“Distant Early Warning” starts things off like a bizarro successor to “The Spirit of Radio” with its happy warnings of acid rain and it’s pretty uncanny to hear “Afterimage” deliver its mournful condolences to such groovy beats, but the themes on “Red Sector A” get even more morbid when set to such danceable beats. Even the android escapee narrative on “The Body Electric” fits right in with the real-world paranoia.īut what makes the album truly unnerving is how upbeat the songwriting stays throughout the whole ordeal. Songs like “Distant Early Warning” and “The Enemy Within” reflect the Cold War fears so common at the time while the prison camp theme of “Red Sector A,” hits horrifyingly close to home as Lee’s parents having survived the Holocaust served as prominent inspiration. The band was never afraid to tackle dark subjects before, but this album is fully immersed in it. On top of that, the lyrics are among the most apocalyptic that Peart ever penned. If Moving Pictures and Signals sounded too much like The Police, then the guys must’ve been listening to a lot of The Cure and Sisters of Mercy when crafting this one. The songs are often driven by basslines that have a certain hollowness to them and Lee’s vocals have an underlying sense of urgency despite largely continuing the more restrained approach first seen on Permanent Waves. The atmosphere is incredibly cold as Alex Lifeson’s guitar work has an icy tinge to it, the drums are robotic yet intricate in classic Neil Peart fashion, and Geddy Lee’s keyboard patches are piercingly abrasive. Grace Under Pressure could hardly be called Rush’s heaviest or most aggressive album but they’ve never sounded this nihilistic. I wager that it is not only the most unique of the band’s 80s outings but also the most distinct album they ever recorded. Grace Under Pressure, Rush’s tenth album, is certainly no exception. From the reggae tinges on Signals to the densely produced Power Windows, each one has a distinct identity with its own atmosphere and tone. AudioQuest DragonFly : USB Digital to Analog Converter, up to 96kHz/24-bit.The albums that make up Rush’s so-called “synth era” may not be as universally hailed as their 70s prog rock behemoths, but it would be unfair to lump them all under the same umbrella.Meridian Explorer : USB Digital to Analog Converter, up to 192kHz/24-bit.JRiver : plays both AIFF and FLAC formats, $50 but has a free trial period.Audirvana : plays both AIFF and FLAC formats, $50 but has a free trial period.iTunes : plays AIFF, it's free and you probably have it already!.You may need additional software / hardware to take full advantage of the higher 24-bit high-res audio formats, but any music lover that has heard 16-bit vs 24-bit will tell you it's worth it! Software for Mac OS X ProStudioMasters offers the original studio masters - exactly as the artist, producers and sound engineers mastered them - for download, directly to you. When you listen to music on a CD or tracks purchased via consumer services such as iTunes, you are hearing a low-resolution version of what was actually recorded and mastered in the studio. High-resolution audio offers the highest-fidelity available, far surpassing the sound quality of traditional CDs.
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