Imagine a POLL Where It All Began: Rush- Power Windows Poll

Voted 'Manhattan Project' - but dang, seeing them do 'Marathon' live the last few tours was awesome!

Gosh. I like all of this album a lot. I wil say, as far as Rush albums go, this has among the best "album" tracks: "Grand Designs," "Middletown Dreams," "Emotion Detector" ... this one and "Grace Under Pressure" are the Rush albums I return to the most.

Also, continues Peart's Dos Passos infatuation, for everyone who still think he's all about LOL Rand, who he (like most) grew out of fast.

"Marathon" is the sentimental favorite. "Mystic Rhythms" a great example of the band in understated mode.

This is, for some reason, the only 80s Rush album I don't have and have never listened to. I'm not even sure why.

I love the synths on this.

Voted Grand Designs, but really it could be any of these songs on any given day. This is their most exhuberant album and was my favorite of their's for a long time. It's also probably the last album they did that was great from beginning to end with no weak songs (Counterparts comes close though.

I love how they all go nuts during the guitar solo parts on most of these tracks.

And yeah Marathon was definitely a highlight on the last tour.

I'd love to read what fans at the time thought.

Every song has has really interesting drum grooves too. I really like Neil's approach on this one.

As much as I love a ton of these songs, "Territories" lords over this for me.

This is, for some reason, the only 80s Rush album I don't have and have never listened to. I'm not even sure why.

Insofar as the band can boast intelligent critical commentary this period is STILL sniffed at. Even the band does. In the documentary they're all in a hurry to get past this stage of their development so they can return to -- what, "rocking"?

Yeah, it's weird that they seem so down on it, but they always play songs from it on their tours so they must not hate it so much.

In the doc they definitely came off as defensive and apologetic about these records. Lifeson seemed almost bitter about having to fight for space in the arrangements among all the synths: "It's not even a real instrument!"

Shows how much he knows. Lifeson's solo in "Manhattan Project" versus the symphonic arrangement is the kind of frisson in which he thrives.

Alex's playing on Power Windows is pretty amazing throughout so I don't know what he's complaining about

I'd love to read what fans at the time thought.

I have no documentary evidence, but about six of my closest friends in high school were Rush freaks, and I remember them liking it. There was no "ew, synth" thing, it was more like, "See, they're not afraid to change." But older fans might have been more resistant. I saw them on this tour, because all of those aforementioned friends were going and I figured what the hell. It was a good show, but not one I remember very clearly. There were lasers.

I was a big fan of Signals and Grace Under Pressure, and was really excited for Power Windows, bought it the day it came out. I loved it for a month, but quickly grew tired of a lot of it. Partly it was just a cultural shift, as I was starting to get into stuff like Husker Du and Naked Raygun. But I still play Signals now more than GUP. Wished I could have seen their show with lazers though ;)

Alex's playing on Power Windows is pretty amazing throughout so I don't know what he's complaining about

tbf, he may have been referencing Hold Your Fire, but he didn't specify; his gripe was shown right after a clip for a Power Windows song, though.

It's true, it is all left a bit vague. I personally would have rather seen a part about everyone talking about how awesome everything on Power Windows is and then have Alex brag about his guitar solos.

I think he has at times fallen into the trap of thinking guitar solos are no longer cool, which is a shame because he's done so many memorable ones.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Had to vote for Big Money, if only because it's one of the few songs I ever did a complete mock-up/cover of in my geeky MIDI and guitar teen years...

this record is great, its the last of the 'old' rush albums i heard but has made its way to the top of the pile over time

voted mystic rhythms but at least half the others are close

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I somehow missed this. Would have gone with "Grand Designs"

I'd love to read what fans at the time thought.

Among the fans, it seemed like there was an implicit sigh of relief when "Big Money" led with that big guitar riff... A good friend of mine who has seen Rush on every tour since 1982 said that the Power Windows tour was the best. Wouldn't disagree with that assessment either (but I wasn't nearly as hardcore of a fan).

Always thought that Rush listened to a bunch of Siouxsie records before recording this. Probably not, but "Manhattan Project" (especially that break/bridge in the middle) and "Mystic Rhythms" sure remind me of the Banshees.

Would have voted "Manhattan Project"

fabulous turnout!

