Hold Your Fire - album discussion

[Ali]

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.

It was also my first Rush CD purchase and quite possibly my second ever CD after Floyd's AMLOR

I'm not sure whether this partly effected how I felt about it on release, but I clearly remember enjoying it a lot more then I had done PoW

[Red Lenses]

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.

hear hear !!

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. 

Sat my English O Grade on the day of the Hold Your Fire tour show at the SECC, needless to say I didn't really have my mind on my exam (got a C).