A good change of direction for Rush

This was a really good step in the right direction for Rush. Being that I'm the biggest fan of their stuff from 1984-89, I think this was a good album. "Distant Early Warning" is cool, "Red Sector A" is great, and "Afterimage is good. Their first album where keyboards starting to become a major part of their songs. Not my favorite album, but it opened the way for their fantastic classic Power Windows album. The album cover is a work of art. Keyboards were not a bad thing for Rush; they added a new texture that is very enjoyable.

Difficult to get into, but great album once you do.

This album is often criticized heavily, particularly by fans of Rush's older material. This album continues what "Signals" started, the complete abandonment of the older Rush sound. But the band, continuing their evolution, appears to have even further delved into the keyboard sound, and experiment with guitars as texture, synths as forefront and even leads. The result is an an album that is dense and somewhat difficult to get into. Being the followup to the band's commercial peak probably doesn't help either. After listening to it in frequently over the past several years, I've come to appreciate it for its own uniqueness.



Honestly, most of it is not bad, it usually just doesn't succeed as well as you'd like, and on most of them, you get the impression had they ripped out some of the synth lines and let Lifeson cut loose (or just added a galloping section), the songs would do much better. "Afterimage" is so coated in synthesizers that the drive it attempts to put together never happens, "The Enemy Within" is decent enough on the reggae styled verses (Lee and Peart lock like nothing else), but has this obnoxious synth lead after each chorus that breaks the song apart. "Red Lenses" is one of the most interesting songs the band ever did-- lacking any concrete structure in a typical rock format during its choruses, where keyboard sweeps and repetitive guitars float over frantic percussion, but ultimately I don't think it succeeds as a whole.



But there are a number of great moments as well, "Distant Early Warning", the album opener, is a great song, driving rhythms, funky bass line, great piece. "Red Sector A" is extraordinarily intense-- and even above the sort of clinical sound it brings, the horror it portrays comes up clearly-- Lee's vocal, supported by harsh keyboards and subdued guitar, sounds positively haunted and desparate. "The Body Electric" has a great rhythm and the "1-0-0-1-0-0-1 S-O-S" chant in the chorus actually works a whole lot better than you'd expect, and "Kid Gloves", the thematic heir of "Subdivisions", is the most guitar driven piece on the album and features a bizarre, fractured solo by Lifeson. And while "Between the Wheels" opens with a really insistent and somewhat annoying organ line, the chorus is another of those really great Geddy Lee vocals, overall the song succeeds far more than it fails.



Bottom line, its a lot better of an album that first (or twentieth) listen would lead you to believe. Not a good place to start, but definitely a rewarding record.

Junk - PURE JUNK

This album was the start of the Great RUSH fall. I would rather listen to crickets chirp for 45 minutes than hear this trash. Stick with the 70's stuff and you will be fine.

Not their finest Hour

I am a huge Rush fan, and have been for years. I can't recommend this CD however unless you have ALL the others. This is in my opinion one of the worst CDs they ever produced. The musicianship is tame, and the subject matter is tired after being rehashed from their previous (much better) works. I would recommend 'Signals' (a masterpiece), '2112', 'Hemispheres', 'A farewell to Kings', 'Moving Pictures', 'Permanent Waves' (another masterpiece), or even their 'best of' before this one. The only time I could recommend this is if you need the complete collection, as this CD is important in that it is a transition for them as a band from their 2nd to 3rd "reincarnation" of their music. Overall though, not a good CD.

rush in all their glory..

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE is the first Rush album I have listened and still one of my favourites. Mostly, Moving Pictures is considered to be their best effort but this album and Signals are their best in my opinion. I recommend these albums to younger listeners to get a better view of style and substance going hand in hand with this wonderfully expressive trio. Enjoy!

Rush's darkest hour in a good way

Canadian power trio Rush's twelfth album entitled Grace Under Pressure was released in April of 1984.

Unlike their previous albums, the mood of Grace Under Pressure was dark and cynical. In fact, all but two of the album's eight songs are in minor keys(Kid Gloves and The Body Electric are in major keys).

After growing disillusioned with longtime co-producer Terry Brown, the band decided to switch co-producers. At first, Rush were going to use U2 producer Steve Lillywhite but Lillywhite's people said "no way Jose". In the end, Rush decided on producer Peter Henderson(famed for his work on Supertramp's Even In the Quietest Moments, Breakfast in America, Paris and Famous Last Words albums) and recorded Grace Under Pressure between November of 1983 and March of 1984 at Le Studio in Quebec with Henderson also engineering and dedicated the album to friend and assistant engineer Robbie Whelan who perished in a car crash before the sessions started.

The Grace Under Pressure album opens with Distant Early Warning, an anti-nuclear anthem which is one of the all time great Rush tracks and is still a rock radio staple today. Next is Afterimage which is a song about the loss of a friend or loved one, in Rush's case it was Robbie Whelan, whom was an assistant engineer on Rush's two previous studio efforts(Moving Pictures and Signals). The song almost 15 years on became a tribute to drummer Neil Peart's daughter and wife after they passed away in 1997 and 1998 respectively. The concert staple Red Sector A was about those who survived the Holocaust (bass player/vocalist/keyboardist Geddy Lee's parents survived that ordeal). The first half ends with The Enemy Within which was Part One to the saga called Fear which had started on 1981's Moving Pictures.

The second half kicks off with another great rocker The Body Electric which includes some of guitarist Alex Lifeson's best guitar work ever and screams out U2. Another great rocker follows with Kid Gloves and more guitar pyrotechnics from Lerxst. Even the most jeered track by fans Red Lenses is great. The album closes with the best closing track on a Rush disc ever entitled Between the Wheels. This track has one of Lifeson's best guitar performances ever. The band likes the song to this day and they resurrected it on their 30th anniversary tour in 2004.

Grace Under Pressure in the end was another Platinum seller and peaked at #10 in the spring of 1984 and is still a great album today, despite the fact some fans despise it due to some of the electric percussion and synthesizers that dominate!

RECOMMENDED!