September 9th also happens to be the 30th anniversary of Hold Your Fire the 12th studio album by RUSH and the fourth album in the "third chapter" of RUSH. I have to admit that Hold Your Fire is my least favorite RUSH album and their weakest output in their entire career. The album itself followed the same production formula as Power Windows. It had Peter Collins producing again, engineered by Jimbo Barton, recorded in England and Montserrat but the results were vastly different. While Alex mentioned in "Beyond the Lighted Stage" that Power Windows was the album that lacked guitars and brought their sound more "to the middle" and almost easy listening, in my opinion that analysis is really designated for Hold Your Fire. During the recording of Power Windows, Geddy switched to Wal basses from Rickenbacker and Fender and Alex started using Paul Reed Signature (PRS) guitars instead of Gibson or Fender as his primary instrument. The greatest switch was done by The Professor himself which saw him, after an extensive search, change his drums from the Tama Artstars to Ludwig Super Classics. The Ludwigs had a flatter tonality than the Tamas and he also switched from open end tom-tom's to closed-end but the most striking change was the color. He had moved away from the candy apple red to opalescent white with sparkles and a hint of pink. Blah. Hold Your Fire was written with the fact that Compact Disks were the dominant media instead of LP's or cassettes, so they had 78 minutes "to play with" so Hold Your Fire is the first RUSH album with more than eight songs. As for the songs, "Force Ten" opens the album on a strong note and is a better song live than on the record. Over the years, RUSH has "beefed up" the song and have made it better overall. The second single "Time Stand Still" was the first to feature a guest singer, Aimee Mann. The song is not quite a duet but her excellent vocals do highlight throughout the chorus and there is vocal interplay within the chorus and verses. After these songs, the rest of the album declines on a slope of mediocrity. Open Secrets just seems to meander and never build any momentum. Second Nature is a sugary ballad that does not inspire the listener because the song does not sound inspiring. Prime Mover starts off showing "signs of life" but quickly falls off into Alex playing monotonous notes before any chords, again the song does not seem to go anywhere and quickly you are hitting the next song button. Lock and Key makes you okay now we are getting somewhere only to be disappointed with the fact the only "action" is in the chorus and a 30-second guitar solo. Mission, like Force Ten, came across as a better song live than on the album and while it suffers from the same sins as the early songs because it works well live, it is the third best song on the album. Turn the Page also starts out strong but quickly fades as the keyboards/synthesizers dominate the song and put Alex is back of everything. The last two songs are hardly worth mentioning other than Tai Shan is simply the worst song RUSH has ever written. I understand that it was inspired by Neal Peart's trip to China but the song itself is more appropriate for a Peter Gabriel album than RUSH. As for High Water, it follows the same rhythmic formula as Mystic Rhythms but lacks that vibrance and energy that the latter has. Even the album art work was uninspiring especially in comparison to the three most recent albums art work. I have read online that Hold Your Fire is a favorite for a great many fans but I always come away thinking "what am I missing"? At the end of the day, even though the album is weak, I still saw RUSH three times on that tour and love each or every show.
While Signals, who shares the same release date, has aged very well. I can not say the same thing about Hold Your Fire.
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