Hold Your Fire

Hold Your Fire is a progressive work on which Rush combines, at extremely high density, the rich synthesizer textures it honed through the 1980s and the three members’ precise playing. Alex Lifeson’s guitar accurately gives the songs their outline where needed, and Geddy Lee’s voice and bass and Neil Peart’s complex rhythm precisely support the songs’ details. A record that can be called one peak of the band’s synthesizer direction. The powerful drive of the opener “Force Ten” and the floating feel of “Time Stand Still,” which features a guest vocal, show that the songs are carefully built as rich emotional flows, not mere technical showcases, while the grandeur of “Mission” and the drama of “Prime Mover” and “Lock and Key” are also striking. Its appeal is beautifully uniting introspective, intelligent themes and a grand, expansive scale. The precision of the playing is among the finest in its career. Keeping its own distinct outline even amid 1987, it is an important late-1980s work full of inquiry — a record showing the band’s maturity.