UMe/Mercury and Anthem Records continue the comprehensive RUSH 40th anniversary album series with a new edition: the band’s decade-defining 1982 release, ”Signals”, an album that signified how the band was in no way detached and subdivided from the ever-shifting 1980s musical landscape.
Featured at plotn08 in a world-wide exclusive premiere, ‘Signals 40th Anniversary” will be available to fans in different configurations, remastered, and with new artwork by original album designer Hugh Syme.
Rush’s ninth studio album was originally released in September 1982, and its technology-embracing riffs and rhythms, continued the forward-thinking trajectory of the acclaimed Canadian trio as it continued to chart the demands of a new decade.
The album’s eight songs built upon Rush’s penchant for adapting to the flow of the times without compromising its flair for melding long-established progressive roots with radio-friendly song arrangements. ”Signals”, co-produced by Rush with longtime band confidant Terry Brown and engineered by Paul Northfield, was the third of numerous Rush recording sessions held at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec.
The band’s synergistic recording process at Le Studio had been well-established during sessions for the aforementioned Moving Pictures, as well as the sessions for that album’s predecessor, January 1980’s Permanent Waves.
“Subdivisions,” the generation-defining lead-off track on the albums, succinctly captures the angst of the perennial restless dreams of youth, and this synth-driven song subsequently became one of Rush’s most celebrated FM favorites as well as a cherished concert staple for many years to come.
Next, the band shifts gears and leans back into the wide-eyed yearnings of “The Analog Kid,” a propulsive track that also reached No. 19 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Meanwhile, the quest for emotional interactivity reaches a combustive head in the connective musical tissue of “Chemistry.” Then there’s the fast-forward thinking of “Digital Man,” presaging our eventual reliance on the 0s and 1s that now permeate our daily lives.
The angular thrust of “The Weapon” (subtitled as being “Part II of Fear”), is a rumination on personal apprehension and doubt that also serves as a modernized offshoot of the mob-mentality prejudices of “Witch Hunt” (a.k.a. “Part III of Fear”) from Moving Pictures.
“The Weapon” also became another Rush concert favorite featuring a videoscreen-projected introduction courtesy of Count Floyd, one of Joe Flaherty’s many notable characters from SCTV. The kinetic, reggae-tinged lilt of “New World Man” peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, Rush’s singular Top 40 hit in the United States.
The truly beautiful “Losing It,” a starkly honest assessment of knowing when the optimal-performance curtain is coming down and how to gracefully deal with its consequences (or not), features poignant electric violin accompaniment from guest performer Ben Mink.
“Losing It” was never played onstage until Rush’s final R40 Live Tour in 2015, with Mink reprising his role at the tour’s stop in Toronto and Jonathan Dinklage of the Clockwork Angels Ensemble playing on it when the song was performed in the States.
The album wraps up with the optimistic skyward views of “Countdown,” an unabashed celebratory chronicle of the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. “Countdown” also features approved audio of the voice communications between the Columbia astronauts and ground control.
This ”Signals 40th Anniversary” encompasses the Abbey Road Mastering Studios remastered edition of the album for the first time on CD, including new artwork by original album designer Hugh Syme.
The sound quality is stupendous, enhancing the original ‘creamy’ production.
One of our fav RUSH albums.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
You’ve seen it first at garbage
1 – Subdivisions (40th Anniversary)
2 – The Analog Kid (40th Anniversary)
3 – Chemistry (40th Anniversary)
4 – Digital Man (40th Anniversary)
5 – The Weapon (40th Anniversary)
6 – New World Man (40th Anniversary)
7 – Losing It (40th Anniversary)
8 – Countdown (40th Anniversary)
Geddy Lee – bass, synthesizers, vocals
Alex Lifeson – guitars, Moog Taurus pedals
Neil Peart – drums, percussion
with:
Ben Mink – electric violin on “Losing It”