Exit Stage Left

It is incredibly difficult / borderling impossible for me to actually "hear" this album the way a normal person would who didn't spend their early teen years with it on a loop in their walkman. It's been a good ten years at LEAST and I still know every little tidbit, which is annoying. I already know what's coming and it's all been framed up in my head. I can't really hear it.

Suffice it to say I like it a little less now but it's still a lot of fun. And I think I liked the studio La Villa better...?


I'm moving on to Grace Under Pressure, god help me. Expectations are LOW.

Grace Under Pressure

Distant Early Warning - Things have gotten VERY keyboardy, but there’s still a chorused-out guitar back there trying not to drown in tinkling key notes. Drum sound is way back in the mix, but not inappropriately I guess. Not a great song, but knowing they usually open with something “strong” leaves me feeling uneasy about the next 45 minutes. This feels like it’s aimed at radio but is too MEH to make the cut. C-

Afterimage – More of the exact same, so far. Wacky synths on the chorus, AWFUL lyrics of cliched childhood, and no hooks. I can hear the Designing Women shoulder pads rubbing under their guitar straps. Cannot finish this one.

Red Sector A – Because “sector” is a cool 80’s kinda word! What the fuck WAS that, where did that technology creep enter our lexicon and subtly take it over? Transistors and computers were 60’s, but I guess home PC’s were starting to enter peoples homes around now so maybe that was it. I blame that, and Tron and War Games and Short Circuit. Oh hey there’s a song playing in my headphones. And it suuuucks. Fuck guys, stoppit. If you don’t have anything interesting to play, just stay home.

The Enemy Within – More Police / Reggae guitars, this time with Police bass and drums. Sadly, there are no Police lyrics. I can’t say for sure until we hit the end of the run for them, but this sure as fucking hell FEELS like the low point. Surely it won’t get worse…

The Body Electric – HEY EVERYBODY COMPUTERS BECAUSE COMPUTERS! Also, computers. “1-0-0-1-0-0-1.. SOS…” Holy hot garbage. Musically this is SLIGHTLY more fun (which is to say, some) than everything else so far. They got close to a moment or two on this one, but really didn’t hit it. This shit is for basement fanboys only.

Kid Gloves – Well at least it begins differently… But then it begins to get in line and suck like the rest of this album. Little bit of a ballsy solo here near the end, well good for Alex. He must’ve had coffee that day. Best song of the album, which is not to imply that I like it. I’ve never heard this song, or most of this album, so it IS interesting to sorta teleport back in time and hear new old music that fits that time frame. Would be 1000x more fun if the music weren’t poo poo. Lyrically this is FOR SURE the worst album so far, and the lryics are never a strong suit.

Red Lenses – Dare I say it, there are NO Keyb—oh fuck no here they come to sake a massive dump on everything. I got so excited. When they kicked in, the song went into Comically Bad territory. I’ve sorta checked out here, and am looking foreward to this ending asap. Shitballs, neat bass playing quietly back there on the outtro. Goodbye, song… may we never, ever meet again.

Between The Wheels – I may not make it through 60 seconds of this. … …. …………….. made it 1:37. BLECH.

In summary: Poop and computers, but mostly poop. Beginning to wonder if they all had kids or something since the last album. This just sounds so phoned in and distracted. Even they must realize this one blows.

Power Windows
I am REALLY hoping someone took them to the woodshed after that last one, but I remember just enough of this time frame to know I won’t fully get my wish. I didn’t own this, but friends did. I recall liking at least something from it.

Big Money – Ok this is better, but SOMEBODY BOUGHT A SAMPLER! And like any kid with a new toy, they are abusing it. Even so, this song is listenable in a way that the entirety of the last was not. Irony of a well-off multi platinum selling big tour grossing band singing the evils of “big money?” History tells me the rest of the album will be worse, so this was a decent moment while it lasted. A teeny bit of old Rush is peeking through in this song. Hey fellas. This song actually has a hooky riff. I’ve missed those.

