Track Listing

1. Distant Early Warning
2. Afterimage
3. Red Sector A
4. The Enemy Within
5. The Body Electric
6. Kid Gloves
7. Red Lenses
8. Between The Wheels

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7275 in Music
• Released on: 1997-07-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 40 minutes

CD Description
After an extensive search for a producer, Rush struck gold with Peter Henderson. The band shared production duties withhim, and completed the album within a few months. The continuous use of synthesizers and keyboards that began on the previous album, SIGNALS, is prominent here. Although Alex Lifeson's guitar always plays a key role, it's obvious the groupcould not shy away from the advancing technology in rock music in 1984.
The first single, "Distant Early Warning" isan excellent track that exudes a bleakness persistent throughout the record. "Afterimage" continues this dark outlook; the song is about a close friend of the band who dies in a car accident. "The Enemy Within" shows that fear is within usas opposed to being created externally and features the usual technical proficiency of drummer Neal Peart. Album closer"Between The Wheels" is a gloomy number about pressure and showcases Alex Lifeson's creative chord work. Underneath allthe dark content in GRACE, there is a theme of hope. The band was considering breaking up at this point, and luckily didn't. The record features the trio's consistently tight musicianship and the keyboards enhance the songs instead of overshadowing them. Another fine record by the Canadian maestros.

Customer Reviews

A powerful, moving and exhilarating record
After the success of "Permanent Waves", Rush were on a roll. "Moving Pictures" consolidated their hold. And then came "Signals". Although - like every Rush album - there are some whose favourite it was, for me it represented a loss of form, a loss of momentum, a loss of... Rushness. Too much synthesiser, too much lyrical vagueness, not enough bite. They went away and thought about things for a while. Rumour has it that Lifeson almost left because he felt his guitar contribution was becoming marginal - just like The Edge almost left U2 circa "Pop". Then, just as U2 came back with "All That You Can't Leave Behind", Rush returned to guitar-driven rock music with this album - and what a blinder they played!
This record is awash with great rock songs - Distant Early Warning, Kid Gloves, The Body Electric - but its core is two songs in a row on side 1. One, Red Sector A, is a futuristic song about a death camp, the closest Rush have ever come to discussing what happened to some of Lee and Lifeson's family in Nazi Germany. The other, The Enemy Within, is a defiant call-to-arms: each individual must make their own destiny, not "give in to security under pressure". Consecutively, these songs tell each and every one of us to live for now and make the future - not to forget the past, but not to let it cripple us either. This is where Rush achieve their clearest statement of a philosophy which has been their core message all along.
On one perfectly valid level, this is "just" a great rock album. On another, this is a rich and valid statement of how to live your life, whatever happens.

A masterpiece with many meanings
When this album first came out, the doomy, portentous tracks "Distant Early Warning" and "Between the Wheels" chimed with my adolescent angst about nuclear war, the decline of western civilisation, my inability to get laid, etc. etc., but as Bart Simpson once said, "making teens depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel." On re-listening 20+ years later, the stand-out tracks for me now are the playful, ironic "Red lenses" (satirizing cold war paranoia) and "The body electric" (using an hilarious story about an escaped robot to explore the dehumanizing effects of technology.) There's an attractive sense of self-perspective at work here - very, very clever stuff. This is definitely not just another heavy rock holocaust record. It's not even heavy rock, not by modern standards. The remastered sound is crystal clear - I don't remember my vinyl copy sounding this good, it really showcases Rush at their peak as individual musicians. Although I'm personally a fan of the dense, layered, grungey sound of their more recent output, if you're new to Rush there's no better place to start than here.

Welcome return to form
After the synth-wash that was Signals, this is a breath of fresh air. Nicely guitar-driven, this album has many good songs and shows influences from U2, The Police and Tears for Fears. Great musicianship all round - check out the funky fills at the end of "I See Red". Great stuff.