It's one of their weaker albums, for me, but mainly for the 80s production. Most of the songs are excellent, as are the performances, and some of Neil's best lyrics on the album. "Tai Shan" is the only track I'm not crazy about.
Agree with others that "Mission" is an upper-echelon Rush song. Dig the live version from the Snakes and Arrows Live DVD, featuring Lifeson's soaring extended outro solo. I'm a huge Rush fan, but Hold Your Fire is, IMHO, their last pretty great album.
I love it. I'm not sure what my Rush album ranking would be, but Hold Your Fire would definitely be in my top 10. I also love Presto.
It has some songs I really like, but taken as a whole it's my least favorite Rush album from my most favorite Rush decade. I even rate 1991's "Roll the Bones" above it.
While I really love the song "Time Stand Still", the rest of the album is worthy of repeated listening.
Bought the cassette on release day, and was very dissapointed. Time Stand Still is a great song, but I didn't care for anything else. I much preferred Presto and Roll the Bones when they came out. I should give Hold Your Fire a fresh listen and see if my mind changes.
I love this album, 'Time Stand Still' is a beautiful song, although I can't stand that treble sound either. Much prefer Terry Brown's production.
Love the album, what takes away from it is the horrible sound recording. What were they thinking? I'll admit I never heard the vinyl release, but someone should be lined up and shot for the lack of sound quality on the CD. Bright and hard. What fool mastered it? Did they not listen to Moving Pictures? Now that's a recording of merit, especially the RL vinyl pressing.
Agreed, not the nicest sounding. The US DMM cut mirrors the EQ, which would kind of make sense as they were released simultaneously. Some have remarked the latest Sean remaster is an improvement. I still haven't picked it up yet
My problem with the production is not that it sounds too 80s (FWIW, I love 80s production ). To me, it sounds somewhat closed-in and "cardboardy" compared to the previous albums. That's the best way I can describe it. The Sector 3 remaster just makes this problem more apparent. While I do agree that HYF is pretty bright, it's not razor sharp like Presto and Roll the Bones are (and I happen to like those albums).
I agree with the sentiment here 100%, although your highs are in different places than mine Rush started off in a weird direction with their songwriting here, and although they would have some more even efforts (Counterparts, Clockwork Angels, Roll the Bones, Vapor Trails) and some less even efforts (Test for Echo, Snakes and Arrows), they never again put out a record where every single song was a gem. In retrospect, they were apparently REALLY close to breaking up at this point. Thanks to the long break afforded by "A Show of Hands" and getting a new producer, that didn't happen......
.....which still holds up today, by the way. I've never understood the slagging-off the PW gets. Second only to "Moving Pictures," IMO. Seeing so much of PW revived live on the Clockwork Angels tour was a dream come true for me.
One of those albums that I listened to so often during the initial period of it's release (Fall 1987) that it always takes me back to that time frame when I hear it. Time Stand Still is in the group of "classic rock" songs that I never get tired of hearing.
One of the things I like about "Time Stand Still" is that you can focus on any of the individual components of the song and they are all brilliant; lyrics, very tasteful guitar, classic Geddy Lee elastic bassline and a drum part that makes me think Neil Peart has had a couple of extra arms grafted on, but it all meshed together into a great song.
This album was released a few days after my son was born, so has great memories connected to it and is pretty high on my Rush list. I love all four mid-80's albums - Signals through HYF. Love the Vai/Holdsworth-influenced solo on "Open Secrets". They did a great job of breaking key eras up through the timing of live albums, at least up through Different Stages.
I enjoyed reading your appreciation of Power Windows. For me, it only has one good song "Marathon." I think all the other songs are bad. Rush's absolute worst album for me. When I first heard it, I thought they were finished because everyone would hate the album. I'm glad others enjoyed it so Rush was able to continue.
We too often think of the technical aspects of music but for me this album is about the time period. This was one of the best times of my life and this album brings me back there. My friends and I saw probably 10 of the shows on this tour including the 2 in March of 1989 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Wonderful memories. We even tracked down the studio out in the country where they recorded the album. I still have the pictures of us trespassing then getting thrown off the property. I love this album for those memories.
Amazing record! Does anyone know if the japanese CD differs a lot from other more common pressings? (remasters aside)
This album and Test For Echo are probably the Rush albums I listen to the least, not that they are bad though! But in the case of Hold Your Fire it just isn't as attention grabbing to me. I feel like especially after the really solid album that is Power Windows they doubled down on the keyboards and took it one album too far Presto still had some keyboards and whatnot but I listen to that and Roll The Bones a lot more frequently than Hold Your Fire.
