bad. I don’t think it is particularly good either, like some people. But, the style of music here, just isn’t really what sticks with me. I want things to ROCK, not to be smoother (weird, because I love Steely Dan), but this is Rush, people – I want the ridiculous! That’s the point, isn’t it?

What I’m saying is that this album is just different. Maybe my indifference to it (it’s not anger) is because it’s not the Rush that is the albums before this – but I don’t necessarily have the most favorable view of all those albums either. It’s leaner, the songs are shorter, the lyrics are more relatable and less fantastical, and that should all be a good thing. But it’s not, not for me at least. It’s just kind of…ok.

uh, the RYM rating system so far:

rush - 3.5
fly by night - 3.5
caress of steel - 2
2112 - 3.5
all the world's a stage - 3
a farewell to kings - 3
hemispheres - 4
permanent waves - 3.5
moving pictures - 3
exit stage left - 4
signals - 2.5

Did you see the RNR Hall of Fame thing the other night?

It's enormously frustrating to me that I'm deleting multiple threads every day and I can't touch this one.

If you ask me Nike shoe pictures with a German language sales pitch are considerably less deserving of cyber annihilation.

evil dr dick

Read and enjoyed all these, by the way, Contradiction. The Spotify / Rdio issues sidelined me back to itunes, and I don't own any of these anymore.

Evil Dr. dicK would have worked better IMO.

If it helps you have my permission to delete.

You know an unlimited Spotify subscription is only $4.99/mo., right? $4.99, Kyle, $4.99.

I'd imagine that commercial interruptions would be a good thing when listening to Rush.

Five bucks a month... I donno.

Deleting a non street teaming thread is like launching a nuclear missile, Yail and I have to turn our keys at exactly the same moment.

guys, its ok. i don't only listen to rush.

been meaning to ask this in one of the wonderful Nike threads, is there a reason not to close down registration?
it's not like there is a lot of new blood coming in.

OK I'm back up on spotify. I caved, still haven't paid, will see how easy it is to live with ads. Diving into Exit Stage Left again, and holy shit I'm instantly 15.

Frightening thought: Is an early love of Rush the reason several of the drummers I knew in highschool turned out to be gun-loving Tea Party wanks? Was this early dose of watered-down Ayn Rand enough to infect them? Why did I not come down with it? Something about percussion...

Well that's a question to be answered by our absentee landlord.

Personally, I think you should approach Obner in the same way that you approach your personal life. You are prepared to put up with the current bunch for the meantime but maintain a hope, however unlikely it might seem, for better people to come along in the future.