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Rating: 'Grace Under Pressure' represents the second stage of the “electronic turn” of Rush, which began in 1982 with the release of 'Signals', in clear discontinuity with the vigorous progressive rock played by the Toronto trio from their debut album (Rush: ’74) to the masterpiece Moving Pictures (’81).
Produced by Peter Henderson (already with Supertramp), replacing veteran Terry Brown, who was no longer in line with the group's musical choices, 'Grace Under Pressure' marks yet another evolutionary step in Rush's sound, with a more decisive use of synthesizers by Lee, at the expense of Lifeson's guitars, destined to provide the rhythmic texture of individual pieces with relative containment of solo spaces, and an increasing use, by Peart, of electronic percussion.
Received tepidly by long-time fans, although rewarded with significant sales especially in Canada and the USA, 'Grace Under Pressure' remains one of Rush's most convincing works of the '80s: a typical feature of the album is the coldness of modern society, the exasperated individualism of its members, no longer mythologized in an epic and antagonistic key as in '2112', but experienced as drama and emptiness, a harbinger of an imminent end of the world. The idea of coldness is confirmed by the album cover and the arrangements of the individual tracks, in which electronics, rather than merely enriching the songs – as was the case in 'Signals', in continuity with the original prog rock – is used to render the concepts of automation, repetitiveness, and alienation of the individual. The album begins with one of the group's classics, Distant Early Warning, where Lifeson's effected guitar creates a swirling rhythm in line with the group's traditional sound, immersed in the ambience created by Lee's keyboards. The subsequent Afterimage, dedicated to a suddenly deceased friend, again highlights guitars and keyboards, which contribute to creating melodies with a nostalgic flavor, also evident in the vocals.
Red Sector A is another milestone for the group, characterized by lyrics that explicitly reference an impending apocalypse and a future of desolation and an effective accompaniment, in which synthesizers are in the foreground. The Enemy Within, part of the suite Fear, created in successive stages in various albums of the group, represents, with excellent results, yet another incursion by Rush into reggae rock à la Police, following in the footsteps of Vital Signs, Digital Man and New World Man contained in 'Moving Picture' and 'Signals'. The Body Electric, with clear references to a sci-fi dimension, stands out for its syncopated rhythm and the work of electronic percussion, as well as Lee's sorrowful vocals. Kid Gloves represents, on a purely musical level, the most cheerful track of the album: it is a rock piece, based on an excellent guitar riff, with a compelling chorus.
The last tracks of the album are more intimate and nocturnal: Red Lenses almost seems like a robotic funk due to the interplay between bass and drums, on which Lee's voice is effectively set, far from the historic high notes but particularly expressive. Between the Wheels is one of the musical peaks of the album, thanks to the interaction of keyboards and guitars, clearly evident in the development of the main theme of the piece, and concludes the album with an additional dose of melancholy.
A non-trivial album for the era in which it was released, slightly inferior to the great masterpieces of Rush from the '70s, although less explosive in terms of technical execution.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Distant Early Warning (04:57)
Distant Early Warning
An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain
There's no swimming in the heavy water
No singing in the acid rain
Red alert
Red alert
It's so hard to stay together
Passing through revolving doors
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors
Incomplete
Incomplete
Chorus
The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But I worry about you
I know it makes no difference
To what you're going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you...
Cruising under your radar
Watching from satellites
Take a page from the red book
Keep them in your sights
Red alert
Red alert
Left and rights of passage
Black and whites of youth
Who can face the knowledge
That the truth is not the truth?
Obsolete
Absolute
Chorus
Absalom, Absalom, Absalom
02 Afterimage (05:05)
Suddenly, you were gone
From all the lives you left your mark upon
I remember
How we talked and drank into the misty dawn
I hear the voices
We ran by the water on the wet summer lawn
I see the footprints
I remember
I feel the way you would
I feel the way you would
I feel, feel the way you would
Tried to believe but you know it's no good
This is something that just can't be understood
I remember
The shouts of joy skiing fast through the woods
I hear the echoes
I learned your love for life,
I feel the way that you would
I feel your presence
I remember
I feel the way you would
I feel the way you would
I feel, feel the way you would
This just can't be understood
Tried to believe but you know it's no good
This is something that just can't be understood
I remember
I feel the way you would
I feel the way you would
I feel, feel the way you would
This just can't be understood
04 The Enemy Within (04:36)
Things crawl in the darkness
That imagination spins
Needles at your nerve ends
Crawl like spiders on your skin
Pounding in your temples
And a surge of adrenaline
Every muscle tense to fence the enemy within
[Chorus:]
I'm not giving in to security under pressure
I'm not missing out on the promise of adventure
I'm not giving up on implausible dreams
Experience to extremes
Experience to extremes...
Suspicious looking stranger
Flashes you a dangerous grin
Shadows across your window...
Was it only trees in the wind?
Every breath a static charge
A tongue that tastes like tin
Steely-eyed outside to hide the enemy within
To you, is it movement or is it action?
Is it contact or just reaction?
And you... revolution or just resistance?
Is it living, or just existence?
Yeah, you! It takes a little more persistence
To get up and go the distance
[Chorus]
05 The Body Electric (05:02)
One humanoid escapee
One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath
A lonely desert sun.
Trying to change it's program
Trying to change the mode
Crack the code
Images conflicting
Into data overload.
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S.
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0.
Memory banks unloading
Bytes break into bits
Unit one's in trouble and it's
Scared out of it's wits.
Guidance systems breakdown
A struggle to exist
To resist
A pulse of dying power
In a clenching plastic fist.
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S.
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0.
It replays each of the days
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines
All machines.
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S.
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0
It replays each of the days
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines
Mother of all machines.
08 Between the Wheels (05:44)
To live between a rock
And a hard place
In between time
Cruising in the prime time
Soaking up the cathode rays.
To live between the wars
In our time
Living in real time
Holding the good time
Holding on to yesterdays.
You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb
But the wheels of time
Just pass you by.
Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare"
Another war another wasteland
And another lost generation.
It slips between your hands like water
This living in real time
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid.
Struck between the eyes
By the big time world
Walking uneasy streets
Hiding beneath the sheets
Got to try and fill the void.
You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb
But the wheels of time
Just passed you by.
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare"
Another war another wasteland
And another lost generation.
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By splinter
It’s a shame it never gets mentioned among the album’s best tracks, and trust me, it deserves it!
Once again, it testifies to a band that whatever they produce, in whatever way, inevitably hits the mark.
