Rush – Signals

I used to have an older pressing that sounded kind of dull and muddy. I just recently purchased the recently released "Remastered on 180-gram, cut at legendary Abbey Road Studios using the Direct to Metal Mastering (DMM) audiophile copper plating process, all from original analogue masters" version and, wow. I mean just wow. They did an amazing job with this one. It's like listening to it for the first time, hearing all the nuances that were missing before. Just a perfect remaster.

I too struggled with this album for a long time, and I probably still do to a certain extent. I was a Rush fan with a fairly small 'r' at the time when I bought it on release in 1982 and I didn't know what to expect (Permanent Waves was my only realistic point of reference - and still is my all time favourite Rush album). This album really did get panned by a lot of critics and it's easy to see why. It had a fairly depressive melodic theme throughout, with what some might say somewhat disionate vocals by Geddy Lee. It's very synth laden, the most of all their releases I think?
However, there are some real highlights and includes a stone wall classic in Subdivisions. Lyrically, I think this might well be the strongest of all their albums - Losing It is just brilliant with an amazing performance by Ben Mink. My favourite track at the time (and still is) is Digital Man - I'm a sucker for some expansive bass and drumming from Lee and Peart - and this track has it in spades (and more than a nod to The Police, imo).
Signals was also the last album to be produced by Terry Brown, which is quite sad, especially how it ended - but he presided over all of the essential Rush period. The album also completely paved the way for the direction that Rush were to maintain throughout virtually the rest of their career, and to my mind, Signals is the last of the "vital" Rush albums - I lost interest in them after this album, I'm sorry to say.
So Signals is as far removed from any prior releases that you can get and yes I still struggle with it - but it's definitely worth owning.

Above & beyond what you think of the new musical direction Rush took on this album, this LP sounds huge. The bass on 'The Analog Kid' is insane! MASTERDISK nailed this thing.

Over the years my opinion of Rush has gone from good to not great and back to good again depending on what they had last put out. Overall I think they are an impressive band-both from technical player perspective and from an artistic merit perspective-but that doesn't mean they don't have their foibles. For me the track they did that most got under my skin was 'Losing It' from Signals which I think is an otherwise great album. The song 'Losing It' is about people who lose their ability to do the creative thing that they have decided to pursue as if being a creative person was a situation with only two variables-all in or all out. Lots of things can cause a person to not do something they are good at-encountering bad people in whatever area they are into is the big one but the song doesn't reflect that. I have heard Rush fans comment that they didn't like the fashion phase that band when through in the mid 80's adopting short haircuts mostly-I agree-the boy scout look didn't look great on them. Anyway better to have them around than not. This album is one of their best-mostly-and it sells for next to nothing online unlike the prices for most CDs in the big stores.

In response to the success to Moving Pictures, I'm assuming that Rush wanted to do something completely different. One neat thing about this album is the access to clear sounds. The snyth, the sequencers, and even... the violin. Every song here has its own little special piece to offer. Alex rips many good riffs on this one, while Geddy reminds us that he has not fully gone synth yet with little simple sections of synth here and there. Lastly, Peart's lyrics are amazing and his drums never cease to amaze.

Subdivisions: Dun-dun-duuun, Dun-dun-duuun. Dun-dun-duuun, Dun-dun-duuun. Peart, your drumming is incredible on this song. The neat thing about this song in the interlude sections and the chorus, and how Alex's guitar sounds like the snyth. Problem here is that you can barely hear Alex in many sections of the song and Geddy's bass is barely played. New album sound, eh? But... classic... more of a live song than anything else.

The Analog Kid: WOAH! This is a great upbeat from the casual Subdivisions. Rip-roaring through 1.5 minutes of song, we are throw around in a flurry of speed and animosity. And choruses where we half the speed and let Geddy play some nice soothing keys... but wait... What's that sound? It's a SOLO! My god Alex, you are a speed-demon on that guitar. Outro, we crash at the end and hear some modulation and we're done. Excellent work here, guys.

Chemistry: Them lyrics be crazy, Peart. But here Alex has some nice riff of constant note picking and hammering. The snyth works well here, Geddy, but it gets a little repetitive... Slow in places but returns to it's regular spot. On some occasion the song feels like it's droning on, maybe the prechorus... Not to be picky here guys, I know it's your sophomore album after Moving Pictures, but a little reworking and this would be a perfect song. *cough*ImlookingatyouGeddy*cough*

Digital Man: Okay, you've redeemed yourself here Geddy. The only person who could "shred" on a bass at the time of this recording... I wanna say Harris, but let's not make comparisons... Reggae influence abound here, and daaaaaaaaaaaamn that's some complex rhythms coming from Peart. This song has literally 4 themes, the opening, prechorus, chorus, interlude, and outro. Make that 5. Every section pieces the song together and makes it a mini-epic of its own.

The Weapon: "Just listen to that synthesizer!" Part II of the Fear series, and we are shown a much more digital sounding song. Peart whacks that high-hat and Alex riffs. Much, MUCH more synth on here than any part of the album, save for Subdivisions and Losing It. The lyrics work here, but we hear the chorus/prechorus much more often than the rest of the song. Instrumental segments included here too.

New World Man: All aboard the filler train! Sorry, I couldn't resist. A quaint little piece here, sandwiched between two incredible songs, comes a little sequencing and some simple riffs. And a pounding, speedy chorus. We are reminded of Analog Kid (notice the placings on the LP version). Fade out, and we have concluded a piece which rips out as fast as it ripped in, no pun intended.

Losing It: Probably the most underrated Rush song in existence (there are others like Emotion Detector and most of Test for Echo, but for the time period this song was rare to hear along with stuff from 74-76) The violin solo and constant play are tantalizing to the effect this song should have on the human heart; every squeak, jump, wail, is key to the violin playing. Peart writes the saddest lyrics on the album too. I have no doubt that this is the sequel to Limelight and is a DARKER version of it, or let's say the opposite, emotional extreme. If you know this song to death (...), then it should clearly stand out for you as the best on the album, even if Geddy has no bass on this song.

Countdown: Now out of that digital mess, we have some deep snyth chords, and live recordings from the launch of Columbia STS-1 (ironic here, because at the time of this writing, the Shuttle program is on it's second-to-last mission...) The best section happens twice: during the countdown, and the transfer from the first verse to the second verse. Geddy does some nice riffs on his snyth, but the second time he does it, a paced keyboard solo whips out. And fade out... Wow. What a way to end an album.

Classic. Classic. No wonder it sold good. Rush takes a new step into a new era after the launch of Signals, but hey, that's how the band rolls.
5.