Well, the box set for RUSH’s 1984 album Grace Under Pressure has been announced. For me Grace Under Pressure is the last in the line of classic RUSH albums, before I started losing interest. I’d also say it’s probably one of the band’s most underrated. The Grace Under Pressure Tour was the first Rush show I saw, Maple Leaf Gardens Sept 21, 1984. I saw the Power Windows tour as well, but beyond “Big Money”, not much of that album stuck with me, and I didn’t get excited about Rush again ’til the mid ’90s albums.
Grace Under Pressure followed 1982’s Signals, which saw the band use more keyboards, less guitar, more so less big riffs, more of a lighter guitar sound, where the guitar was not as forceful or heavy sounding, but leaving space and toned down for the band’s new direction for the ’80s. But Signals was the 3rd in a trio of my favorite Rush albums – Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures before it, all seeing the band producing shorter songs, more direct, without the lengthy progressive tracks, full of energy, and classics that remain FM rock staples. And Signals followed that, for the most part. “New World Man”, “Chemistry”, as well as “Subdivisions” and “Analog Kid”, which were 2 of the band band’s best, and at the time, a new fresh sound, that still sounded like Rush. Grace Under Pressure came out a year and a half later, and another great album; featuring 8 songs, most of which either got some radio play at the time, and all of which were played live (at some point) throughout the tour. This album, like the 3 before it, had a good flow from song to song, “Distant Early Warning”, “The Enemy Within”, “The Body Electric”, and “Between The Wheels” stand out (for me), but really, there’s nothing here I tend to pass over. However, as much as I like this album, and those 4 mentioned tracks, one thing I have never been able to claim is there is that huge Rush favorite here, a trademark tune, the one that stands out for me as perhaps “Freewill”, “Spirit Of Radio”, “Limelight”, or “Subdivisions” do. I’d be curious if anyone else sees it similarly, Or what is THE biggest track on this album?
Now, as for the box set…. I passed on the Signals box, mainly because there was nothing new to listen to in it, ie a live show from that tour. This Grace Under Pressure box announced includes the full recording from the band’s September 21st , 1984 show at Maple Leaf Gardens (the one I was at). So, it includes the missing tracks that were cut from the Grace Under Pressure Live CD that came out years ago. There’s also a remix of the album by Terry Brown, who didn’t originally produce this album, as well as a new remastered version of the album, a blu-ray of the Toronto show, and a Dolby Atmos / Dolby TrueHD 5.1* stereo mix of the album (I’ll be honest, I’m not up on such technology, so this is kinda irrelevant to me), plus videos mixed in Dolby TrueHD 5.1″. And then there’s all sorts of visual and print material, such as new art, prints, photos, book, press release, liner notes, poster, etc… Not sure Why this whole thing required new cover-art!? I would love to add this box set, but with the price (!!!) at present ($438 on Amazon, Canadian, for the CD version, and 545 for the vinyl version), I don’t foresee this anytime soon in my future. What I really want is the live recording, (and maybe the 2025 remaster). A shame with these sets that some of these pieces aren’t made available separately. Not sure if they will be down the road, but for those of us who more so just want to hear the music, and are willing to pass on the extras, that would be a great option.
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