Rush Brushed Up

'Moving Pictures: Deluxe Edition' Review

By Marco Rossi, Record Collector, June 2011, transcribed by pwrwindows

Rush
Moving Pictures:
Deluxe Edition
Four Stars
Mercury 06025 276 21074
(CD+DVD)

Scarily, this deluxe edition marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Moving Pictures. It's scary, because we can clearly remember it coming out first time round, and can recall with equal clarity how contemporary we thought Rush sounded on it.

Well, perhaps "contemporary" is pushing it somewhat: they were never on more than polite nodding terms with the zeitgeist at any point and, even at the time of Moving Pictures in 1981, they were hardly Kid Creole & The Coconuts. Nevertheless, Rush were patently listening to what was going on around them, leavening their long-form integral calculus riffing with accessibly catchy motifs, the whole shootin' match executed with new wave vigour and snappiness. Vocals aside, "Vital Signs" could even be The Police with its ringing, flanged open chording, clattering tom fills and milksop reggae foundation.

The deluxe edition includes a bonus DVD with a photo gallery, studio-based 1981 videos of "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight" (with that joyously triumphal riff) and "Vital Signs", plus a 5.1 Surround Sound mix - though the conventional digital stereo remaster on the CD is sufficiently sparkling, belligerent and revelatory in itself. Look no further for the best bridge Rush ever constructed between their own insane virtuosity and the makings of a pop sensibility.