For many months I’ve been having a
hard time reading the fine print on the back of CD cases (usually I’m looking
for the release date). I attributed the problem to poor light or that I needed
to clean my glasses. Turns out is just that my eyesight has gotten worse.
Cognitive dissonance is a bitch.
Now that I know, everything looks fuzzy and I’m waiting
impatiently for my new lenses to come in.
Disc 924 is….Power Windows
Artist: Rush
Year of Release: 1985
What’s up with the Cover? A teenage David Bowie dreams of
becoming a starman. Actually it is some kid named Neill Cunningham. Maybe he
was dreaming of being David Bowie? Maybe he was just dreaming that he could get
a new television. He’s got three there and they all look pretty outdated.
How I Came To Know It: This was just me filling out the
last of my Rush collection as I drilled through their discography. I admit I
totally missed this album when it came out in 1985, despite being totally into
hard rock at the time.
How It Stacks Up: I have 19 Rush albums. “Power Windows” isn’t
my favourite. I’ll put it #18.
Ratings: 3 stars
“Power
Windows” is right in the heart of the synth-storm that Rush experimented with
through the 1980s. Don’t expect Alex Lifeson to wail out a bunch of guitar
solos, and if you’re searching for the melody then you best be looking to Geddy
Lee’s keyboards. This is not your
older brother’s copy of “Moving Pictures.”
Some
Rush fans reject this period of the band’s development, while others love all
things Rush. I’m somewhere in the middle on that subject. “Hold Your Fire” is one of my favourite Rush albums, whereas “Grace Under Pressure” and “Signals”
are OK, but I feel like the production lets them down.
“Power
Windows” is my least favourite of the four. I don’t hate it, but it is lacking
the melodic brilliance of “Hold Your Fire” and the songwriting strength of “Signals”.
It is about on par with “Grace Under Pressure.” It doesn’t have the brilliance
of “Red Sector A” but overall the
quality of the songs is higher.
One nice
side benefit of not being so guitar-driven is that you get to appreciate the Geddy
Lee’s bass playing. On the opening track, “Big
Money,” he is in fine form, flowing through series after series of groovy
and difficult bass riffs, all the while faithfully serving the rhythm of the
song. Beyond Geddy’s bass, though, I don’t love the song. The lyrics are a bit hokey
and the bridge is this weird combination of bells, beeps and a bit of Lifeson
guitar that is good but seems to hang in digital space due to the production.
“Middletown Dreams” feels a lot like Signals’
“Subdivisions” in terms of theme, but
is not executed as well. It is almost the sequel, replacing the restless youth
of teenage dreams in “Subdivisions” with
the more seasoned understanding of characters in their twenties and thirties.
These are the kids who never got out of the suburbs but are finding ways to
reconcile that within themselves. Again, an interesting theme (one Springsteen
explores often as well) but in terms of execution the song is just a bit too
jazzy in places for my tastes.
The
record came out in the middle of the Cold War, and this is evident in songs
like “Manhattan Project” and “Territories”. “Manhattan Project” tells the story of the first atomic bomb and
while the subject matter is about the bomb’s development and the bombing of
Hiroshima it is clear that the song is viewing that event from 1985 and
everything that had resulted from a nuclear age. “Manhattan Project” is one of my favourite songs on the album. The
lyrics aren’t overwrought, and the music walks the perfect line between the
excitement of scientists in the throes of discovery and the ominous nature of
what they were about to create.
Another
favourite is “Marathon” which is
about running a marathon, but also a lot more. On “Marathon” Rush perfects the use of their new keyboard-driven sound to
capture the drawn out endurance of the race but also the triumph and exultation
of completing the race. And here, when Lifeson’s guitar solo enters, it nestles
in nicely and feels like it belongs. The
‘more’ of “Marathon” is its reminder
that life itself is a long race, and you’ll be just fine if you just keep at
it. It is an overused metaphor, but the boys do a fine job of recycling it, and
I feel genuinely inspired each time I hear this track.
As an
aside, this song pairs nicely with Iron Maiden’s “Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” as rock songs about marathons.
Maybe throw in the Popes’ “Loneliness of
the Long Distance Drinker” for a lark at the end to represent the trip to
the pub at the end of the race. But I digress…
The
album ends with “Emotion Detector”
and “Mystic Rhythms” which are both
songs that are as awkward and overwrought as their titles would indicate. These
songs are swamped by the new production values. “Emotion Detector” is the worst of the two, which has a tune that
sounds like it belongs in an early eighties movie soundtrack: something about
bike couriers or moving to a city. “Mystic
Rhythms” would actually function better as a New Age Celtic folk song. As a
rock song, the mystic rhythms just didn’t resonate.
“Power
Windows” doesn’t have enough high points to work its way into my regular music
rotation. I don’t hate the record though, and the musical genius of Rush is
still shining through in places. I’ll hold onto it a little longer.
Best
tracks: Manhattan
Project, Marathon
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