Rush - Retrospective 2 (1981-1987)
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CD Details
Artist: RushEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1997-06-03
Music Label: Island / Mercury
Soundtracks:
- The Big Money
- Red Barchetta
- Subvisions
- Time Stand Still
- Mystic Rhythms
- The Analog Kid
- Distant Early Warning
- Marathon
- The Body Electric
- Mission
- Limelight
- Red Sector A
- New World Man
- Tom Sawyer
- Force Ten
Music reviews of Retrospective 2 (1981-1987)
Music Review: Rush In The Eighties
Rating: 5 Stars
Retrospective II (1981-1987) is a good overview of the band's eighties material and finds the band adding new-wave influences to their prog-rock arrangements and switching the main focus to synths instead of the guitar.
The fifteen tracks are all excellent and they effectively showcase the instrumental/songwriting talents of Geddy Lee on bass/keyboards, Alex Lifeson on guitar, and lyricist and drum master Neil Peart. Tracks like "New World Man" and "Tom Sawyer" are perfect examples of the band's ability to adapt to changing musical trends (new-wave/reggae) while still retaining their signature sound. Peart shows why he is one of rock's best drummers shining both on conventional and electronic drums playing some intense fills and excellent percussion as evidenced by the atmospheric "Mystic Rhythms", "Force Ten", and a personal favorite of mine: "The Body Electric" with its futuristic lyrical theme of androids and I love the chorus '100-1001 SOS/100-1001 in distress' over that ascending guitar line. Lee's great bass playing is always memorable providing some inventive bass lines like for example in "Red Barchetta" (about being chased by the cops and avoiding them) and the socially charged "Subdivisions"; also showing Lee's ability to provide infectious synth textures as well. Last but not least, Lifeson emerges with a new style throughout dropping the more obvious blues-rock influences of the past in favor of some Andy Summers (guitarist in The Police) inspired echoey reggae/dub rhythms, some atmospheric arpeggios, punk/new-wave inspired single-note figures, and employing a much more avant-garde approach in the solos best heard in "Analog Kid".
A song not overlook is the six-minute opus "Marathon" with its lyrics about achieving victory in the race. Every member shines throughout and the chorus has a majestic/anthemic feel made even more epic at the end when it is transposed to a higher key right before the fade-out and who can forget the killer catchy intro riff on "Limelight"? The somewhat gloomy "Red Sector A" and "Distant Early Warning" feature a perfect balance between guitar and synths. The former is a good example of Lifeson's dub styled rhythms while in the latter you can clearly hear the influence of Andy Summers on the rhythm guitar but at the same time switching to an excellent rocking chorus.
To cut a long story short, this trio still had plenty of great ideas to offer during the eighties even if they don't rock out as much as they did in the beginning. If you are looking for band's hard rock sound, then get Retrospective I (1974-1980) but for the band's more synth dominated direction, then this Retrospective II is a great place to get to know some key album tracks and the hits from that era.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later...
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