Album: Hold Your Fire
Year Released: 1987
Lineup:
- Geddy Lee – bass guitar, synthesizer, vocals
- Alex Lifeson – electric and acoustic guitar
- Neil Peart – drums, percussion
Overall Thoughts:
The twelfth album, Hold Your Fire, Rush continues expanding their musical styles. It's the first album that is designed for CDs rather than records (at over 50 minutes, it was too long for a LP), and the first album with a guest singer (Aimee Mann on "Time Stands Still" and also performed backing vocals on other songs).
The lyrics continue to be outstanding, growing more introspective over the years. A couple of examples- first, from "Open Secrets":
I find no absolutionIn my rational point of viewMaybe some things are instinctiveBut there's one thing you would doYou could try to understand meI could try to understand youYou could try to understand meI could try to understand you
Or from "Time Stands Still":
I let my skin get too thin
I'd like to pause,
No matter what I pretend
Like some pilgrim
Who learns to transcend
Learns to live
As if each step was the end
Most of the songs are excellent ("Tai Shan" is an exception- an attempt to add in Asian influence to their music. It doesn't work).
After every four albums, Rush released a live album and then would go in a different directiona musically. Hold Your Fire is the last album of this direction; while there were stumbles along the path, it took them in a different direction (less rock and more pop with more synthesisiers; less progressive with shorter, more introspective songs). By Hold Your Fire, they had completed this leg of their musical journey.
Ranking of Rush Albums (adding as more albums are reviewed):
- Moving Pictures
- 2112
- Permanent Waves
- Fly By Night
- Rush
- A Farewell to Kings
- Hemispheres
- Hold Your Fire
- Power Windows
- Signals
- Caress of Steel
- Grace Under Pressure
Top 10 Rush Songs (adding as more albums are reviewed):
- "Tom Sawyer", Moving Pictures
- "Working Man", Rush
- "Closer to the Heart", A Farewell to Kings
- "La Villa Strangiato", Hemispheres
- "Freewill", Permanent Waves
- "2112", 2112
- "Fly By Night", Fly By Night
- "YYZ", Moving Pictures
- "Red Barchettta", Moving Pictures
- "Making Memories", Fly By Night
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