The entrance of Presto marks the beginning of another phase in Rush’s musical maturation: slow inching back to returning to rock.
While Hold Your Fire only 2 years prior took the epic synth arrangements of Power Windows and kicked it all the way up to 11 and received lackluster reception upon release. The band seemed to have gone full pop and completely away from their original rocking roots, whether it was blues rock, progressive rock or classic radio rock. Geddy Lee even commented that the band was starting to get tired of all the synths and saw a return to rock in the near future.
The result was 1989’s Presto.
Looking at the album as a comprehensive piece of work, the first thing you might notice is that Alex’s guitar is back in the forefront. Even within the first few seconds of the albums’s opening track, ‘Show Don’t Tell’, it’s Alex’s guitar that gets the song going and dives the song, with Geddy’s bass and Neil’s drums still with the 80’s snare echo, filling the rest of the song. The song is such a stark change up from the band’s previous two albums that keyboards only show up for the brief 8 bar chorus and periodically during the bridge to back up Geddy’s bass groove and bass solo (still on the Wal, by the way).
‘Show Don’t Tell’ is just the first of many examples on Presto where the guitar is taking the lead. The album’s title track relies heavily on Alex’s acoustic guitar setting the tone of the song before coming back in full force with his electric around the 3:30 mark for a small, but very satisfying guitar solo that shines through and puts Geddy’s bass second. ‘Hand Over Fist’, a tidy little song tinged with 80s new wave funk, given both by Alex’s skittering guitar and Neil’s tittering hi-hats and 4-to-the-floor kick. ‘Superconductor’ merges that groovy funky feel with the sound and guitar work specifically of ‘Show Don’t Tell’. There are even brief moments in ‘Chain Lightning’ where the band reminds you that they are a 3 piece, most notably during Alex’s solo where there aren’t any overdubbed instruments, leaving Alex to solo and the rest of musical body to be filled out with bass and drums – something that stood out on Caress of Steel.
It’s also worth noting that these might be some of Rush’s most emotionally charged lyrics since Distant Early Warning. Topics of depression, sanity, truth, justice, and heroicism are just some of the topics Neil decided to make Presto about. Geddy Lee even commented in an interview with Canadian Musician that the album was intended to be more singer focused, a direction the band has not taken before:
“We wanted [Presto] to be more of a singer’s album, and I think you’ll notice that the arrangements musically support the vocal[s]. . . . Neil’s lyrics to me are a lot more heartfelt. Presently, they’re experience oriented. I think they deal with living . . . This album was a real reaction against technology in a sense. I was getting sick and tired of working with computers and synthesizers. Fortunately, so was [co-producer] Rupert [Hine]. . . . We made a pact to stay away from strings, pianos, and organs—to stay away from digital technology. In the end, we couldn’t resist using them for colour.”
But like all Rush albums since Moving Pictures, this album is not without its shortcomings. ‘Anagram’ feels like it was thrown in last minute. The song lacks a catchy hook or musical motif that keeps listeners invested in the song. ‘War Paint’ isn’t anything special or noteworthy. And ‘Available Light’ is forgettable at best. These three songs in particular seem like this album’s ‘Tai Shan’, ‘Open Secrets’ and ‘High Water’: just songs with nothing special about them and little replay value. Filler is another word for these kinds of songs. Moreover, the issue of ‘hookiness’ will continue to plague the band for years to come as we’ll explore in the upcoming reviews.
‘The Pass’, the band’s single from this album is their most interesting single of their entire discography. It sounds nothing like any of their other singles let alone like many of the other songs they’ve done through the years. the song’s theme is uncharacteristically dark. A theme of suicide and depression and teetering on the knife’s edge of madness and sanity. Musically, it sounds very thin. The robust arrangements of past albums is shockingly absent here. With the exception of some haunting keys after the choruses and in the builds into the choruses (which only help to set the mood, by the way), the song is primarily driven by bass and drums with Alex’s guitar serving a role similar to the keyboard. It’s an addictively chilling song that feels more refreshing to listen to than any of the radically overt changes to the band’s sound that they’ve done in the past. It’s a more subdued change that evokes genuine feelings – sadness, triumph, happiness (listen to Alex’s solo around the 3:27 mark), and depression.
Even the music video (surprisingly) seems to make sense with the song’s theme and message:
The album’s oddball song award belongs to ‘Red Tide’, the album’s only song to, first, begin with a piano or some kind of non-guitar instrument and rely significantly on keys. In the bigger picture, it almost feels like it’s a leftover from Grace Under Pressure with it’s deep musical message of death and urgency through a deteriorating planet and pollution.
Presto feels like the father to Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves. While the latter two albums were ambitious and still wily with experimentation with shorter songs, new instruments and just taking what the band learned from their progressive rock phase and condensing it down into a concentrated liquid of rock goodness, Presto feels like the band signaling a return to their roots but the return comes with age and wisdom. Like a hero of a story returning after their trial they began when they were young, starry eyed and idealistic.
It’s almost like the band tried a whole bunch of stuff, took all of it to different extremes and is now flexing back inward to a sound and pattern that they know best and feel most comfortable with. Each song sounds like a completed, controlled, safe idea.
Hooks are certainly present and the catchy songs are certainly there. But they just feel…wiser.
Presto (1989)
- Show Don’t Tell – 5:01
- Chain Lightning – 4:33
- The Pass – 4:52
- War Paint – 5:24
- Scars – 4:07
- Presto – 5:45
- Superconductor – 4:47
- Anagram (for Mongo) – 4:00
- Red Tide – 4:29
- Hand Over Fist – 4:11
- Available Light – 5:03
Credits on Presto (1989)
Larry Allen | Technical Support |
Rick Andersen | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
Adam Ayan | Remastering |
Val Azzoli | Executive Producer |
Liam Birt | Executive Producer, Technical Support |
Jacques Deveau | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
Rupert Hine | Arranger, Keyboards, Producer, Vocals (Background) |
Matt Howe | Assistant, Mixing Assistant |
Geddy Lee | Composer, Guitar (Bass), Synthesizer, Vocals |
Alex Lifeson | Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric) |
Bob Ludwig | Mastering |
Andrew MacNaughtan | Photography, Portraits |
Neil Peart | Composer, Drums, Electronic Percussion |
Simon Pressey | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
Rush | Arranger, Primary Artist, Producer |
John Scarpati | Photography |
Jason Sniderman | Keyboards |
Hugh Syme | Art Direction |
Stephen W. Tayler | Engineer |
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