RUSH — Permanent Waves (review)

Album · 1980 · Hard Rock

4.5/5 · 2022-06-25
UMUR

"Permanent Waves" is the 7th full-length studio album by Canadian progressive rock act Rush. The album was released through Mercury Records (US/Europe)/Anthem Records (Canada) in January 1980. It´s the successor to "Hemispheres" from 1978. After completing the 8 months long tour supporting "Hemispheres (1978)", the band felt worn and took a six weeks break, before uniting again to begin writing material for what would become "Permanent Waves". A short tour followed where Rush would introduce some of the new material, and in September 1979 they entered Le Studio in Quebec with producer Terry Brown, where the already written material were given a final brush and enough additional material were written for a full-length release.

"Permanent Waves" marks a bit of a stylistic chance for Rush. After the arguably most progressive period of their career (1976-1978), the band felt a need for change and most of the tracks on "Permanent Waves" are therefore shorter, more immediately catchy, and less complex in structure than the material on the preceding releases. This should not be understood as if this is not progressive or challenging music though, as there are plenty of adventurous songwriting and technincally skillful playing on the album. The progressive parts are just typically a little more subtle or hidden within the context of the songs, allowing more catchy and melodic moments to stand out.

The album opens with "The Spirit of Radio", which on the surface is an almost mainstream pop/rock oriented song, featuring an energetic and uplifting mood, but when you listen a bit more closely it´s quite the complex and intriguing progressive rock composition, featuring many different parts and time signature changes. "Freewill" follows and it´s another album highlight. It´s a catchy and memorable track, but like the preceding track it´s a more complex composition than it may initially appear. "Jacob's Ladder" is a slow building, atmospheric, and ultimately heavy track. It´s quite an epic track and features a total playing time of 7:31 minutes.

"Entre Nous" opens what was Side B of the original vinyl release, and it´s a melodic rock song. Not the most adventurous moment of the album, but still a decent quality composition. "Different Strings" is the mellow power ballad track of the album. Rush had included tracks like that on previous releases too, so the mainstram oriented nature of the song isn´t a surprise. It´s a decent track but not exactly a highlight of the album. The 9:16 minutes long "Natural Science" closes "Permanent Waves". It´s an epic progressive rock track subdivided into three parts titled "I: Tide Pools", "II: Hyperspace", "III: Permanent Waves". It´s by far the most complex and progressive composition on the album and arguably an album highlight.

Rush are as well playing/singing as ever (Geddy Lee´s high pitched voice and singing style are probably as always a deal breaker for some and a great joy for others) and "Permanent Waves" also features a well sounding production job (co-produced by Rush and Terry Brown), which suits the material perfectly. There´s power and bite here and it´s definitely a case of high quality production values. Upon conclusion "Permanent Waves" reeks high class in all departments, from the high level musical performances, to the above mentioned high quality production values, to the intriguing and varied songwriting. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.