I bought it the day it was released and felt like it was an album with leftovers from Power Windows. Many tunes have grown on me since then but the production, especially the tinny, processed drums and multiple layers of effects on the guitar makes it hard for me to listen to for more than a few minutes these days. It hurts my ears. And I have like four different digital versions of the album. Doesn't help that the first song of the album imo is one of the worst Rush tunes ever. I like Power Windows a lot more, although that to almost the same degree suffers from the bad/outdated Peter Collins production too.
Been a lifelong Rush fan since the release of Hemispheres back in 78.I have embraced every change they have gone through.However i thought HYF was a step back from Power Windows but i still played it to death.And i don't mind Tai Shan.
I became a Rush fan during the summer of 1981. I was lying in bed at night and heard "Tom Sawyer" on the radio. I was 10 years old at the time, and was getting out of Kiss because Peter Criss had just left the band. I was floored by that song. The next day I woke up and asked my dad if he had heard of a band called Rush. He said he had and showed me his Moving Pictures album. At the time he owned that one, Permanent Waves, A Farewell To Kings and 2112. Funny enough, he was first introduced to them after Caress of Steel came out, but he just couldn't handle Geddy's vocals. He tried again with A Farewell To Kings, and same thing. Moving Pictures finally clicked with him. I immediately went to the store and bought Exit...Stage Left. Over time, I bought all of their albums. I bought Signals and Grace Under Pressure the day they came out. The day Power Windows came out, my dad bought it, copied it to cassette and gave me a cassette. I must admit, I wasn't too impressed. I felt like they were getting TOO much into the synths. I saw them on that tour (warmup was Blue Oyster Cult). I loved the show. When Hold Your Fire came out, I heard "Time Stand Still" on the radio. I hated it so much, I didn't even buy Hold Your Fire. I kinds felt my love for them as a band slipping away. I did like Force Ten and Prime Mover and Mission. There were a few tracks, I didn't like at all, such as Second Nature and Tai Shan. I mean what is that in "Tai Shan" a pan flute. Are you friggin' Zamfir here? Uhhhhh, no way. I did manage to see them on the HYF tour and they were great. Of course, I had second row seats in front of Geddy, so that helped. When Presto came out, I started getting back into them. They are still my favorite band to this day, even though Test For Echo is a total dud to me. Over time, I've grown to appreciate Hold Your Fire. Neil's drumming is simply unbelievable. His drum patters are super complex. However, I feel like he lost a little bit of his emotion in his playing at this time. Anyway, what is the consensus on the best sounding version of HYF? I only owned the original and remastered CD. I was thinking of buying the new vinyl, but I get the opinion the Hi-Res download is the best version.
The hi-res download is the same master as the most recent vinyl, but is audibly watermarked like the rest of Rush's Mercury/Universal download catalog.
There are so many factors in vinyl playback, including subjectivity, that I really couldn't say if the vinyl would be "better" than the download. I haven't heard it, personally. I've heard samples of the hi-res download, and it's just as glorious as Sean Magee's work on the rest of the catalogue—probably the best digital masters ever for Rush—but the watermark does rear its ugly head more than occasionally to my ears. I really hope Universal abandons this asinine, misguided attempt to quell piracy sooner rather than later.
The cool and interesting thing about Rush is every one of their albums has fans that consider it their best or vastly underrated. I can't think of another band with such a large catalog where this is the case.
I definitely enjoy this one more than "Grace Under Pressure" and "Power Windows." Better melodies imo.
