RUSH — Power Windows (review)

RUSH — Power Windows album cover Album · 1985 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Warthur
Rush's Power Windows was a first for the band in one fatal respect - it was the first album since their debut in which their sound had not appreciably evolved or moved on compared to their previous album. Although I find their first few albums hit-and-miss and Hemispheres a bit of a stumble compared to the otherwise excellent run of albums from 2112 to Grace Under Pressure, I have to give Rush credit for growing and evolving their sound constantly over the course of their first ten albums. Power Windows, by contrast, sees them doing something they'd never done before in their career - playing it safe.

Essentially, if you've heard Signals and Grace Under Pressure, you've heard all the tricks the band have to offer here - it's yet another synth-heavy version of Rush's music with a focus on shorter songs. (Heck, Middletown Dreams is even - lyrically speaking - a rehash of Signals' Subdivisions). There is admittedly a slighter harder edge to it this time than Grace Under Pressure, which over time I've come to appreciate as giving it a slightly different style from its predecessor (whereas the compositional style has evolved sufficiently from Signals to save it being a rerun of that), but it feels like a smaller increment than usual for the band's evolution, like their movement forwards has started to decelerate.

Perhaps the most successful song here is Marathon, which at the halfway mark breaks out into a guitar-focused instrumental section which feels like the band are finding ways to work sounds they'd set aside for Grace Under Pressure back into the format without making it sound like a reversion. I'm reminded a little at points in Marillion of this; it's notable that Rush had toured with Marillion back in 1983, and then invited them to be support on the Power Windows tour, so perhaps there was some fruitful cross-fertilisation of ideas happening here.

In the end, I think Power Windows is still a very solid 1980s synth-prog album; it's not going to be to the taste of anyone who only likes Rush when they leaning on a hard rock or metal-adjacent sound, like in their late 1970s phase, but the same can be said for the two previous albums. I'd rank it below Grace Under Pressure, however; it's pretty evident that the synth era of Rush seems to start slowing down here, and that might be why I had been harsh on it before.
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