I love every Rush album and I have said this in many a Rush thread, but the 80s are my favorite era and Power Windows/Hold Your Fire are my favorite Rush albums. No apologies. Listen to Neil's mathematical drumming on "Prime Mover." It is astonishing. I know he adopted a warmer, "jazzier" style later on but for me the precise, cyclical drumming of the 80s can't be beat. It is SO good. At the same time, Geddy's bass lines on HYF are warmer and jazzier. I can't believe how great the musicianship on that album is, even with all the synths and programming on top. It's epic in the best possible way.
Not a great album, but a good one. Open Secrets and Second Nature are my favorites from this one. Also, I must be the only that likes Tai Shan. Mission and Lock And Key are the 2 I like the least.
Hold Your Fire is a really weird album to think about because it's typically referred to as one of Rush's worst albums. But it's not bad at all! Overly slick and lacking in riffs a tad bit, but everything else is just as good as Power Windows, one of Rush's best! High Water and Tai Shan may not be amazing songs, but they are great tracks and aren't "bad", just on the "weak" side of things. Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Turn the Page, Lock and Key, Mission, Prime Mover, Second Nature are all excellent tracks in my opinion. The melodies and choruses are great on this album - very catchy. How was Lock and Key not some kind of hit?! In conclusion, I wouldn't call it a GREAT album, but it's still a very good one. Now, if they had continued in this direction for another album I'd say things would probably have gotten out of hand, but this album still feels "right on track" for me. Hell, if anything, I feel it's more organic than Power Windows. Power Windows sounds loaded with electronics but on Hold Your Fire the sound has a little more warmth to it.
A lot of bands had a "dated" period, certainly not unique or a knock. The 80's productions were especially distinctive.
The Columbia House vinyl sounded even worse than the CD. One of the few albums that might actually sound best on cassette.
Hold Your Fire has a few good pieces, but, overall, it’s a disappointment. Many of the pieces just feel rather stagnant and, most of all, unmemorable. Power Windows started the decline. For me, Grace Under Pressure was the last truly great Rush album.
2nd favorite Rush album- the musicianship is out of this friggin world. It does kind of lose steam at the end.
Ya the first cd is also very brittle sounding as well. The remastered cd is not as brittle, and may have a bit of compression added. Check out hdtracks high resolution release, a friend of mine has it, and I am tempted to get it as well, it is maybe the best of all the versions I have heard.
Hold Your Fire was the first Rush album I got on CD. I also got the cassette as well. I liked the album but I gotta admit that I almost moved on from Rush at that time because I was into heavier stuff like Metallica, Slayer, Maiden etc. But when I really sat down and listened to the album there was some really great intricate playing on the album. Almost jazz fusion like stuff. I always liked Force Ten, Open Secrets, Turn The Page, Lock and Key and especially Mission which contains one of Alex's most emotive solos ever. The production was a bit thin but Alex was using single coil pickup Signature guitars at the time to try and cut through all the keyboards. His textural playing is out of this world though and really established him as a world class all around player. In hindsight, I would rather Rush went in the direction they did then go into a hair band direction like a lot of bands did in 1987 ( i.e. Triumph) IMO.
The songs on HYF are fine, and the performances are exemplary as always, but production-wise, it's their most dated sounding album. Just pure '80s cheese.
HYF was the first album they released after I became a fan. It was also the first cd I bought and I still own the original Mercury. It hasnt aged well (what album from late '87 has? Lol) but it has a few good to great songs. Great: Force 10 TSS Open Secrets Lock and Key Mission Decent Prime Mover Turn the Page High Water Second Nature Tai Sham could have been left off but I dont find it as horrible as most do.
I wouldn't say it's pure 80's cheese. There's a lot of albums produced in the 80's that's way worse. Neil's drums could have been a little drier but they still sound good to me. There's a hell of a lot more dated keyboard sounds than what Rush has used on their albums.
Let's not forget some differences on the Sector 3 box to the album which makes it a little unique. From Wikipedia- Hold Your Fire was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette for the "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. It is included in the Sector 3 set.[33] For the 2011 remaster, master tapes containing different mixes of Hold Your Fire were inadvertently used, with the result that the mix is noticeably different from previous releases in several places; particularly during "Mission", where string parts that were not present on the original release can be heard, and in the introduction to "Tai Shan", where wind chimes have been added.
