And so to 1981. Aside from ongoing strife in the usual hotspots – the Middle East (especially centred around the Iran-Iraq War), Southeast Asia, and Northern Ireland, this year sees failed assassination attempts on both President Reagan and Pope John Paul II. The space shuttle Columbia makes its first manned orbital return flight. Donkey Kong is released. There are various race riots in cities throughout the UK, notably Brixton in London and Toxteth in Liverpool, highlighting both endemic wealth inequality and systemic police racism. The CDC identifies a new form of immuno-deficient disease among homosexual men in Los Angeles which will later become known as AIDS. Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer (that worked out well). And germane to this project, MTV is launched, ushering a new era where the flashy video is a must-have accompaniment to any music.
Rush are one of the few prog bands to survive into the Eighties, by adapting. The tracks are shorter and more radio friendly, there’s a bit of added synth (enough to place the music at a particular time, not enough to badly date it), and less fantasy/sci-fi to the lyrics. It’s a good updating, and I remember this album fondly from my university house mates (who, as you may recall, were quite into prog of all kinds). Sadly this doesn’t feature The Spirit Of Radio (which was one the previous album Permanent Waves) or Subdivisions (which is on the next studio album Signals), as these were also favourite Eighties Rush tunes of mine. We do, however, get Tom Sawyer and YYZ, also fine examples of this stage of Rush’s career.
The science fiction hasn’t entirely gone. Red Barchetta is a capsule tale about a future where the narrator is driving a forbidden old-style car (rather than the futuristic super-safe self-driving ones), chased by police. Witch Hunt (part of the Fear quadrology spread over four albums) starts out a bit like Black Sabbath (the song of that name on the album of that name by the band of that name), but although Geddy Lee can’t manage to be as sinister as Ozzie Osbourne it's pretty atmospheric.
YYZ uses a morse code beat to good effect, spelling out the international code for Toronto Airport, around which the group build an instrumental. Perhaps the most clearly proggy is Vital Signs, comprised of several very short movements (half a minute each for some) that musically spell out an equation; Rush have a bash at reggae here for two of the longer parts.
I do recall liking this album in the past, and it was good to revisit. Neil Peart is as inhumanly good as ever on the drums, Geddy Lee’s voice is less squawky than I remember, and by tackling more generic themes rather than the fantasy story-telling of the Seventies, Rush create songs that are more immediately relevant, even though I do miss the epics about music-banning galactic theocracies or spaceships flying into back holes.
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