Ha, I was going to ask if it's crazy that this reminds me of the Cure. I never listened to the whole album before. It's much better than I expected. I might rank it higher than Signals and Grace Under Pressure (but not above the classic material obv). Some of those breaks are pretty dazzling. I wonder if this might represent a peak of sorts for them in terms of sheer chops, including vocals.

xpost

I thought these guys were listening to a lot of new wave in the 80s? Plus, they're from Toronto: that shit often seemed unavoidable when I lived there in 2002-2005 and it was more so in the 80s/90s from what I've heard. I wouldn't be surprised if they were listening to the Cure and Banshees. Although this album might actually predate the Cure albums I'm thinking of so maybe the Cure was listening to Rush? (I always assumed they were listening to Pink Floyd in the Disintegration/Wish period.)

ome of those breaks are pretty dazzling. I wonder if this might represent a peak of sorts for them in terms of sheer chop

my thought exactly when I heard how well they integrated the programming.

how does this compare to Grace Under Pressure?

fabulous turnout!

maybe letting it run longer than four days would've helped

yep -- date confusion.

For me, Power Windows represents a peak in terms of production and the warmth of Peart's lyrics. I voted "Territories" in part bc I love how it fuses (then) cutting edge technology, Peart's percussion and Edge-style one world guitar heroism (Bono wasn't the only one with a messiah complex in U2) to add texture and detail to the subject of the song. The result is actually a far denser production than it seems -- prog with a decidedly pop veneer. But honestly, you could say similar things about "Mystic Rhythms," "Manhattan Project," "Marathon" or anything else on it, really.

Great album.

I still prefer Grace Under Pressure, probably because it's "darker", but this doesn't fall too far behind for me.

Lifeson's solos in "Territories" and "Emotion Detector" put the lie to the suspicion that the synths "overwhelmed" him.

That, and just about everything else he does over the entire album. It is really a great guitar album overall (and bass and drums and synths...)

Argh, I can't believe I missed this poll. I would have voted for 'Marathon'.

This album has grown so much on me over time that I now rate it as highly as their "classic" 1976-1982 work. I remember not being keen on the production of this album when I first heard it... what the fuck was I thinking? This is impeccably produced and has such a depth and richness to it. There's tracks on I like on the albums that came immediately before and after it, but this album definitely stands out to me in between Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire. Very underrated, even by some Rush fans I'd imagine.

We break the surface tension
With our wild kinetic dreams

I love this record.

AGAINST THE RUN OF THE MILL

Grand Designs is an underrated classic

The whole album - particularly side 1 - is an underrated classic. The last LP in a phenomenal run that began with 2112.

Tru

So many mixed feelings. As soon as a childhood friend played me Permanent Waves when I was 10, Rush would soon overtake ELO as my favorite band. Moving Pictures blew my mind, Signals took some getting warmed up to but it has some of their best songs, and Grace Under Pressure is cold, brittle, forbidding, but I still love it. When Power Windows came out, I thought it was Rush at their peak. Since then, I've rarely returned to it, because the production just bugs the crap out of me. Too crystalline, too fragile sounding. It was cool to hear them play "Marathon" on their rain date in 2010 -- their Chicago stop of the Time Machine tour got rained out so they played a special date the next year and gave everyone in the audience a Rush baseball hat with "The Rain Date, RUSH, Chicago - 2010" embroidered on the back. I'd just started listening to them again around 2002, but still had trouble clicking with newer songs, even the best ones, but yeah, Power Windows remains under my skin. I wrote about Martin Popoff's Rush: Album By Album coffee table book recently.

how did "territories" only get one vote? it's frankie goes to hollywood goes prog -- "we see so many tribes, overrun and undermined" -- goes rolling stones --"undercover (of the night)"

There really isn't a weak song on this album. They all deserve votes. Then again, there were only 9 votes overall.

9 for mortal men, doomed to die

I love Emotion Detector, but I guess something had to place last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRKh4rQRAFQ

Huh, there are demos out there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vrdug6syMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05jVO29DDjY

Good stuff! Never heard these before

There are demos for every track, it seems, a couple slightly different, like a brief reggae detour in "Middletown Dreams." So strange, since Rush demos don't really circulate. (Though Alex has claimed that the demos are rarely all that different from the studio versions). Anyway, in these you can hear the song structures more or less how they ended up, just minus the synths and polish, which is interesting.

I would love to hear some proper Rush demos, because I always wondered how these guys wrote songs. I know those Metallica reissues have included "riff tapes," which is basically where James recorded his little mini ideas and whatnot. I assume Rush is the same way, with Geddy and Alex. but Neil's parts are so precise and arranged I can't imagine him even starting until the structures are more or less in place. Maybe that's why Alex said the demos are usually the same as the studio arrangement, because how else could they do it?

This record has so many rad turns and details, like the musical equivalent of serifs on text or spices in an awesome dish, almost enough for a follow-up poll:

-The rapid transition from those soothing synth patches to the propulsive bass eighth-notes in "The Manhattan Project" like Geddy hit the nitrous button

-The drum rhythm, chord progression, and keyboards after the 2nd verse and into the 3rd of "Middletown Dreams" getting as close as prog ever has to Latin Freestyle (it's almost "Silent Morning"!), then the jaw-droppingly-awesome breakdown and chord progression of that track's bridge (which feels like it could carry its own separate song)

-The harmonized "oh oh oh oh oh ohhhs" that lead to the ending of "Grand Designs" (where the opening synth riff is punctuated by bass and drum stabs that we've all had to feel proud when we were finally able to correctly air-drum along with them).

