Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 06-12-2013, 05:17 AM

Now these guys do fly the flag for Canada!

Artiste: Rush
Nationality: Canadian
Album: Permanent waves
Year: 1980
Label: Mercury
Genre: Progressive rock (yeah...)
Tracks:
The spirit of radio
Free will
Jacob's ladder
Entre nous
Different strings
Natural science
Chronological position:Seventh album
Familiarity: "2112", "A farewell to kings", "Caress of steel", "Hemispheres"
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Hey! I know this one!
Best track(s): Spirit of radio, Free will, Jacob's ladder
Worst track(s): I don't really hate anything here, despite expecting to.
Comments: Me, I've always been a seventies Rush guy. Love "2112" and all that, the heavier, progressive material, never cared too much for their later, more commercial output. Then again, in total fairness, I never listened to any of it other than what I heard on radio, and when I heard New world man I lost interest. Rush doing a reggae tune? Thank you, and goodnight. But like much of the music in my life at the time, I probably dismissed it too quickly and with a rather large slice of naivete with a generous helping of arrogance to go. Why should a band remain the same year after year, decade after decade?

So this is my attempt, at least partially, to give post-seventies Rush a go. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I know the first track, as it is also on the excellent double live album "Exit: stage left", which I listened the hell out of when younger, and it's a good solid rock track, even if they do throw in some unwelcome reggae as well as a line from Simon and Garfunkel's classic The sound of silence! But it's familiar, and that helps. There are only six tracks on this album, and the longest just over nine minutes, so that's interesting, given Rush's prior reputation for long, rambling epics.

And the next two I know also, again from that live album. A little more proggy but snappy and upbeat, Free will is a good song while Jacob's ladder is more rooted in their progressive seventies past, and indeed it's the second-longest at seven and a half minutes, recalling the likes of By-Tor and the snow-dog and The Necromancer. Lots of wibbly keyboard, time signature changes, marching guitars. Lovely!

Different strings is good too, and I don't see a hugely marked departure from albums such as "Fly by night" or "Caress of steel" here, while the closer, the nine-minute Natural science has some great guitar work by Alex Lifeson, though I do find it a little disjointed and I'm not quite sure why it needs to be so long.
Overall impression: Not the totally different animal I was expecting, but then taking into account that this is only a few years after albums like "2112" and "Hemispheres" that's not so surprising.
Intention: I think I'll move up along the Rush timeline and see what I find, maybe one of their albums from the nineties?

06-12-2013, 05:17 AM	#162 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Now these guys do fly the flag for Canada! Artiste: Rush Nationality: Canadian Album: Permanent waves Year: 1980 Label: Mercury Genre: Progressive rock (yeah...) Tracks: The spirit of radio Free will Jacob's ladder Entre nous Different strings Natural science Chronological position:Seventh album Familiarity: "2112", "A farewell to kings", "Caress of steel", "Hemispheres" Interesting factoid: Initial impression: Hey! I know this one! Best track(s): Spirit of radio, Free will, Jacob's ladder Worst track(s): I don't really hate anything here, despite expecting to. Comments: Me, I've always been a seventies Rush guy. Love "2112" and all that, the heavier, progressive material, never cared too much for their later, more commercial output. Then again, in total fairness, I never listened to any of it other than what I heard on radio, and when I heard New world man I lost interest. Rush doing a reggae tune? Thank you, and goodnight. But like much of the music in my life at the time, I probably dismissed it too quickly and with a rather large slice of naivete with a generous helping of arrogance to go. Why should a band remain the same year after year, decade after decade? So this is my attempt, at least partially, to give post-seventies Rush a go. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I know the first track, as it is also on the excellent double live album "Exit: stage left", which I listened the hell out of when younger, and it's a good solid rock track, even if they do throw in some unwelcome reggae as well as a line from Simon and Garfunkel's classic The sound of silence! But it's familiar, and that helps. There are only six tracks on this album, and the longest just over nine minutes, so that's interesting, given Rush's prior reputation for long, rambling epics. And the next two I know also, again from that live album. A little more proggy but snappy and upbeat, Free will is a good song while Jacob's ladder is more rooted in their progressive seventies past, and indeed it's the second-longest at seven and a half minutes, recalling the likes of By-Tor and the snow-dog and The Necromancer. Lots of wibbly keyboard, time signature changes, marching guitars. Lovely! Different strings is good too, and I don't see a hugely marked departure from albums such as "Fly by night" or "Caress of steel" here, while the closer, the nine-minute Natural science has some great guitar work by Alex Lifeson, though I do find it a little disjointed and I'm not quite sure why it needs to be so long. Overall impression: Not the totally different animal I was expecting, but then taking into account that this is only a few years after albums like "2112" and "Hemispheres" that's not so surprising. Intention: I think I'll move up along the Rush timeline and see what I find, maybe one of their albums from the nineties? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 01:38 PM.