Bought the CD and Vinyl on release day. Haven't really listened to the vinyl all that much because it was the first time a Rush studio album clocked in at more than 50 minutes because the original CD to me sounds better. Don't have the 2015 McGee yet. The Sector CD is almost as good. The 1997 remaster is CD is by far the worst of the lot (for me anyway.) There's a lot going on that record and it seems like it would be difficult properly balance it all.
Bought the original CD pressing today in thrift store for $1 ..I gotta say after all the negative talk about hold your fire I really liked this album listening to it today after not hearing it for a while. Maybe I had "low" expectations, Ha ha
Yes, I just got the 2015 LP and imo its as good as this album will ever sound. The ear-bleeding high frequencies have been tamed and both Ged's Wal Bass and the lower frequency keyboard/bass pedals go much lower than I have ever heard on my CDs and/or streaming. Thus version actually has some depth and dimension now. If anything maybe he trimmed a tad too much off the upper midrange and higher, but that's probably nitpicking. It's a weiner...I mean winner!
HYF is the album I'd use to introduce folks to Rush, then once they're hooked I'd work backwards from there.
Still don't have the 2015. Is it mastered from the original tapes or are there some variations like on the Sector release?
I thought it might be worth posting these quotes from Peter Collins and Geddy as they might shed some light on the Sector 3 mixes of Time Stand Still and Mission: Peter Collins (Limelight: Rush in the '80s): "On 'Time Stand Still', we had virtually finished mixing it, and I had an idea to just create a one-beat pause in the song, and it meant remixing it and going to a lot of trouble to do it, but we did it and it worked very well." Geddy (Contents Under Pressure and Limelight: Rush in the '80s) “‘Mission’ is a song Peter Collins [producer on Hold Your Fire] just loved. And at some point in Britain, when we were working in it, he really wanted to do what he called The Full Monty—put orchestra and choir on it—and there’s a particular sound of an English brass band, which I guess is something he grew up with that we had no feel for, the kind of band you saw in the park on Sunday playing the gazebo. He was kind of obsessed with finding an authentic one. And he tracked one down in the north of England, and he wanted them to play on this track. We were really working hard on that record, and there was this weekend where this band was available. We were all supposed to fly up there to record them, and we just said, ‘Look, Pete, you go. You know what you want, and we’re pooped. Why don’t you go and record them? This will be a treat for you.’ And he did. And he brought it back, and he was all excited about it, of course. And we never really shared the same enthusiasm for it. And, in the end, the version of the song that we released is kind of stripped down. I don’t think we used the brass band very much. So, there is another version of that song that exists that I hope we’ll release that has The Full Monty on it.” The Sector Time Stand Still appears to be the version Peter Collins mentions in the book, and while Mission doesn't have too many strings in it, I think it's possible that it could at least be related to the Full Monty version. As for the other songs, Force Ten and Second Nature only have parts with swapped channels, so that doesn't tell us much. Since Turn the Page has extra channel panning, as well as Tai Shan and High Water additional bits in them, this would imply that the Sector versions of these 3 were mixed after the regular ones. The 2015 remaster has the original mixes.
If they ever manage to reach the album in the deluxe series, including those alternate versions (plus a live show, obv) would be a nice gesture.
Rush at their most beautiful. Great lyrics. Passionate singing. Great drumming. Pretty music. I don't think there is another album in their discography like it. It often gets compared to Power Windows but other than being released sequentially and having 80's production values, they really aren't similar musically or lyrically. It's Rush, which means it's great. I love this album and pity those that can't listen to it with an open mind. If you aren't moved by "Time Stand Still" or "Mission" damn. Lately I've been listening to the 2015 Sean McGee master and I like it. Normally spin the vinyl. I've even liked the song 'Tai Shan" lately as it just hits home of someone visiting a new place and being mesmerized. I know it kinda sucks but for some reason I enjoyed it. Rush, what a band. This is probably their worst album up to 1987, and it's really good. Speaks to the consistent quality of music they made.
