Review Summary: "Power" being the key word, here.
Though many will try their hardest to convince you that Rush's catalogue past
Moving Pictures is not "true" Rush, the funny thing is that a great chunk of my favourite material comes after that period. There's one big reason everyone makes that claim: synthesizers. It's no secret that most bands began flirting with synth sounds in the 1980s; Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson jokes in a scene from their 1984 VHS release
Behind the Iron Curtain, when a fan asks what they think about all these bands incorporating keyboards into their music and subsequently asks if he'd try it, that "you can't play heavy metal with synthesizers". And funny enough, in the track that opened their next album
Somewhere in Time, the very first thing you heard was a synthesizer chord.
Rush began going down the same road with
Moving Pictures, and while then it wasn't quite as dominant, beginning with
Signals, their music began getting more and more synth heavy. Perhaps the nadir of this was
Power Windows, and the ironic thing is, it may be their most mature effort yet. Though singles "The Big Money" and "Mystic Rhythms" may not advertise this completely, the funny part is that the majority of this album offers a very mature sound of Rush coming into their own during a period that even they'd say is a mixed bag. One thing that you'll notice is tht all the depressing doom and gloom lyrical content of
Signals and
Grace Under Pressure has been replaced with more tongue-in-cheek lyricism; and that the synthesizers and guitar bits find better balance as opposed to previous albums, where it was mostly a formula of "synthesizer part here, guitar part there". Which is refreshing, as some of the synth outbursts on
Grace Under Pressure got a bit too fatuity out at times.
There really isn't one weak track on the whole album. The album starts off on a bang with the irresistibly catchy "The Big Money", which wouldn't seem out of place on
Permanent Waves and is full of catchy riffs, killer drum fills and clever lyrics about the economy and how everyone's focus nowadays is "big money", and how it's driving us to corporate cannibalism. Geddy describes it with interesting phrases such as "a Cinderella story of the rolling of the dice". And the momentum is continued with "Grand Designs", which begins with a great synth riff and pounds into an upbeat typical Rush track. This is yet another track where the lyrics shine again, where Neil muses on how we constantly allow ourselves to be bossed around into a certain lifestyle; how we need to allow ourselves to go "against the run of the mill" and how too much of what gets made today has no style or substance.
It's hard to pinpoint an exact highlight, which is what makes this album so great. It's never dull. All eight tracks are thrilling and never let up. But if any track had to be chosen to showcase what represents the album as a whole, it's "Territories". This track is unique because its very upbeat and synth-poppy, while at the same time dark and ominous. The music experiences some mood swings throughout, at one minute being very upbeat and poppy, these sounding threatening and dark. This fits perfectly with the lyrics about how people can get downright extreme when defending their home countries, thus causing them to be ignorant towards ther cultures: "
The whole wide world, an endless universe/Yet we keep looking through the eyeglass in reverse/Don't feed the people but we feed the machines/Can't really feel what international means". It's real folks, welcome to the 21st century. And the effect of "light and upbeat music with darker lyrics" is also found again on "Manhattan Project", a very upbeat tune about the creation of the atomic bomb. Geddy's vocals really add to the song and thus help hammer the message home. And even the track that people continually label as "dated", which is "Motion Detector", is an excellent track. Sure the synths are extremely 80s sounding and the rest of the instrumentation doesn't help matters, but it's a beautiful ballad with lyrics about how we all too often forget how far we fall into love and commitments.
Really,
Power Windows is the kind of album that shows Rush taking their sound and continuing to further it with the addition of synths and different directions songwriting-wise and instrumentally. It's the kind of album that shows that Rush could take whatever direction they want and still sound like Rush. I mean, they've never been the band that's ever needed to drastically reinvent themselves, but at he same time, with their music, you know to expect the unexpected. Which is definitely the way to go into
Power Windows for the first time if you've never heard it, which definitely allows the album to grow on you the more you listen. Even as dated as it may sound at times, it perfectly captures an era that doesn't exist anymore, and perhaps that's what makes it my favourite Rush album- it shows them as they were, adapting to the times.
Recommended Tracks
Territories
The Big Money
Emotion Detector