Grand Designs – Definitely a toss back to 2 abums ago. And again they’re trying harder to set up a hook and drive it home. Still this ends up boring, if perhaps unoffensive and goofy-sounding in parts. These commercial breaks are perfect for finishing the writing of these blurbs. Thanks Spotify!

Manhattan Project – I vaguely remember this song. How did these lrics not grate on me? I have some serious questions for 16 year old me. …………And then by the end of the song, I am almost humming along. Wow. Well, once gar, always gar I guess.

Marathon – This is a big miss for me. Again, overall better than all of the last album, but just kinda pillowy and synthy and expansive in a way I don’t dig.

Territories – This is now redundant pap. They establish a sound for the album, and then they work that territo…I was just going to type territory. Well played, Rush. Aywho, sometimes that’s great because the song has a point and a hook, but in this case it just feels like walking the dog. This blurb brought to you during a Weber Grill commercial that rips off Fun. Wow.

Middletown Dreams – WONDER WHAT THIS’N WILL BE ABOUT?! I’m guessing bad lryics about small town america closing down and/or youth lost. …. Oh I am right, and it’s worse than I thought would be. First section was Small Town and verse 2 is “boy and his guitar“ something or other. Good lord what shit. Nxxxxt.

Emotion Detector – BECAUSE DETECTOR IS A COOL HIGH TECHIE 80’S WORD! Hey guys, it’s the 80’s. They’re totally out of ideas at this point, and probably out getting dinner, and the producers ar doing blow in the empty studio and just recording shit “that sounds like Rush” til they get back. And nobody noticed. Lyrics are digging a new basement below hell.This must stop now.

Mystic Rhythms - … what in the fuck is this going to be… Ok yeah it’s really bad.

Well, they got a toehold back onto tenable ground with a few of these. Seems like the late 80’s and early 90’s produced a few decent things, if memory serves. On to what must surely be better places.

It's true. It could also set off the chain of events where one of the Mods deletes all of the other mods, then deletes Haq, then deletes the board.

We're not there yet, folks. One semi-mega Rush thread in nine years aint gonna kill us.

Grace Under Pressure (1984)

If we thought Rush was ridiculous before – “Grace Under Pressure” turns it up to a whole other level.

The synths are louder and almost used more appropriately here (it is 1984), but they work in a way that actually highlights, rather than overhwhelms Alex Lifeson’s guitars. But man, these synthesizers are everywhere. Just take a listen to “Red Sector A”, a song that I am pretty sure is about internment camps or the holocaust or something similar to that, but it sounds like this hugely awesome, futuristic anthem with words like:

Sickness to insanity
Prayer to profanity
Days and weeks and months go by
Don’t feel the hunger
Too weak to cry

But you get this persistent, somewhat wonky guitar riff just totally beefed up with these “Final Countdown” synths. And yeah, that’s basically “Grace Under Pressure”. Oh, and there are a lot more “reggae” moments in this album. Which is the direction that Rush really should have gone with as time went forward, it’s like listening to UB40 again while being 9 years old.

Meanwhile, “The Body Electric” might actually be the worst song that Rush has written because it is hardly even a song. It’s fun and it’s the band trying to be all futuristic and science fiction based rather than so superficially political and fantasy based, but I mean c’mon – the chorus is “1-0-0-1-0-0-1″ – and the verses are about “bytes” and “plastics” and the machines taking over and all that. It’s terrible, I mean really terrible – but at least it’s fun.

“Red Lenses” is an attempt at a clever song and the meaning of “red” or “read” or whatever else in as many ways as possible and is almost chance for the band sound like the Talking Heads. It’s also the worst song on the album and probably one of the worst songs in Rush’s catalogue up this point, but at least it gets LOUD. “Between the Wheels” sounds like Kane’s entrance music in the WWF but just not quite evil enough. Good song, but really really cheesy.

But that’s what this album is. It’s more pop-oriented than the last few albums, it doesn’t flow, the songs don’t seem as complete or quite as over thought as previous Rush albums, it’s just a collection of catchy songs that veer between awful and almost awesome, nothing ever truly breaking through. It’s silly, it’s fun, it’s the 1980′s, and while I enjoy the album on a whole – it’s not really something I need to hear that many more times in my life.