I think it really depends when you got on the Rush train this was the album that really seemed to say to me-the band have stopped moving . A move to a more subtle laidback vibe would have worked if the songs were strong. In overall terms they weren't. It also never sounded good on vinyl at 50 mins and I bought it on vinyl at the time. It hasn't aged that badly and if you revisit from a position of disappointment as I did about 15/20 years ago it wasn't as bad as I remembered but if you put it to the test over consecutive plays the problems re-emerge. There's a reason why this was their worst album since 1975.
I saw them on this tour after seeing them on the Grace Under Pressure tour (I skipped Power Windows tour) . Spectacular show as usual. I thought the album was meh' when it came out. The songs they played from that album on that show were to me far better in a live setting.
Hold Your Fire may well be my least favorite record of theirs, but there's good stuff on it and I can appreciate what they were going for artistically. I also appreciate that they put a lot of work and thought into that album, as they did every time. I just didn't really care for the result.
See? I was just going to say the opposite. That's how Rush is. Something for everyone. This album has been gaining traction with me lately. IMO, "Open Secrets" is tone of the best songs they ever did. Geddy's bass playing is incredible, as is Alex's solo, and those lyrics... They all work so well together.
After Neil Peart died I went back and listened to the entire catalog in order, and I found that the 1987-1996 period had a lot more going for it than I initially realized. Again, they're just such good musicians that you can't really say they just phoned it in or produced anything artistically lazy (okay, maybe Feedback). It's like a lot of jazz – it's not necessarily my thing but I only have to listen to Charlie Parker (or whoever) play for about five seconds to appreciate that he was immensely talented. I co-sign on "Open Secrets," BTW, although I didn't like it until this past August. So in addition to there being a lot to choose from in their catalog like you said, a lot of it has been enjoyable at different times in my life. The title of "Favorite Rush Album" has changed multiple times for me over the years. It's really just an incredible body of work, and it more than holds up.
I think the conclusion I came to with Rush as you do with most things is that you need a balance to make it work. Rush's individuality and single mindedness which was their greatest asset allowed them the success for that to become their biggest weakness. They aren't unique in that-massive success allows creative freedom but by god they really really needed a strong producer and artistic director/editor post Power Windows.
How is this stopping moving? Does it sound the same as Power Windows? I don't think it does. Rush never stopped moving. Growing. Changing.
People are forgetting that Rush openly listened to other types of rock music etc. and what was happening around them as they progressed. I remember distinctly Geddy and Neil in particular talking about how the sounds of Stuart Copeland and even Devo were having influences on them around the time of Moving Pictures. They were moving through and continually changing.
I mentioned up thread my main issue with it was its length. Stop at Turn the Page and slightly rearrange it, it’s a much better listen.
I'm not sure this is that easy to define-growing-changing.. But here's how I saw Rush's career go.....after Power Windows they ran out of songs that would make an album consistently good. HYF for me has a few good songs at best and a lot of ordinary ones. If you track the rest of their career albums would follow a similar path-the really good songs would stick out like a sore thumb....The Pass, Dreamline, Bravado, Animate, Driven etc etc. If you are needing hard fan based evidence check any song opinion poll and see the drop off from the mid 80's in songs selected. If you are talking about growth/change/development then look just at Kings to Signals-a 6 year period that showed unbelievable, unique and powerful development with albums full of great songs. By the time you get to HYF for me there's not really nothing "new" you are looking at refinement and a Rush sound...Counterparts onwards they might have returned to a heavier sound but it sounds like a band in a groove. Listen I'm a big fan I was at Geddy's book thing the other week but I don't hear the ever changing constant quality output you do nor do I think HYF is that good of an album on any level. I'll give it major kudos for doing something subtle and oddly out of time but nothing more than that.
I play the songs in my head because I don't like the sound of the recording. But it's a great collection of songs. It's one of the albums that got me back into rock after seven years of listening to jazz and fusion.
I didn't forget this -I used to love it -Rush surfed an unique wave in what they did but by the mid 80's they seemed to go more into a particular Rush bubble that seemed oddly unaffected by the wilder musical world. You could look at Counterparts and say Grunge and maybe explain a step back to rockier days but that's it. Geddy loved Bjork and Radiohead -there's next to no influence in their music -the way Zep, Genesis, YesThe Police, Ultravox, UK or whoever influenced their golden period.
