All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

I’m a big fan of the whole Rush catalogue and each period, their prog early period, their more electronic poppier period and their later harder period. Most will say Moving pictures was their peak but for me this album bridged the prog period to the more radio friendly period and is the perfect introduction to Rush to either go backwards or forwards from.Not a weak song on it.
A full 10/10 for me.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
11/1000

View attachment 22216


Permanent Waves is the seventh studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released on January 14, 1980, through Anthem Records. After touring to support their previous album, Hemispheres (1978), the band began working on new material for a follow-up album in July 1979. This material showed a shift in the group's sound towards more concise arrangements and radio friendly songs (such as "The Spirit of Radio" and "Freewill"), though their progressive rock blueprint is still evident with "Jacob's Ladder" and the over nine-minute closer "Natural Science". Bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee also employed a more restrained vocal delivery compared to previous albums. Permanent Waves was recorded in 1979 at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec with production handled by the group and Terry Brown.

Permanent Waves received a mostly positive reception from critics, and became the band's most successful album at the time of release, reaching No. 3 in Canada and the UK and No. 4 in the US. The album was certified platinum in the latter by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling one million copies. Rush released "The Spirit of Radio" as a single in February 1980 and toured in support of the album in 1979 and 1980.


1. The Spirit Of Radio
2. Freewill
3. Jacob's Ladder
4. Entre Nous
5. Different Strings
6. Natural Science
  • I: "Tide Pools"
  • II: "Hyperspace"
  • III: "Permanent Waves"

Here we go! Review No. 11 - Unbelievable Jeff! after the last few pages of a few of you talking about Rush - it is the band i have been listening to all week. This is Rush entering more of a commercial sound - more so with what i think is their greatest ever track with the opener 'The Spirit Of Radio' .. it is simply awesome - whilst we marvelled at the Lennon/Mccartney partnership for the Beatles - i think it would be equally fair to heap similar praise for the complete musicianship by Geddy, Lifeson and Peart for over 45 years and producing some absolute monster prog rock! Synthesizers are used more than their previous work and lyrically it is more thoughtful. Follow up 'Freewill' is very good and has a great guitar solo - tracks 3,4,5 i have to admit not warming too and switching off a litlle, final track at 10mins long is 'Natural Science' - it's an epic - how do 3 musicians produce so much sound ?! this showcases their talent more than any other and it is hard rock prog at it's finest. play it loud !

Have a good weekend Blues

This placed 628 out of the Top 1000

7/10




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Oh joy, this will be fun :-) @OB1
 
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I've got my spotify back today so hopefully I can join in now. I've never listened to rush. @BlueHammer85 I wasnt having a pop mate, it's a good thing you're doing.
 
I tried. I couldn't wait. My research note sits unfinished. I wrote this instead.

I admit it: in high school, this was THE band I loved most, period. While their next record (Moving Pictures) is my favo(u)rite of theirs and in my top 10 all time, P Waves is the change point that took them from Dungeons & Dragons-playing, pretentious, bombastic instrumental nerds who sang fables about talking trees and offered up 22:37 second “songs” to something much better – no more mythology, faster tempos, the same incredible talent. Now, granted, early Rush is still fun because, well, ahem, I played D&D too once. But this is different.

These guys are masters, and perfectionists, and ridiculous show-offs, and there’s a place for that in rock as much as punk critics might argue. Neil Peart is the greatest technical drummer in rock music history; Geddy Lee is probably in the top 20 of bassists (albeit in the top 12,893,934 of vocalists -- that screech is still a little grating) and Alex Lifeson may crack the top 50 of guitarists – I mean, the guy’s a wizard and he’s the band’s fucking WEAKEST musician.

Now it’s fair to say this record is uneven. Side one has the stellar “Spirit of Radio” with its unforgettable riff and serious BPM, and that cheeky nod to Simon & Garfunkel as the band’s first ever hint that it actually has a sense of humo(u)r. “Free Will” is a good, solid tune where Peart unleashes his full Ayn Rand lyric set. “Jacob’s Ladder” is more than a little ponderous though; almost a hedge in case the fans didn’t like the “new direction” of the band. Side two has “Entre Nous”, a “pop” song in the spirit of “Closer to the Heart” that heralded some of the more radio-friendly stuff they did on the next few albums. “Different Strings” is annoying and cloying and sounds like a throwaway, but we luckily close with “Natural Science”, arguably the band’s most underrated song, all glorious 9+ minutes of it, with the band emptying all of its bag of tricks – they play every fret (Lifeson SMOKES this fucker), and pound every percussion instrument, and use every tempo God put on this earth.

So figure a 10, an 8, a 5, a 7, a 4 and a 10. That equals a bit more than a 7. But it’s Rush, and so I’m rounding up out of sheer nostalgia. My good friend in high school used to play Spirit of Radio at sound check for his band. Ahhhh, what wonderful memories. 8/10

P.S. If you REALLY want to hear these insane motherfuckers get the lead out, I recommend “La Villa Strangiato” on Hemispheres, maybe the most over-the-top instrumental in rock history.
 
Oooh a Rush album.

I've never been into Rush, but I like most music, so I've given this a proper listen all evening whilst the missus was watching the first series of Ted Lasso in a 5 hour binge.

