A good record, but too homogeneous in style.

After "Power Windows", it sounds as though Rush didn't quite know what to do-- they'd taken their synth sound as far as it could go, with mixed results-- "Power Windows" was totally synthesizer driven. "Hold Your Fire" begins a transition back in the other direction.



Indeed, the opener, "Force Ten", features keyboards only as highlights, its a great tune, lots of fire and power to it, and some monster bass playing from Lee. Lifeson uses a totally clean guitar tone for his rhythm playing, and the song even has a reasonable (if brief) guitar solo. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed many of the synth-driven songs, but hearing the band settling into a groove on this one is great.



The sort of clean-tone guitar/groove feel with highlight synths and stunning bass playing keeps up with "Time Stand Still"-- this is the first Rush song in a long time ("Lakeside Park" maybe?) that reflects internally rather than externally-- a great little tune about enjoying the moment.



The album continues largely in this direction-- Lee's bass playing and a personal viewpoints are largely the focus-- songs like "Open Secrets" (with a great mid-tempo melodic guitar solo from Lifeson), "Lock and Key", "Turn the Page"... there are some that drift in theme, "Second Nature" for example, but as a rule, they all have that same feel-- clean tone guitar, great bass playing, synth emphasis, mostly mid-tempo. In fact, that would be my big complaint with this album, it doesn't really have much variance on it-- there are some great songs, the first couple I pointed out, "Lock and Key" is superb, "Mission" may well be even better, its certainly one of the great songs, but the lack of variety on the album has the effect of blending them together.



I actually enjoy the album, but its lack of variance makes me rarely reach for it.

Great album

This is an excellent RUSH album. Favorite songs are Time Stand Still and Tai Shan. Not as good as Moving Pictures, but what is?

i liked it at first, but...

this was the third cd I got from Rush, and I liked it a lot at first. The first two songs on the cd I still enjoy immensely, but the rest have been iffy at best. This cd is a lot like Power Windows, but whereas that album was consistently good all the way through, Hold Your Fire starts out strong and kind of weakens over time. Its not that they don't play well; the songs are performed powerfully in full Rush style. It is more that the song concepts seem a little too weird, at least for me. There are no really outstanding songs on Power Windows like the first two on this cd, but unlike most Rush albums, all of the songs on that cd are good. Both albums go well together, but it just seems like they were making more of the same thing with this cd. It is hard to give the new fan advice with Rush, because you may love this cd (especially if you like 80's synth oriented music like I kind of do) or you may hate it. I think you should give it a chance, and listen to it before you buy it. Eventually I gave it to my sister, who is obsessed with it. Take a chance with the cd.