Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)

Over their 30+ year career Canada’s Rush have always kept their fans on their toes by shifting their musical style every few albums whilst consistently delivering the highest standards of musicianship and writing ability. For their 8th studio album, Moving Pictures, Rush had continued their move from the hard/prog-rock stylings of their early albums to produce a real tour de force marking a halfway point between their guitar-oriented previous material and their synth-oriented material that would increasingly begin to dominate for many years in their following albums.

Certified quadruple platinum in both the US and their native Canada, and attaining the number 1 slot in Canada and number 3 in the US and UK, Moving Pictures was also to be their most successful album and upon listening to the 7 tracks presented it is not hard to hear why. The album manages to combine heavy guitar and synth orchestration with impeccable drumming, intelligent lyrics, melody and technical instrumentation all in one which is no mean feat!

The album opens with Tom Sawyer, soon to become an essential staple of Rush’s live set, followed-up by Red Barchetta, an outstanding track featuring great light and shade and use of tempo and intensity twists. Track three brings the instrumental YYZ – based upon the pulse of the Morse code signal for Toronto airport – played as a 5/4 percussion motif by Peart around which the track is woven. The track also features some impossibly tight breaks from Geddy Lee and Neil Peart (and live led into Peart’s drum solo).

The following tracks, Limelight and Camera Eye, give the listener a chance to pause for breath as, whilst still of a very high calibre musically, are more straightforward rock numbers with the former being a single release from the album. However, part-way through the 10 minute Camera Eye the band take off once more with a complex movement of instrumental pieces before returning to the opening theme.

Just as you feel the album is moving into a more mainstream approach, the eerie intro to Witch Hunt begins leading to a grinding riff from Lifeson and then eases into Vital Signs, a Geddy Lee-driven straightforward, well at least when compared with some of the other tracks, rock number.

If you’ve never heard Rush, I’d recommend Moving Pictures as a starting point as it contains all the elements that make them a phenomenally talented band in equal measure and whilst Geddy Lee’s vocals may be an acquired taste, here he plays it straight and avoids some of the high-pitched warbling that marred some of their earlier work (although I think he’s great). Andy finally, if you’re a drummer, you could do no better than listen to Peart here to see what can be achieved in a rock environment with the wide variety of fills and rhythm patterns he deploys in largely straight 4/4 numbers: a must have!

• Neil Peart – Drums
• Alex Lifeson – Guitar
• Geddy Lee – Bass/Vocals