MUSIC REVIEW: Rush - Power Windows

"Attack of the 80s, part deux."

This is part two of what I call "The Rush 80s Trilogy," preceded by Grace Under Pressure and followed by Hold Your Fire. (Signals really felt like a transition.) With all three of these albums, Geddy's keyboards were BIG, sometimes cheesy, and sometimes more important than Lifeson's guitars as the source of power for the songs. Of the 80s Trilogy, Power Windows is the hardest rocking of the bunch, and the mix of New Wave in with their staple hard rock direction made for some good music.

What's important here is that the synths are lumped back with the feel they had in Signals -- that is, a better balance is struck between the guitar riffs and the keyboards. The bass sounds bigger on this album too, so I'm thinking that Peter Henderson (from P/G) wasn't the right producer for Rush.

To me, there are few Rush songs better than "Marathon." This song has the tremendous power to raise mood with its high spirits. This song just gushes power...anytime you're feeling down and out, just throw on "Marathon" and everything will be cool. Peart's lyrics are inspirational, and the intensity of Lifeson's solo raises the song to dizzying heights that peaks with the final chorus, incorporating vocal harmonies, choral synths, and real strings. It's just awesome.

There's a bunch of other good stuff too. On "Middletown Dreams" is a good anthemic cut with some of Lee's most interesting synthesizers. Lifeson's guitars here work in bursts that works neatly with the synthesizers. "Mystic Rhythms" is one of the band's most magical compositions, with echoic percussion and synths and ambient guitars. It's sort of ghostly but beautiful. "Manhattan Project" is gutsy and evocative with cool keyboard speckling. "Territories" uses some world influences to spice up the composition, but unfortunately the chorus lacks any punch and the lyrics are pretty ambitious. "Big Money" is the extensive opener with fiendishly catchy riffs and lyrics. "Grand Designs" and "Emotion Detector" are fine songs as well, but I'm tired and running out of things to say.

Not everyone likes this form of the former power-prog trio, but for the rest of us, it's another rockin' album from Rush. Now, what is the best album of the 80s Trilogy is up for debate, but Power Windows definitely has the best song. ("Marathon.")