-Geddy's (un?)intentionally-hilarious elocution of "...and better BEEER?" in "Territories"

-That angular guitar riff immediately after "never quite enough" in the second verse of "Emotion Detector"

-The 7/4 center (or is it centre?) of "Marathon" behind Alex's slow-burn guitar solo, and the key changes in the final chorus like a mash-up of the Nicene Creed and auto-tune

-The "I'm Not In Love"-style choral backdrop of the first half of the main guitar solo in "The Big Money" or the final chorus of "Marathon", not to mention "The Big Money's" fake ending, then those 3 ringing chords, which a writer somewhere described as "like Alex flipped on the lights at Maple Leaf Gardens.

And every song just fucking ROCKS.

In a similar manner to Yes's "Drama" and "90125", I'm sad this record didn't kick off a new genre of pop-friendly prog-rock. Hell, "Grand Designs" and "Emotion Detector" would not sound out-of-place as covers in a live set by The 1975 or Sky Ferreira, and the quasi-pointilism of the guitars being dropped in and out at alternating left- and right-channels, especially in the 2nd/3rd verse of "Middletown Dreams", as if Green Gartside or Arif Mardin snuck into the control room.

I love this post

Yeah, A+. Fuel for thought.

It's so cool how these songs are constantly jumping between gritty rock riffing with those cutting Strat chords and glittering digital expanses. Alex Lifeson hits a sweet spot on this one.

Meanwhile Neil Peart and Geddy Lee are going utterly bonkers for pretty much the entire album. I think this is the busiest playing that either of them ever did.

And every guitar solo section is like this multi-movement sculpted masterpiece.

The solo in “Grand Designs” is one of my favorite ever; in a way it’s very 1985 and in another there’s hardly anything to it (I can almost imagine the Edge - at his most adventurous - at the time coming up with something like it) but it’s up there with Limelight for me (it’s like a mid 80s version of it re “lonely, airy, emotionally resonant, few notes”)

This has now become one of my favourite albums of theirs - 1985 was a great year for prog-rockers-gone-pop: this, So, Misplaced Childhood, and I suppose I can stretch to No Jacket Required ...

Holy mackerel, Big Money was played probably 3 times an hour on 102.7 WNEW FM New York when this album came out. If there's a more "80s" sounding rock song, I'm not sure I've heard it.

I actually appreciate how, for such an 80s record, everything on this album is so well defined. It's not just a messy mush, which happened more with the next album.

This is true, there's very tight control over the 80s sound effects that pop up all over this album. There are lots of parts where the focus is on the classic guitar, bass, drums configuration that sound pretty stripped down. But there's also tons of echoing punctuations and otherworldly reverb and delay effects that could've easily gotten out of hand. They managed to get all these details in there without just slathering the whole thing.

Their best eighties album imo.

'Marathon' is one of their best, most powerful choruses. Phenomenal bass playing, too.

big thumbs up to the eliot allusion

lol thanks

I really enjoy how I hear "The Manhattan Project" in my head whenever I see this thread title.

That string break in "Manhattan Project" reminds me of SIouxsie.

Geddy in that interview more or less reiterated the same diplomatic non-answer about the status of Rush he and Alex have always been giving, saying he cannot imagine the three of them touring again but who knows if they might perform again in some other way. And all of a sudden all these click bait pieces have been popping up overstating what he said, claiming they're going to tour without Neil, etc. I don't see it.

That would never happen. I could see Geddy and Alex playing together, but not as Rush without Neil.

geddy, alex, and john stanier, please

As long as it's not Mike Portnoy!

Geddy has virtually no voice left. The Clockwork Angels tour was extremely saddening in that respect: he was up there on stage visibly struggling to produce even a thin, weakened voice. So, even if Geddy and Alex continue as active professional musicians, it would probably be best that it not be a band format where Geddy is singing.

Sadly, the ravages of age apply to many of those other drummers that fans love to suggest for a Neil Peart replacement. John Stanier, for example, is 50 years old. That is the same age Neil Peart was during the Vapor Trails tour when some drumming obsessives noted that he was suddenly no longer as deft around the kit as he had been a decade or two before.

Huh, I never noticed any live instrumental drop-off in these guys, despite their various ailments. (And besides Geddy's voice.)

I would love to hear Geddy and Alex release an album with a different drummer on every track.

Listened to this again this morning... side one is absolutely perfect, isn't it!?