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Keeping steady with a year and a half pace,
Grace Under Pressure debuts with RUSH’s new producer
Peter Henderson, hoping to recover from the disappointment of
Signals the last album produced by Terry Brown.
Distant Early Warning begins reminiscent of 2112, but soon
reminds the listener, “No, this is the 1980’s.” Prominently featured in
this album are RUSH’s synthesizers and Alex’s ringy-tinny 80’s
guitar. After a closer listen, it seems RUSH is learning how to
better mix and compose with these new musical sounds. Distant Early
Warning turns out to be a good song, much better than any on the last
record.
Afterimage
continues with a better sounding RUSH and a good groove, but Red
Sector A is the gem of the album. Immediately from the first note, you
can tell this one is a hit. Finally we can be confident that RUSH
has mastered the 1980’s musical sound (as best as anyone could). Red
Sector A is also a more emotional song, as it is about the
concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Ultimately the best composition on
the album, it does bring up the horrors of electronic drum kits…why??
The Enemy Within
is a pretty good song, if it didn’t sound too much like THE POLICE.
The Body Electric is, unfortunately, a terrible song and
encapsulates the entire musical failure of the 1980’s rock and roll.
Kid Gloves begins with a classic RUSH riff and quickly
dissolves into nothing to write home about, and Red Lenses is
irritating to say the least. Between the Wheels is not a great
song, but it is very interesting to listen too, and so ends Grace
Under Pressure.
The first three tracks give you false hopes
that this album is going to be pretty good. Thankfully the last song makes
up for all the failures in between. In all, this is actually an
improvement on
Signals. Hopefully things
continue to improve. |
