Hold Your Fire - album discussion

[David L]

I always thought the production was the problem with HYF, the guitars are to safe. On A Show of Hands the guitars come to life which then bring the songs to life. the Mission gets a proper end with Alex playing the extended guitar solo which is fabulous.

HYF has a 'brightness' and lightweight touch to the production that ruins it for me (although I liked it at the time). The 'tone' of the production on Power Windows is far heavier. They just slid too far towards pop on HYF, production-wise. That guitar sound - like a nylon-stringed toy - just awful. And the less said about the last two tracks, the better. Lock And Key is probably the best on here IMHO - great live

[David L]

Mystic Rhythms is a very interesting one for me. I really hated it for being plodding and boring until R30, when the combination of the performance and the rear-projected video absolutely made it come alive for me. Now I find it dramatic and compelling.

Better than both Tai Shan or High Water but still a duffer in my book

[dom]

To me Power Windows is a work of genius and Hold Your Fire doesn't come close to matching it.

Nothing like the drop in quality as Yes managed 10 years or so earlier when they came up with the truly awful Tormato after the genius of Going For the One but still a drop.

I actually like the first couple of tracks,  Force 10 has a good feel to it and Time Stand Still is a well composed pop song, that benefits from Aimee Mann's vocal. 

Open Secrets has a Coldplay feel to it to me and is passable,  but the likes of Lock and Key, Mission, and Turn the Page suffer from the keyboard/production issue for me.  They just sound too cloying to these ears. 

Less said about Tai Shan and High Water the better.

I don't think there's a single song on there that would be worthy of inclusion on the previous album.

[Nick]

HYF has a 'brightness' and lightweight touch to the production that ruins it for me

Not as bright as what was to follow in Presto.

[Fishy]

I like Presto..there I said it...

[dom]

I really like Counterparts too. RTB starts strongly but I'm not sure I like anything on it after the first 2 songs

[David L]

Counterparts good, RTB..not so

[Nick]

As I said previously HYF had the odd dud but the dud ratio rose on the subsequent albums. Certainly RTB to SNA.

[Rufus_the_dawg]

The change of sound and feeling from HYF to presto was massive, there was a massive change from MP to Signals, except I guess I like MP, signals and HYF and I don't much like Presto.

[Matt2112]

HYF provided the soundtrack to a heady time during my years in secondary school so I have many precious and (hopefully) indelible memories wrapped up in it. 

What helped with that immeasurably, of course, is that it's 50 minutes of mostly outstanding melodic rock tracks, chock-full of lush synths (I was originally disappointed that the keys had actually been scaled back compared to the masterpiece that is PoW), with pristinely polished production by Peter Collins (why, why why wasn't he brought in for GUP and Presto?!) and the boys arguably at the peak of their technical powers.

Where I think HYF fared better than PoW is that somehow the transition of its songs to a live setting worked rather more successfully; ASOH is a testament to that, I think.

Tai Shan is clearly the weakest track on HYF, and I'd agree has an incongruity about it not just in the context of the album but also in terms of it being a Rush song at all - but I honestly don't mind it and I find it perfectly palatable.  As I do High Water - I like its cinematic feel and for me it rounds off the album quite neatly.

I'd give HYF KKKKK, just like Kerrang! did back in the day.

[David L]

I'd give HYF KKKKK, just like Kerrang! did back in the day.

That must've been when it was called Kerring!

[R6GYY]

High Water - I like its cinematic feel and for me it rounds off the album quite neatly.

What he said. Nowt wrong with High Water to my ears. A very nice album closer.

[David L]

High Water - I like its cinematic feel and for me it rounds off the album quite neatly.

What he said. Nowt wrong with High Water to my ears. A very nice album closer.

The run-out groove is more satisfying to my ears   

[Rufus_the_dawg]

For me the worst be of HYF is the first 75 seconds of second nature, which sounds like chris de burgh or phil collins soft rock rubbish.

The bass guitar is brilliant on HYF, guitar is way down on the mix, even when Alex rocks out. Take Prime mover 4.min 15 seconds in Alex plays a brilliant power chord sequence and its watered down. It could be moment of real power to close the song.

Listening to HYF this morning on the original CD (not the remaster) it really is a brilliant album, really clever interplay between all 3 musicians on every song with some of Niels best lyrics. They are very different Rush of PW, its clever grown up rock music, they have lost some of their fire and replaced it with maturity. Listening to Lock and Key now and the ending is pure prog, but its not in your face just clever. Now Mission is playing there is a section  at the beginning with Drums keyboards and bass pedals absolutely love it, and its even more powerful when Alex joins in. And lyric wise Tai Shan and High water fit in with the themes of the album perfectly, yes Tai shan is very different but I like it very much I like the change of pace, it also has a brilliant guitar line in the middle. High water is very meditative.

Its a classic rush album you can hear they have really worked on the compositions. With maybe some of Alex's best guitar soloing on this album very Terje Rypdal.

Defo five KKKKKs

[Nickslikk2112]

High Water - I like its cinematic feel and for me it rounds off the album quite neatly.

What he said. Nowt wrong with High Water to my ears. A very nice album closer.

The run-out groove is more satisfying to my ears   

HYF is the first Rush album I bought on CD. The run-out groove is the only reason I'd think about getting a vinyl copy.