Permanent Waves [Remaster] - Rush (CD 1997)

I love this band, but ironically, this was when I originally stopped listening to them! I was at a friend's house when The Spirit of Radio came on the "radio" and I immediately HATED the song, especially that part where Geddy Lee screams about the "SALESMEN!"! I'm also not a fan of songs that pander to FM radio and radio announcers... even though I disc jockey at an FM radio station, I'm more of a fan of AM radio... I'd rather hear the weather forecast and get the latest sports scores! Neil Peart sounds too scientific on this song and uses too many big words( like "integrity", "unobtrusive", "road", etc.) when a more simple, down to earth approach would have been more appropriate. (There are things about the song that I like...it's a happy song and I find Geddy's vocal melody during the verses very pleasant and IT ROCKS, which is almost always one of my reasons for liking something!).
"The Spirit" put me off from buying Permanent Waves(even with that sexy lady on the cover showing off her underwear) for at least a few years.

I got back into this band after my brother John played me the song The Camera Eye from Moving Pictures and after my brothers and I used the song YYZ as background music for a "Star Trek" comedy that we recorded ( I have the script for this comedy published here on Epinions if you want to look at it...it's very silly!).

Well, other than the opening and closing tracks, I think Permanent Waves is a very good album, though it's not my favorite of theirs...that honor goes to A Farewell To Kings. It's not as adventurous and exciting as their two previous albums. The album sounds great, however...Lifeson was experimenting with more guitar sounds and lighter textures, while still churning out them heavy metal guitar riffs and playing all those power chords...Lee was screaming less and singing more in his comfy mid-range..and Peart was still banging like a madman on his drumkit and any other percussion instruments he could lay his drumsticks on. The synthesizers were also being incorporated into the mix a bit more, adding some much needed colors and broadening their sound a bit. Geddy was still playing all them complex bass lines and his bass was very prominent in the mix. And last but not most, the band were still playing in difficult time signatures...and they weren't doing it just to be neat...even though they WERE neat!

The songs are.....The Spirit of Radio, Freewill, Jacob's Ladder, Entre Nous, Different Strings and Natural Science.

Skipping past The Spirit of Radio, which I talked about earlier and you can hear many other people rave about as they order their "I worry about Matzaballman" t-shirts, I'll go right to the second track Freewill, which is a very tuneful and upbeat crunch rocker and has Geddy screaming in his high granny voice on the last verse ,"Each of us, a cell of awareness...imperfect and incomplete". Geddy's bass rolls right along as Alex plays one of his alien guitar solos. The verses are done in 6/4,8/4 and 7/4( I only know that because I have the sheet music in front of me right now!). I like this song! ( I must expand my vocabulary!)

I don't have much to say about Jacob's Ladder except that it's a dark and moody progressive hard rocker, has some cool jamming during the long instrumental section and it starts out with (looking at the sheet music again) the band switching back and forth from 5/4 to 6/4. Peart does some military style druuming while Lifeson plays all sorts of neat chords like C, A flat major, F, E,..etc. I like it!( I also love this sheet music!)

Entre Nous is another favorite of mine...it's a very happy and slightly romantic song...well, romantic for these guys! I love the opening guitar riff for it and how the synthesizer wraps itself around it. The chorus is kind of sweet, with lyrics like, "Just between us, I think it's time for us to recognize, the differences we sometimes fear to show/Just between us, I think it's time for us to realize, the spaces in between, leave room, for you and I to grow..".

Different Strings is the most laid back and mellow song on the album and would be the last Rush song that Geddy Lee would write the lyrics for, not including Chemistry from Signals. Hugh Syme, who designed their album covers, plays piano on this relatively simple and slightly melancholy love song. The lyrics remind me of the song Madrigal from A Farewell To Kings, especially the opening line, "Who comes to slay the dragon, come to watch him fall". I also like the lyric that comes right after it.."Making arrows out of pointed words..". Lifeson ends the song with one of his most bluesy guitar solos ever. An overlooked song and one that I'm quite fond of.

The album ends with it's longest track Natural Science, which clocks in at over nine minutes. I have never really cared for this song that much, even though I know many Rush fans who think it's one of the best things they've ever done. I think that it tries too hard to be neat and clever, especially that fast part where they rock out in 7/8. I can almost hear them saying " HEY LOOK, WE'RE PLAYING IN A WEIRD TIME SIGNATURE AGAIN!" I also don't like how Geddy sings along with the guitar riff at that point. I like the beginning of the song, which starts off with acoustic guitars, birds and the sound of running water...Geddy Lee starts singing and he sounds like he's singing in the bathroom....maybe the running water is coming from the bath tub!

Closing comments...

My brother Tom (Fartzarellah) is really Coool! Yes, he is very coool! And so is this album!