In 1980 I was listening to AC/DC, The Police, Gary Numan, OMD, Adam and the Ants, Iron Maiden...a weird hybrid mix of rock and the new electronic stuff that was coming through. Sure I branched out onto other plains, Squeeze, The Cure, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel etc etc but I never went near Rush.

And after two listens I can confirm why.

It's fucking dreary. Sounds like it was aimed at virgins who dress up as wizards at weekends.

I get the fact that they were prog rock. I also get the fact that bands are supposed to progress. Sometimes for the better, hello Depeche Mode, sometimes to the detriment of their music, yes OMD I'm looking at you. But this is neither. It's a piss poor halfway house, still dreary prog and also dreary mid Atlantic rock.

And I fucking hate dreary mid Atlantic rock. it's as though they are saying...

"YES, we can play, oh we can play, we can also write lyrics, oh yes, meaningful lyrics, but let's make it completely devoid of anything interesting. No one will notice and it will sell by the shit load."

Punk had hit, electronic music had hit. Angry pop/rock had hit. Middle of the road rock acts and prog rock acts suddenly felt like they had to adapt. Join in. Be more exciting. And this is the abortion that was the result. And it is an abortion. A fucking cut it out and smack it into a wall to make sure it's dead abortion.

Music for stoners, dullards and virgin wizards.

Oh God, you want a score...

Let's be honest here, Spirit of Radio is ok, but everything else is very samey. Very, very samey. I have no idea how to score it. It washed over me without leaving an imprint. It felt like I hadn't listened to any music at all and I had to put another album on, Talk Talk's seminal offering The Colour Of Spring if you were wondering, just to confirm my ears/ brain were working. This also confirmed that bands can and do evolve in the right direction with beautiful results.

This whole sorry affair has also made me feel a little let down by a couple of posters on here who seemed to know what they were talking about music wise. Rush were shoved on a pedestal and lauded so much that my ears couldn't fail to enjoy the offering.

How wrong they were.

3/10
 
BimboBob said:
Oooh a Rush album.

I've never been into Rush, but I like most music, so I've given this a proper listen all evening whilst the missus was watching the first series of Ted Lasso in a 5 hour binge.

In 1980 I was listening to AC/DC, The Police, Gary Numan, OMD, Adam and the Ants, Iron Maiden...a weird hybrid mix of rock and the new electronic stuff that was coming through. Sure I branched out onto other plains, Squeeze, The Cure, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel etc etc but I never went near Rush.

And after two listens I can confirm why.

It's fucking dreary. Sounds like it was aimed at virgins who dress up as wizards at weekends.

I get the fact that they were prog rock. I also get the fact that bands are supposed to progress. Sometimes for the better, hello Depeche Mode, sometimes to the detriment of their music, yes OMD I'm looking at you. But this is neither. It's a piss poor halfway house, still dreary prog and also dreary mid Atlantic rock.

And I fucking hate dreary mid Atlantic rock. it's as though they are saying...

"YES, we can play, oh we can play, we can also write lyrics, oh yes, meaningful lyrics, but let's make it completely devoid of anything interesting. No one will notice and it will sell by the shit load."

Punk had hit, electronic music had hit. Angry pop/rock had hit. Middle of the road rock acts and prog rock acts suddenly felt like they had to adapt. Join in. Be more exciting. And this is the abortion that was the result. And it is an abortion. A fucking cut it out and smack it into a wall to make sure it's dead abortion.

Music for stoners, dullards and virgin wizards.

Oh God, you want a score...

Let's be honest here, Spirit of Radio is ok, but everything else is very samey. Very, very samey. I have no idea how to score it. It washed over me without leaving an imprint. It felt like I hadn't listened to any music at all and I had to put another album on, Talk Talk's seminal offering The Colour Of Spring if you were wondering, just to confirm my ears/ brain were working. This also confirmed that bands can and do evolve in the right direction with beautiful results.

This whole sorry affair has also made me feel a little let down by a couple of posters on here who seemed to know what they were talking about music wise. Rush were shoved on a pedestal and lauded so much that my ears couldn't fail to enjoy the offering.

How wrong they were.

3/10
Click to expand...
I don't think my view and your view are incompatible. I love many of the bands you mention ( I LOVE OMD's stuff, even the later poppy stuff, but especially A&M and Dazzle Ships), and Rush are absolutely NOT critical darlings. Punk, post-punk and new wave (sort of) evolved as anti-Rush, anti-prog, anti-big-stage-rock art movements. I think it's perfectly fine to like both. Do I still listen to Rush today? Not really -- I outgrew them, and after Power Windows in 1985 I really never listened to them again, and what I heard I didn't like much.

But now I'm in my 50s, I miss my youth -- whether that youth was me as an 11 year-old playing soccer, a geeky 15 year old with thick glasses, as a partying college senior at 21 interested in Dickens, graduation, drinking and sex, or as a newly-married 27 year-old working a job 12 hours a day. So any and all music from those times still rings my chimes.

If I were listening to this for the first time today, would I like it as much? Probably not. But I'm not. I can't remove it from its time and how much I loved it.

My feeling is: if you're going to splurge on dessert, don't have low-fat frozen yogurt, for fuck's sake -- have something decadent. Something totally indulgent. You know -- like Rush.
 
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