The spirit of Rush’s musical epic rearranged for 1985.
In just under 5 years, Rush underwent another notable transformation. The band completely traded in their rock roots took up a synthy, lushly layered musical mantle instead. Anthems that defined the band through the 70s and early 80s seem to have gone by the wayside for a series of albums that sound more like they could have been Police or U2 albums. The band tightened up their synth experiments and thought provoking suites and spit out a medley of art-pop epics complete with ethereal guitars and electronic machine overdubs providing plenty of bleeps and bloops in the back of the mix. Busy and layered – absolutely, but far removed from Rush as pop culture would have us think of Rush. By 1985, Rush’s Power Windows was the first of two album that showcases this transformation in full color.
“The Big Money,” kicks off the album. Searing synths enter alongside Alex’s Edge-inspired echo-and-reverb laced guitar, Neil Peart whips up a drumming hodgepodge mixing part Stewart Copeland psycho-ska and half punk energy. ‘The Big Money’ also showcases Geddy’s the high end, wooden quackiness of his Wal bass, a bass that was showcased thought-out Power Windows and Hold Your Fire.
The song arrangements on Power Windows are much more intricate and detailed, a trait that reignites memories of the band’s super progressive rock days back in the late 1970s. Additional strings and small choruses are featured on ‘Manhattan Project’, ‘Territories’ and ‘Marathon’ and additional (additional!) keyboards and synths are featured on ‘Middletown Dreams’, ‘Grand Designs’ and the aforementioned tracks. It’s the additional instrumentation on a (relatively) small collection of songs that I liken Power Windows to A Farewell to Kings or Hemispheres in addition to this album and Hold Your Fire being the examples of the band taking the theme of 80s synth rock to it’s absolute breaking point, much like what the band did to progressive rock.
That being said, this album is not without it’s homeruns. ‘Marathon’ is a very energetic song that continued to see live play well into the band’s latest tours. ‘The Big Money’ the album’s single also saw considerable live play, a place on the Billboard 100 and bears high replay value because, at the end of the day, it’s a great song and feels the most like it could have been stuck on an album featuring more of the band’s live instrumentation and less synthetic instruments. ‘Mystic Rhythms’, the most Neil-centric track during Rush’s 10 year synth period, is a surprisingly enjoyable listen for it’s detailed percussion and polyrhythmic arrangement in a sea of deep synths and reverb-laced vocals.
While Power Windows might have been the album that Rush fundamentalists powered down and stopped listening to the band, bemoaning that the band went all pop and ditched their hard rocking roots behind, this is still a fantastic chapter in Rush. Like with radio-friendly music in the early 80s, the band took the sounds of music around them, collected them together, stirred them up and produced this album in the only way that Rush could. Maybe it’s a tribute to the 80s as Rush only knows, maybe it’s a modern spin on what Peter Gabriel-era Genesis would have sounded like if they kept going with Gabriel.
Who knows.
But I can say that this is a fun listen and naysayers of this album should consider one more good spin.
Power Windows (1985)
- The Big Money 5:37
- Grand Designs 5:06
- Manhattan Project 5:07
- Marathon 6:09
- Territories 6:20
- Middletown Dreams 5:15
- Emotion Detector 5:11
- Mystic Rhythms 5:54
James Barton | Engineer |
Jim Barton | Engineer |
Liam Birt | Executive Producer |
Jim Burgess | Programming, Synthesizer |
Matt Butler | Assistant Engineer |
Stephen Chase | Assistant Engineer |
The Choir | Vocals |
Peter Collins | Arranger, Producer |
Anne Dudley | Conductor, String Arrangements, Strings |
Andrew Jackman | Arranger, Conductor, Vocal Arrangement |
Steve Kleinberg | Cover Design |
Brian Lee | Mastering |
Geddy Lee | Bass, Bass Pedals, Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Keyboards, Producer, Synthesizer, Vocals |
Alex Lifeson | Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Producer |
Bob Ludwig | Mastering |
Dave Meegan | Assistant Engineer |
Heff Moraes | Assistant Engineer |
Neil Peart | Composer, Drums, Electronic Percussion, Percussion, Producer |
Andy Richards | Guest Artist, Keyboards, Programming |
Rush | Arranger, Primary Artist, Producer |
Dimo Safari | Photography |
Hugh Syme | Art Direction, Artwork, Cover Design, Paintings |
Paul Wright | Assistant Engineer |
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