Oh, I get it... I thought the title was referencing the long form of "movies" since Rush is the ultimate nerd-rock band, so of course they love movies, but the cover of the album is of a bunch of movers taking paintings out of a library. Um... well maybe that wasn't supposed to be a joke, but I feel kinda dumb for trying to out-clever the album. Anyways, lots of things bother me about Rush, but i'll focus on just two right off the bat:
One, the album is laced with that lame 80s rock sound that wants to be really hard and tight. For some reason everyone in the 80s thought adding a bunch of reverb and synthesizers was a positive enhancement, when all it did was make a song sound light and cheesy. Since everyone was doing this in the 80s I'll give Rush a pass on this one.
Two, Geddy Lee... It's hard for me to ignore the man's talent, because he's a fine bassist, and can compose excellent melodies. But Jesus, what poor 13-year old boy had to sacrifice his vocal chords so Geddy could create his signature voice? The real problem is on a hard song like "Witch Hunt" everything starts out all serious and dark. Then Geddy comes along with his adolescent vocal style and ruins the atmosphere. It's so contradictory it sounds like a ridiculous parody. If Rush kept everything the same but had recruited Chrissy Hynde from The Pretenders as lead vocalist, who has a similar range as Geddy Lee but a much harder tone, I think they could have really had something great.
Well, at least as far as I'm concerned. Clearly Rush is recognized as one of the best rock bands of all time, and with so little information on their output (this is the only album of theirs I've listened to) I can't really dispute that yet. And after everything I just complained about I... kinda liked this album? It's really complicated. I hate Geddy's voice, I dislike the rampant synths and soft 80s-ness, and as I usually wind up saying the songs tend to sound the same. But I don't feel like I've heard each song before it starts- this work sounds really unique and interesting and I hope to hear more from Rush soon. That's something I almost never say. 3 stars.
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