Hello, I remember being completely blown away on the first few listens to Hold Your Fire back in 1987, & still love it to this day. By contrast, I threw P/G in the rubbish, along with Signals too. I viewed Power Windows as a remarkable return to form for the band. All this said, you can get an officially released "1984 P/G tour" live recording, that is a fantastic recording, & very much makes amends in my eyes for the very poor studio version, that is sterile & lifeless IMO. Other live recordings reveal to me, that the tunes from Hold Your Fire stand up very well in concert, as does most RUSH material. My $00:02, you asked lol, Gregster
To me it was a big letdown after Power Windows when it came out. I’ve softened a bit over the years but only because the albums that followed let me down even more (other than Presto - which I find a bit under-rated). Really, Power Windows was the last Rush album I loved. I don’t mind HYF but it’s the beginning of their slide IMO.
Let's face it, this is not one of Rush's best records. There may be a song or two ("Time Stands Still") that holds up from this record, but if this was the band's definitive LP or era, Rush would not have the legacy that it has today. Fly by Night, Bill
I absolutely adore hold your fire. I don't think rush ever made a "" bad album. I think the writing, playing, and energy is uniformly excellent. Like power windows before it, I find many highly emotional songs on this record. And, unlike many subsequent albums, for me this is the last rush album up until clockwork Angels that I love every song on. I admire Rush's embrace of their times and staying current. I think they made some very brave and tasteful music in the 80s. Maybe I don't find it dated because I was there and remember the musical landscape of the time. This album was released when I was 16 years old-time in my life where I was highly impressionable and invested in music. Some may find it ironic, But this was my most played album at the time, along with guns n roses "appetite for destruction." Saw the tour 2 times, including a ga front row spot in front of geddy in Springfield mass - waited in line 12 hours. Time stand still, second nature and mission are the highlights for me and would make my 3 or 4 cd best of rush comp. I'm wondering if I need to spend more time with their next 4 to connect with them more. I don't dislike them, and love some songs, but didn't bond with them emotionally as much.
Just picked up an 87 Mexican vinyl of "Hold Your Fire" which I've never seen on vinyl so dos anybody have a pressing from the day to ascertain its sound? I think HYF is terrific and I was surprised to hear Geddy Lee bag it, especially "Tai Shaun" which I think is lovely and a nice admission from Neil Peart about positive spirituality. "Turn The Page" is the standout for me since its theme is valid to this day (tho the live version is probably better). And since HYF was the last time Rush had a top ten song...
I just ordered the HDTracks version of HYF, and do not own the vinyl. However, I have heard a rip of the original US vinyl and it certainly sounds better than any version on CD. I have yet to compare it to the HDTracks. Speaking of which, the HDTracks download is 24/48, I'm assuming this was the format in which it was recorded since it was an all digital recording?
Where did Geddy Lee bag it? I know he doesn't like Tai Shan much, but I think he likes the rest of it a lot; he called it one of their dark horse albums in the Contents Under Pressure book in the mid 00s. That said, it is a slight bummer that the album as a whole didn't get more play on their tours this century. Force Ten, Time Stand Still and Mission were the only ones to get played. I do remember that Geddy once said that Turn the Page was the most challenging song for him to play live, because the vocal melodies are so different from what he is playing on the bass, but I would loved to have seen that played. That is also one of my favorites, and yes the live version is better.
Underrated album. I love all Rush (well, almost. I mostly just like the '90 stuff) but this one is beautiful.
Lopping off Second Nature and Tai Shain and tweaking the running order a tad would have certainly made it better, but at the time, they were clearly taking advantage of the fact that single albums were getting a little longer in general since the move away from vinyl was already starting and the other mediums allowed for more time per each side of a record.
Caveat emptor! The HDtracks download is audibly watermarked by Universal. As stated above, this would have most likely been a 16-bit/44.1kHz recording, originally. That was the most common resolution at the time. Earlier in the '80s, there had been some higher sampling rates floating about (up to around 50kHz), but I don't think higher but depths hit the scene till the early '90s with 20-bit. The HDtracks download uses 24 bits and a sampling rate of 48kHz in order to provide some dynamic and frequency headroom to preserve the the original mix (as mastered by Sean Magee through analog equipment and recaptured at 24/192, I assume) without filtering artifacts.
