RUSH — Signals (review)

RUSH — Signals album cover Album · 1982 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Unitron
Signals is the ninth studio album from hard rock band Rush. With the success of the groundbreaking Moving Pictures, Rush continued with extending their use of synth on the albums that were to follow. Signals, the first of these four "synth -period" albums, shares some similarities with it's predecessor; however it really "signals" in yet another new era for the band. Now the synth was immensely overused in 80's rock in my opinion, however, some bands used it quite well. Rush was one definitely of these bands.

Opening up with the popular single "Subdivisions", you immediately get an idea of the sound for the album. The album has an overall melancholy synth-rock sound, with the band's otherwise core hard rock sound taking a back-seat. That doesn't effect the quality of the music here much though, as this is still a great rock album. The aforementioned track is certainly great and among the highlights, as is the other popular single "New World Man". It's easy to see why the latter was picked as a single, it's infectiously catchy and reminds me a bit of The Police.

However great those songs are, some of the best tracks on the album come from the deeper cuts. These tracks are "Chemistry", "The Weapon", and "Countdown". "Chemistry" has a very grandiose sound mixed with some hard rocking riffs, "The Weapon" is a stomping track with the synth creating a really cool brooding atmosphere, and "Countdown" is simply a fantastic finale. Unfortunately for these three awesome songs, there are three pretty weak songs. "The Analog Kid" is decent, "Digital Man" drags on for too long, and the ballad "Losing It" just doesn't work and has some pretty annoying electric violin noodling that borders on avant-garde.

While not quite up to par with it's predecessor and preceding albums, Signals is still a great album in it's own right. I recommend it to fans of Moving Pictures, and I could also see New Wave fans enjoying it as well. One of the stronger albums of the band's synth-era. Hope you found this review helpful, feel free to comment!
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unextinct Technical Death Metal
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 10 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed