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Presto

Rush - Presto Audio CD

A fair review of the Rush "Presto" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Rush reviews here, or go back to the Rush tabs.

Band: Rush
Title: Presto
Rating:

Release Date: 2004-08-31
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Show Don't Tell 2: Chain Lightning 3: Pass 4: War Paint 5: Scars 6: Presto 7: Superconductor 8: Anagram (For Mongo) 9: Red Tide 10: Hand Over Fist 11: Available Light

Poorly Remastered
I'm really disappointed in this cd. This so-called "re-mastered" cd sounds exactly the same as my original cd; the remasters of Rush's earlier material were obvious improvements over their predecessors. Musically, however, this is a great album from Rush's more mellow 80's period.

Best Rush Remaster in the Series
This album has by far benefitted the most in the Rush re-master series. I bought the re-mastered Presto to replace my old CD and I can't believe the difference in sound quality between the two. Adam Ayan has done magic to this magical album. Alex's guitar has been separated from the synthesizers, which now seem to play a much more minor role in the album's sound. Getty's bass is now audible on all tracks and the professor's drum kit has been brought front and center, giving the entire album a more spatial, stereophonic sound.

I heard music on this album that I didn't know was there. You can hear Getty play a nice little bass riff at 2:40 in Chain Lightning, and his string picking behind the piano chords at the intro to Available Light is beautiful. In War Paint, you can now hear Neil hit probably every drum head in his kit. The bass kick drum can now be felt in every song, a fundamental requirement in rock music as Neil himself has said. I've always listened to Rush because I enjoyed their virtuoso musicianship. Singing and lyrics were always second to me. However, while listening to The Pass on this album, I heard two phrases in a way I never had before. You can hear vibrato in Getty's voice during the phrase, "Nothing's what you thought it would be. . . " that makes the vocal soar across the music. And his unaccompanied, "Christ, what have you done?" literally jumps out of the song and smacks you between the eyes.

The re-mastered Presto is like a whole new album for me and I would recommend it to any Rush fan who classifies themselves as not a fan of Rush's middle period. Now, if only we could get Ayan to re-master Vapor Trails, a great album that sounds like it was mastered inside a garbage can. Are you listening Atlantic?
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One of the weakest Rush albums in the post-HEMISPHERES era
The tour for 1988's album HOLD YOUR FIRE saw half-empty venues and cancelled dates, while guitarist Alex Lifeson was feeling increasingly pushed to the side by all the keyboards. By the end of the 1980s, after four releases in a synth rock vein with instrumentals and vocals alike far removed from rock-out savagery, Rush's popularity was beginning to fade. The trio knew they needed to make a change and PRESTO, released in 1989, shows them embarking in a slightly different tradition. It's not a complete departure, as songs like "Red Tide" and "War Paint" and could easily have fit in on the previous two albums. But in the main we find a much dimished use of synthesizers, and in tracks like "Show Don't Tell" and "Available Light", Lifeson returns to the spotlight.

But the album is ultimately overall disappointing. The most readily noticeable flaw is Rupert Hine's production. The drums have no punch, the sound is flat with little variation in dynamic, and there's an incongruous edit in the second track. The other problem is that, as one listens through the whole album, Neil Peart's lyrics are perhaps his weakest in the band's entire career. At best, they are forgettable, with myself and many fellow Rush fans unable to recall half of what Geddy sang. At at worst, they are risible. The "boys and girls together" bit on "War Paint" makes me cringe almost as much as the infamous "Net boy, net girl, / send your signal 'round the world. / Put your message in a modem / and through it in the cyber sea. " lines of "Virtuality" on TEST FOR ECHO a few years later.

I consider PRESTO the weakest Rush album released in the three decades since they moved to radio-friendly lengths. From talking to other Rush fans, I always thought this was the common opinion, and I'm baffled as to the high average review here. It's not a complete failure, as I occasionally listen to "Chain Lightning" and "Available Light", but this is one of the few Rush albums I'm reluctant to play through. Ironically, opinions about Hold Your Fire, the album that drove so many people away in the late 1980s, seem to have improved over the last 20 years. On the other side of PRESTO, the following album Roll the Bones is also often seen as a solid effort. .

Voila...! Er, uh....Presto...!
Having not been a fan of the band, I was intrigued by the then-new Show Don't Tell popping up on the radio. Like with Grace Under Pressure, I have to own up to bias here. It was catchy and melodic and tapped into something in me that inspired me to (eventually) pick up the album on a complete lark. I'm assuming it was my nearly unconscious niggle to get into this band fully, which I seemed to resist (rim shot) with grace (d'oh!). Digging deeper I discovered a warmer sound than I remembered from this band previously. That's not a comment about the production either, which, frankly, never bothered me. . . . although it's true the mix is almost as quiet as Vapor Trails is noisy.

