Artist: Rush
Label: Atlantic Records
Release: 1980
Duration: 35.25
Rating: 4.5/5
“Permanent Waves”, Rush’s transitional album, slowly walks away from the band’s fantasy world of prog rock jargon and swaps it for solid footing in a growing fascination with the essence of art rock and an understanding of eighties “mainstream” rock. It’s an excellent in-between record, and one of its sides barrels straight into the eighties, hinting at the band’s next musical direction: shorter, tighter, more accessible songs. With two superb predecessors in “Hemispheres” and “A Farewell To Kings”, Rush had secured broad acceptance from the critical mass. That had a soothing effect on the band’s remarkable studio looseness and clear focus as they tackled new musical challenges, which radically reshaped and renewed the future face of Rush’s music.
It was only logical that Geddy Lee couldn’t keep screeching into infinity, or sooner or later every last vocal cord and neck muscle would snap. So the first of the big changes is that Lee mostly turns to singing in a “normal” voice, though there are still stretches where he goes into full “squeal” mode (like the third verse in the pre-chorus of Freewill).
For the first time, Rush clearly build on minimizing the ideas used in their songs. The archetypal song of the new Rush for the new decade is the opener, The Spirit Of Radio. The lyrics themselves come from the band’s personal understanding of the magic that the freedom of creating and expressing yourself through music gives you. But realistically. Rock music, of course. It’s all written right there in the lyrics, even that it’s only a matter of “sincerity”, but in the end it’s all just an illusion, because the boundless beauty of created music is cheapened by the unavoidable jingling of the money-grabbers. The song has a playful cynicism and positive notes, and toward the end Rush stamp it with their familiar investigative wit when they slide into a fitting reggae trick. This track showcases one of the band’s greatest qualities. Here they managed to combine complex structure (especially the intricate rhythmic turns) with perfect listenability! Freewill then keeps up the album’s radio-friendly attitude. It’s an even smoother song, with an even more prominent melodic component of extraordinary tightness that gets under your skin in an instant. It’s still one of Rush’s main favorites in their ironclad live repertoire, where Lifeson’s guitar really catches fire (especially with that damn fast soloing).
For everyone who got the hiccups after cleverly figuring out that “Permanent Waves” just isn’t “Hemispheres”, nor “Farewell To Kings”, Jacob’s Ladder brings back a bit of hope. The lyrics refer to rays of light piercing through a veil of clouds and forming a seeming ladder toward the sun, though it might also remind us of the biblical patriarch Jacob climbing his ladder and getting up close and personal with the angels (even if that last bit isn’t the message of the song). Despite the polishing and fine-tuning of the sound in the studio, Jacob’s Ladder is a typical prog piece, marked above all by a long instrumental middle section with an added touch of mysticism, stirred up mostly by the keyboards in the background. It’s the first moment on the record that shows the darker side of how Rush’s music can be perceived, and the cherry on top of the fruit bowl goes to Lifeson’s sharp guitar arrangements, which bind vividly, dynamically and seamlessly to the rhythmic platform and the curtain of background keyboards. Lifeson’s guitar practically drives the whole song forward, stringing together colorful twists and turns in a superb accompaniment and conversation with the rhythm section around it. The heightened mystical atmosphere and the ethereal moment of calm sailing on synthesizers at the start of the song’s final third is a real balm for fans of the band’s prog era.
The songs that “simplify” the album from here on are Entre Nous and Different Strings. Acoustic and electric are nicely blended, and Different Strings has classical piano neatly woven in. Both tracks feel like ballads, with a trace of the essence of earlier, not-so-distant attempts of that kind, like Madrigal or The Trees, but the more controlled electric guitar sound in the production already shows where Rush are headed.
The album’s peak is saved for last. Natural Sience is the record’s second prog rock epic. A suite repeating the vanishing magic of the seventies already caught in Jacob’s Ladder. This trilogy uses some motifs Peart had been creating for a longer poem about Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, a story from the 14th century, the era of the King Arthur legend, an idea he later dropped. The central theme of the lyrics is always relevant today: the negation of nature through humanity’s innate need to subdue it, and the resulting loss of our roots with nature. The song is built from three parts and runs almost 10 minutes. The “sincere person”, in terms of sorting the whole range of human characters, belongs to the most endangered species on Earth. That was true in 1980 and it’s true today. Whatever happens, the world will go on. One way or another. With humans or without them (third part: Permanent Waves). Apocalyptic, but down to earth. A world of imagination or of logic? The eternal question of the coexistence of this duality, without which we can’t exist. And we upset the balance whenever we lean toward one or the other. The song is a sprawling prog Rush foldout, where the band once again managed to optimally combine every factor of their uniqueness. Plenty of vivid transitions, complex time signatures, a touch of spontaneity in the unpredictable sequence of motif changes, and a brilliant note of high dynamics and listenability.
“Permanent Waves” came out on 01.01.1980. It’s one of the first albums released in the new decade and aptly hints at where mainstream rock itself would go. It’s a vivid example of a transitional album that paints a picture of a band carefully stepping across the threshold of new musical boundaries with one foot, fearlessly flirting with new challenges in sound and style.
Lineup
Geddy Lee – vocals, bass guitar, bass pedals, synthesizer
Alex Lifeson – guitar, bass pedals
Neil Peart – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Hugh Syme – classical piano on Different Strings
Erwig Chuapchuaduah – metal drums
Production
Rush & Terry Brown
Tracklist
1. Spirit of the Radio (4:56)
2. Freewill (5:21)
3. Jacob’s Ladder (7:26)
4. Entre Nous (4:37)
5. Different Strings (3:48)
6. Natural Science (9:17)
