80s Rush Was Weird(?)
Rush always strove to recreate themselves: their career is easily chunked out into phases.
Hard Rock– 1974-1976 (Rush, Fly By Night, Caress of Steel, 2112) The band grows out of its basement-playing roots and stretches themselves conceptually with new drummer/lyricist Neil Peart.
Prog Rock- 1977-1981 (A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures) Having explored complexity to its insane limits, the band turns to shorter compositions and more grounded lyrics.
Synth Era- 1982-1987 (Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, Hold Your Fire)
Coming off the otherworldly success of Moving Pictures, Rush looked out at a musical landscape and latched onto New Wave as the next vista to explore… only New Wave wasn’t an easily defined class of music as hard rock or prog were. Neil leaned towards reggae and ska as you’d expect a drummer to while bassist/lyricist Geddy Lee wanted to expand his sonic palette by moving keyboards into a more melodic role.
What was Rush turning into, The Police or Ultravox?
The answer was Weird Rush.
A Mixed Bag…
Rush did embrace the New Wave in ways that other bands didn’t or couldn’t yet their willingness to change led to the most uneven output of their career, not just from album to album but often from track to track.
1984’s Grace Under Pressure reflected the schizophrenia of Synth Rush. Not only do we get a dance song(?) in The Enemy Within but we get the ‘corniest, lamest ‘scary’ keyboard hook this side of a Count Chocula commercial’.
But we also get this little nugget, a reggae influenced rocker buried on the backside. Listen to how much fun guitarist Alex Lifeson has with the solo. As he recalled the song later:
What I like about the solo is… it’s got a hip, kind of slinky attitude, a little goofy humor. When I play it, I feel a certain confidence, almost like a prankster, which is not the way I am in real life at all.
https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/rushs-alex-lifeson-my-3-best-solos-194741