Permanent Waves [Remaster] - Rush (CD 1997)

(Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Album Overview" section. The section titled "Detailed Track Discussion" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and they do not constitute the essence of this review. Lastly and most importantly, this review is not necessarily written by the point of view of a Rush fan.)

Introduction:

Rush's Permanent Waves proves that Rush's enjoyable Hemispheres wasn't just a fluke. They're genuinely on a roll.

Track Listing:

Best song: "The Spirit of Radio"

The Spirit of Radio A+
Free Will B
Jacob's Ladder B+
Entre Nous A-
Different Strings A
Natural Science B-

Overall Score: 4/5 (stroooong!)

Review Body:

Leave it to freaking Rush to get better in the '80s when most bands were turning into piles of crap starting then. To me, this is easily the best album the group came out with to this point. I always got the sense that this group had a yearning to learn. Even though many of their previous ideas were rather poor, every album seemed to exhibit some sort of growth compared to the last --- even if it was subtle or they were degenerating in other aspects. For example, the moment they figured out how to structure extended prog tracks really well (in A Farewell to Kings) they forgot how to be exciting.

Well everything is right for Rush in Permanent Waves. Even though I'm not about to thrust this upon my list of top-favorite albums, I don't think I ever unabashedly enjoyed a Rush album like I enjoyed Permanent Waves. That's saying something since I thought Hemispheres was the bee's knees.

This is genuinely well-conceived music up until its final act "Natural Science," which I feel gets a bit old after awhile. Their sounds and arrangements are almost entirely well-conceived and well-executed. Probably my favorite track is "The Spirit of the Radio," which even features the group turning in a rather excellent melody.

Although generally speaking, their melodies and guitar riffs are usually primitive. These guys were probably as far from geniuses at it gets. But through trial end error, it seems, they turned their limitations into something that's easily digestible, fun and even pretty interesting in the artistic sense. Well--- they're no Genesis, but they're certainly a few rungs above Styx and Kansas, who have no taste. Whenever Styx and Kansas do something that's tasteful, it's probably a weird accident. (Hey, I'm a fan of a few Styx albums, you know. Well, two Styx albums.)

OK, let's talk about the lyrics for a moment. I'm probably a stupidly unique music reviewer, because I don't take much stock in lyrics. (In my own listening experience, they have little to do with how much I'm going to enjoy a song --- especially with Rush, half of the time I can't even understand them the way Geddy Lee sings these.) But it's worth mentioning that they are goofy and pretentious in pretty horrible ways. Maybe unintentionally funny at times. They were being serious in ways geeks are serious about playing Dungeons and Dragons. Well, I'll let you take that statement at its face value coming from someone who honestly doesn't give a damn about it.

Track Reviews:

"The Spirit of the Radio" is a guitar-heavy song where prog seems to have met pop-rock. What I really care about is the melody is catchy and the instrumentation generally flows well together. So many times in their previous albums, I'd criticize their instrumental ideas, but not here. And they have some relatively weird ones. Not any two-bit rock band would bother putting a bit of reggae in toward the end --- so strange. Yet it seemed to work nicely. These guys are first class with those instruments, and I'm really enjoying hearing that drumming... I can see where these Rush nuts are coming from. Everything's just right here, it's interestingly sttructured and it's a genuine joy to listen to. I guess that makes it great!

More nice instrumentals in "Free Will" although the melody is more disjointed and random. The melody isn't hooky, but I am enjoying some of those gutiar riffs. I can't give this one a full endorsement, but at the very least it's a fun track, and there are some nice harmonies. The show-offey electric guitar solo in the middle was predictable, but nonetheless a ripe pick for people who do air guitar.

"Jacob's Ladder" is a seven-minute track that proves this group still wanted to be considered a prog-rock band. Oh well, that's OK by me. It begins with a military-ish beat and a medieval chord progression. After awhile, the guitars come up and they deliver what's expected out of a Rush album! Wicked guitar solos! The tempo seems too slow to really get my soul rocking out with it, but ... well, it's fun to hear anyway. There's some nice riffage here although it's not particularly catchy. They bring in some of them keyboards (it's the '80s so keyboards are the law) though they weren't ill-conceived. They're trying to be mystical here, and it sort of works I guess. Their instrumental ideas seem to be interesting to me as well as their rather primitive melodic and harmonic ideas. It all works though, and I like hearing this. Primitive is what works sometimes. Maybe Rush had that figured out by now.

"Entre Nous" has a really awesome intro. The funny thing is most bands with such a musically pretentious opening (with those 'epic' scaling synthesizers, power chords and pompous chord progressions) would make this seem so freaking stupid that my poor ears would reject it immediately. But this is genuinely neat. They take that into a more poppy part after that with a rather hooky melody. Again, the melody is simple, but that doesn't make it any less catchy. The song texture continues to change throughout, which makes it even more fun.

And now a bit of geek-balladry for good measure. "Different Strings" is another track they seem to do right. Their medieval melody and chord progressions is fun to hear and suits them perfectly. The instrumentals are all great choices from beginning to end. The lightly strummed guitar, some synths, a real piano, the bass guitar ... and the drumming is lovely. The brief electric guitar solo at the end is also great. This is so pleasant and pretty.

"Natural Science" is their obligatory nine-minute track. It begins with some water sound effects and sea gull sounds. Soon, (with some heavy reverb) an acoustic guitar starts to play, and Geddy sings a melody that's not so hooky. And then they bring it their usual bag of tricks (that is, elaborate song structures). This one's generally enjoyable although probably one of the weakest tracks of the album. I can't say I enjoy it as much as the others. I'm ready for it to end when it's halfway over. Maybe they should stick a little closer to pop-rock. I know they probably would hate to hear that, but --- well, it's true.

Concluding Remarks:

Rush's first '80s album is their best ever. This far.