Leave That Thing Alone The I Don't Even Own a Television Web Empire

Presto? More like "Depresssed Tho". Heh. It's a joke. And not entirely accurate, as J. W. likes a lot of this album, although the general tone of this episode is somewhere between "retroactive disappointment" and "cautious admiration". Presto is an interesting album, and we did our best to have an interesting discussion about it. Please put mental scare quotes around all of those "interestings".

Hold it. HOLD IT. HOLD IT! Absolutely do not send us any emails or tweets or Facebook messages about "when is the next episode of the Rush podcast coming out", cuz the answer is "right now."
Join J.W. and Collision as we discuss (and mostly enjoy) one of Rush's most radio-friendly endeavors in their recording history, 1987's "Hold Your Fire". Just pretend "Tai Shan" doesn't exist.

We were gone for a real long time, but now we're back, and this time we're talking about the synthiest of Rush's "synth-era" records, "Power Windows".
Get ready for good times that devolve into okay times that devolve into exhausted times, cuz this is a record with eight songs that sound almost identical to one another. Come for Collision's inevitable "Geddy is actually named Gary" story, and tick around for J's sudden and shameful realization that maybe this isn't his favorite Rush record after all. It's Leave That Thing Alone, and we're back on our business, bay-beeeee.

It's the album you probably forgot exists! We both did. Here's the thing though -- while J. wishes he could have permanently erased it from his memory, Collision exhibits a bit of a soft spot for the synth noodlings and Cold War-era bummerizing that happens on this record, Grace Under Pressure.

Come for the music critique, stay for the weird tangents about Kabblah Deer Hunter. It's "Leave That Thing Alone", and if you make it through this episode, you'll wish you followed our advice.

It's time to enter the most controversial period of Rush's existence, the much-aligned "synthesizer era". This means that J. is super-happy, Collision is sort of on the fence, and 95% of the music media is still like "full ALL this shit." Despite what you may have heard or read from the type of guys who wear sweatpants with a Marshall logo down one leg, Signals is a great album, provided you can ignore the lyrics about Babylon and Zion and you enjoy stilted white-man reggae (spoiler: we sorta do).
Also, it's got fucking SUBDIVISIONS on it, that should be enough for anybody, right?

One of us loves this record. The other does not. OH MY GOODNESS, it's controversy. Tune in as we literally tear each other limb from limb as we discuss the album that contains classics like "Limelight", "Tom Sawyer", and... uh... "Vital Signs".