The very first things I noticed on initial spins of this album were the presence of more acoustic guitars than I was accustomed to and next, the lack (or at least reduction) of keyboards from the things I'd heard on radio in the recent past from Hold Your Fire and Power Windows. Not that the keys ever bothered me, but it seemed that the reliance on keys and shimmering guitar accents from Alex had been bathed in more simplified and lush guitar-based rhythms and it was a nice change. Certainly The Pass stood out for me right away, first melodically as I'm prone to have happen. . . and then, finally, lyrically the song was really compelling. This song was a pleasant surprise for me and one that reminded me of another facet of Presto which made it something a bit different from many of the immediate predecessors; Geddy's voice. His shriek had never bothered me, but I'd be lying if I said what I heard on The Pass didn't immediately fill me with a deeper appreciation for his vocal abilities. It's ironic to hear many fans (now) say that it was around then that they began to lose faith in the band and it was this very change that had intrigued me. It makes sense, given I wasn't there smoking pot in my basement to hours of 2112 on end and if I hadn't been such a dis(joint)ed "fan," I might've felt that way too. But I was really liking what I was hearing.

Much of the rest of the album, at that time, was hit and miss. Scars stood out right away and I've become even more infatuated with this little gem since. Even hearing the music track alone as the soundtrack over the boys journeying throughout South America on the Rush In Rio documentary gets me excited. Presto and Available Light were two more that were really lovely and once again became songs that I admired that much more over time. Really two top notch tunes. Some of the misses at the time included tracks like War Paint and Red Tide, which, like many blase Rush songs were akin to drinking a full glass of luke-warm water on a hot day. . . generally unsatisfying. However time has been good to those two tracks as well and I've come to appreciate both. The "boys and girls together" melody (I'm convinced Neil should never say "boy" or "girl" in songs ever again) used to bother me, but I like the message of the lyrics so well that I'm not too irked anymore. The lyrics to Red Tide are prime too and the melody really works for me. But early on these songs did not stand out like the title track or The Pass.

A few that didn't work for me then or now include Superconductor, which I come to find has a bit of a following in the fan circles but which has always read to me as unpleasing, even musically. The chorus and especially the "super-con-duc-tor" part never fails to remind me of something Robert Palmer might've crooned and I equally roll my eyes and giggle when I hear it. Hand Over Fist is another one that never sat well with me either, although I have to say I like it more than the former. Once again it's the lyric that bothers me, perhaps because it references a child's game and to me that's not terribly rock and roll. . . to be singing about paper covering rock and scissors cutting. . . . etc. There are times when Neil seems about one full generation older than he actually is and occasionally I suffer disconnect as a result. (His "clever" lyrics to Dog Years are the epitome of this "get it??" type elbowing of the ribs). Melodically the song is pretty solid, however.

Poor Anagram (For Mongo). I really want to like this song but every single time I listen to it, I have to look at the track listing and ask myself, "What song is this one again??" STILL. I can't hum one melody or lyric right now, not if my life was at stake and Dirty Harry had his magnum to my skull. . . although if I started to play it, it would flood back to me instantly. So I'll simply relegate Anagram to that category of perfectly innocuous yet highly unmemorable. I'm not sure I've much choice.

Overall then and especially now, however, I'm very pleased with Presto. I've read criticisms that the album seems hodge-podge and disjointed (Chemistry by Jon Collins), but I don't believe that at all. While the songs have a stylistic diversity (Scars v. The Pass), there's a definite cohesiveness in this body of work that I can appreciate. . . and certainly a positive response from me for that warm (brown) tone that bathes the songs with a bit less shimmering brightness and a bit more of an earthy and folksy foundation. I liked it then as a hesitant fan and I like it that much more today. Sure there are a few clunkers, but even the worst of Presto isn't awful, just a bit vanilla. And outside the bottom three or so songs, the rest runs the gamut from inspiring to downright incredible.

PRESTO: 4 stars of 5 (+)
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Great Album
Oddly enough, I've always been a big fan of metal throughout my youth and into my adult age. Rush has never been a favorite band of mine until a few weeks ago when I started paying closer attention. However, I've always had an appreciation for inspired instrumentation, and Rush seems to deliver that in spades. Presto was one of the albums that really opened my eyes to the band, and some of the songs on this particular album are indeed quite good.

I want to preface any other statements with the fact that I also enjoy their older, more synth oriented material. Presto's strongest strength is how well the riffs blend into each other and maintain a catchy rhythm throughout on most songs. While this material may be considered not quite as "deep" as some of the songs on other albums, ultimately it's the simplicity in some of these songs that makes them stick with you. Show Don't Tell is possibly one of my favorite Rush songs, and The Pass is simply inspiring. With this album only being 7 dollars on Amazon, it's worth it on those two songs alone, frankly. I've never heard the original recording, but this remastered version sounds as good as any post-2000 digital recording. If you've ever had an interest in Rush but didn't know where to start, I'd recommend this album. It's got good, guitar-driven songs that don't stray too far off into the land of synth, if that sort of thing isn't your thing. Hope this helps.

You can see a complete list of all Rush discography, or go back to the Rush tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.