RUSH — Permanent Waves (review)

RUSH — Permanent Waves album cover Album · 1980 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
kluseba
Permanent Waves is one of the most accessible and commercial records that Rush ever made and I don't mean that in a negative way. The brilliant opening double pack "The Spirit Of Radio" and "Freewill" are catchy and easy to listen to but contain still enough original guitar riffs, rhythm changes and progressive harmonies to satisfy the fans of the last outputs and not only a new target. Those two songs had everything to become two amazing hit singles and are from that point of view probably the two strongest short tracks Rush have ever written in its long and bold career.

The band still proves that they have kept the spirit of their calm and progressive moments with the strong "Jacob's Ladder". Even if one considers the high quality of many epic tracks from the previous records, this song is still a very special gem and has an outstanding atmosphere that makes it stand out and can be considered as a fan favourite on this record. It's a song that grows one you and needs some attention to dig deeper and deeper into its subtle magic.

Just when the band seems to head for a really great album and a top notch rating, something unpredictable happens. There really is a split between the first and the second half of the record. Seen from a purely technical point of view, the following songs are surely well executed and at least interesting to listen to but they sound somewhat cold, intellectual and too technical to me. They simply don't have the magic and warmth of the first three tracks and rate this album way more down than I initially expected.

That's why I feel a little bit weird about this record in the end. It has its great moments and starts very strong but loses my interest towards the end. I would still not consider it as a bad album but one of the good average records in the discography of Rush. It's definitely not the highlight that it could have been in my opinion but it's without the glimpse of a doubt a great record to kick off a wonderful decade of amazing music.
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