Signals

Signals is the ninth album on which Rush, while basing itself on its former complex rock, takes synthesizers and electronic textures into the work more greatly than before. Following the success of the previous Moving Pictures, the band boldly steps into a still newer 1980s sound. The songs became more compact, yet the fineness of the rhythm and the precise craft of the construction are not lost in the least. The cold urban sense of the classic opener “Subdivisions,” depicting suburban alienation, and the accessibility of the hit “New World Man” well show the record’s dual appeal, while cuts like the dashing “The Analog Kid” and “Digital Man,” which takes in reggae elements, convey the band’s new experiments. Though the role of Alex Lifeson’s guitar shifts with the rise of synthesizers, the core of the tension-filled playing particular to the three does not waver at all. Beautifully binding technique and the new sound of the era and naturally updating its trio expression, it is an important record. Announcing the dawn of a more introspective, modern era for Rush, it is an ambitious work.