Nell'anno 1982 i Rush fanno uscire l'album "Signals", uno dei cd forse meno apprezzati di tutta la discografia del trio canadese. L'evoluzione nella musica e nel suono prosegue il discorso già ampiamente accennato nel precedente "moving pictures":
- Scompaiono i giganteschi anthem del passato, tipo "villa strangiato" o "2112", lasciando spazio esclusivamente alla composizione di canzoni.
- acquistano un ruolo di primissimo piano le tastiere, suonate dal bassista Geddy Lee. Conseguenze di questi due cambiamenti fondamentali sono l'omogeneità dell'album, soprattutto nel suono (sembra quasi di trovarsi al cospetto di un concept), una cura maggiore delle linee vocali, ma anche l'assenza di pezzi capolavoro, nonostante il livello compositivo sia sempre altissimo.
Le tastiere formano talvolta un tappeto sonoro etereo e trasognato: è il caso di brani come "Subdivisions", "Chemistry" o "Losing It", quest'ultima con un favoloso pezzo strumentale caratterizzato dall'assolo di violino elettrico di Ben Mink. Brani come "Digital Man" ribadiscono la genialità della linea ritmica basso-batteria firmata Lee-Peart, che riesce incredibilmente a coniugare precisione e un feeling improvvisativo che ha un calore quasi jazz. In mezzo a questo perfetto binomio si inserisce la chitarra di Lifeson, che si divide con grande perizia tra riff prog rock, come in "The Analog Kid" (spesso eseguita in sede live), e preziosi ruscelli melodici caratterizzati dal quel tipico chorus lievemente distorto.
L'evoluzione sonora verso atmosfere più "elettroniche" colpisce anche i testi di Neil Peart, molto particolari in questo CD, che parlano di scienze, era digitale, nuova società. Troviamo pure una canzone, la finale "Countdown", dedicata a due astronauti della nasa, in cui si sentono da ogni parte suoni di aerei, navicelle spaziali e comandi in rice-trasmittente. Molto piacevoli anche i riferimenti ad altri registri, come per esempio il reggae in "New World man".
In definitiva ci troviamo di fronte ad un lavoro decisamente valido e a tratti sperimentale, di più facile ascolto rispetto ad altri album dei Rush, ma sicuramente ben lontano dall'essere radiofonico, e che non rinnega la matrice progressive del gruppo.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Subdivisions (05:34)
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions -
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions -
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help disprove
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights...
02 The Analog Kid (04:48)
A hot a windy August afternoon
Has the trees in constant motion
With a flash of silver leaves
As they're rockin' in the breeze.
The boy lies in the grass with
One blade stuck between his teeth
A vague sensation quickens in
His young and restless heart
And a bright and nameless vision
Has him longing to depart.
You move me, you move me
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me, you move me
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me, you call me.
The fawn eyed girl with sun browned legs
Dances on the edge of his dreams
And the voices in his ears
Like the music of the spheres.
The boy lies in the grass unmoving
Staring at the sky
His mother starts to call him
As a hawk goes soaring by
And the boy throws down his baseball cap
And covers up his eye's.
You move me, you move me
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me, you move me
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me, you call me.
Too many hands on my time
Too many feelings
Too many things on my mind.
When I leave I don't know
What I'm hoping to find
And when I leave I don't know
What I'm leaving behind.
Oh when I leave I don't know
What I'm hoping to find
And when I leave I don't know
What I'm leaving behind.
03 Chemistry (04:58)
Signals transmitted
Message received
Reaction making impact
Invisibly.
Elemental telepathy
Exchange of energy
Reaction making contact
Mysteriously.
Eye to I, reaction burning hotter
Two to one, reflection on the water
H to O, no flow without the other
Oh but how do they make contact with one another?
Electricity? Biology?
Seems to me it's chemistry.
Emotion transmitted
Emotion received
Music in the abstract
Positively.
Elemental empathy
A change of synergy
Music making contact
Naturally.
One, two, three, add without subtraction
Sound on sound, multiplied reaction
H to O, no flow without the other
Oh but how do we make contact with one another.
Electricity? Biology?
Seems to me it's Chemistry.
07 Losing It (04:53)
Losing It
The dancer slows her frantic pace
In pain and desperation,
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration
Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire,
With just the briefest pause
The flooding through her memory,
The echoes of old applause.
She limps across the floor
And closes her bedroom door...
The writer stare with glassy eyes
Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined
And streaked with tears of rage.
Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision,
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision
And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more...
Some are born to move the world
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee...
08 Countdown (05:49)
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged - a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick - you could cut it with a knife
Technology - high, on the leading edge of life
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound
Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination - with the eyes of the world
We stare...
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Altre recensioni
Di splinter
Mai in precedenza avevamo visto gli strumenti elettronici prevalere sulle chitarre in un modo simile.
I Rush sono riusciti a regalare proprio in un periodo in cui anche le tendenze musicali soffrivano di consumismo delle autentiche perle.
