Fly By Night Review

FLY BY NIGHT

RUSH

1975

Anthem/Mercury

Prod. by Rush and Terry Brown

It’s obviously worth noting that I come into these Rush reviews with a slightly predetermined mindset. In any review of the band Rush’s music, I will do my best to displace my previous distaste for the band, but I will repeatedly make it clear that, in the past, Rush has most certainly not been my thing, and I am here to challenge that idea and try to enjoy a band millions around the world revere.

Sound the alarm; I really, really like parts of Fly By Night. As an album, it’s as deeply flawed as Moving Pictures, and the highs aren’t quite as high as “Tom Sawyer.” But Fly By Night exposes a Rush that is more interested in other people’s music than their own; only a couple of the songs on Fly By Night sound like definitive Rush anthems, while the rest seem to be Rush taking on other people’s sounds. Some of these experiments turn out really, really awesome; others work less well.

First, what works; “Anthem” and “Best I Can” are a rollicking force that is undeniable. “Anthem” is more mathematical than most of what appears on this album, but like “Limelight,” the band mostly stays together, letting guitarist Alex Lifeson take the lead instrumentation on the song. Geddy Lee and Neil Peart keep their rhythm in check, but the vocal by Lee is still grating on “Anthem.” It’s not enough to ruin the slick, somewhat blues-y ride, but a performance with a better vocalist would be highly engaging. Peart, in particular, manages to produce a drum beat that is fun to listen to without being overwhelming, a task Peart can find difficulty accomplishing. It’s moments like “Anthem” that let me remember Peart’s talent rather than find myself aggravated with his arrogance.

Honestly, though, I don’t think there’s a band that would top Rush’s performance of “Best I Can,” a song that is so non-definitively Rush that I wish, wish, WISH this had been their direction all along. “Best I Can” absolutely reeks of a fusion of blues-driven hard rock and pop rock at the same time; think the world’s best fusion of AC/DC and Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back,” however anachronistic that may be. Lee is singing a harder, deeper vocal than usual as well, with a voice echoing Bon Scott and Brian Johnson on their best days. In case you can’t tell, I’m absolutely floored by how much I like “Best I Can,” down to its very Joe Perry riffs, its absolutely killer instrumentation on the hook, and a sweet guitar solo by Lifeson. While I can understand that it’s lacking in iconic moments (see “Tom Sawyer” drum fills, “Spirit of Radio” opening, etc.) it’s a fun, fun song.

There are a couple other songs that work, though not nearly as well as “Best I Can.” The third track, “Between, Beneath, and Behind,” is a fun (if overly mathematical) high-tempo jam. Moments of it remind me of “Ballroom Blitz,” but I would definitely rather listen to the Sweet classic every time; the hook’s attack is repetitive very, very quickly, leaving me indifferent every time. And “Making Memories” contains some quality guitar work as an attempt to take on the style of southern rock outfits like Lynyrd Skynyrd; Lifeson really nails that impression in the solo, which is highly technical and filled with twang. The rest of the song is a pretty fun acoustic jam with some great bass work by Lee.

Now, while half the impressions work shockingly well, the rest struggles to excite or entice me. “By-Tor And The Snow Dog” begins with a relatively unimpressive and standard Rush jam, which is too calculated and mathematical for my tastes; Lee’s vocal is shakier on this song than any other, as well. The second half of the song contains a long psychedelic jam, perhaps an attempt to capture what fellow “prog” outfit Pink Floyd had been up to on Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon, but it fails miserably to sound like anything other than aimless noodling. Considering there’s plenty of Pink Floyd that sounds the same way, I can’t blame them for failing, but it is still a failed experiment. Unlike some of these other songs, no member manages to do anything especially memorable or impressive, leaving “By-Tor” bloated and flaccid. These same words, bloated and flaccid, would probably describe my feelings on the rest of the album.

Of course, most people are probably surprised I’m not very into “Fly By Night,” the album’s lead single and title track. And it’s not bad, it’s just very, very boring. It’s distasteful to me for many of the same reasons I didn’t like “Vital Signs” or “Witch Hunt”; the song is aimless math gone awry, never really letting itself find an identity or escape the confines of its prison. The guitar solo is fine, but it fails to impress much more than your average Journey guitar solo, a comparison that is not complimentary.

“Rivendell” intrigues me, though. Now that there’s Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings to define that saga, perhaps it’s impossible for me to truly sift back into the world of Tolkein’s imagination, but “Rivendell” does momentarily evoke a very small amount of the energy I remember feeling towards The Hobbit. That said, it’s miserably performed by Lee’s weak vocal, it’s excessively long at almost 5 minutes, and nothing changes after the first chorus is reached. But if “Rivendell” were one of the few windows into Tolkein’s world, I could imagine that it’s a relatively decent success in that department.

Overall, Fly By Night is an interesting sonic collection, especially for fans of Rush. It’s this moment in musical history when Rush didn’t really know who they wanted to be. This is the moment just before Rush became one of the most ego-centric, sonically self-feeding bands in the world; this is when they were listening to everyone else and putting together anything that stuck. It’s exciting for the same reason Rubber Soul is a fascinating hinge in the career of The Beatles, or for the same reason we should all be excited for Green Day’s ¡Uno!/ ¡Dos!/ ¡Tres! trilogy, or Muse’s electro-heavy The 2^nd Law. And while Rush’s impressions mostly pale in comparison to the originators of the style, some of these impressions are worth hearing on their own merits.

3/5

HIGHLIGHTS: “Anthem,” “Best I Can,” “Making Memories”
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: “By-Tor And The Snow Dog,” “Fly By Night,” “Rivendell”
NEXT STOP: Aerosmith, “Toys In The Attic”
AFTER THAT: Elton John, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

Wish You Were Here Review

WISH YOU WERE HERE

PINK FLOYD

1975

Harvest, Columbia/CBS

Prod. by Pink Floyd

Is it strange that I am finding Wish You Were Here to be Pink Floyd’s most depressing disc? I mean, it’s far less depressing than The Final Cut, but that is largely because The Final Cut is mostly unlistenable. But Wish You Were Here evokes sadness different from that of the following Waters-focused albums. While a juvenile form of the cynicism that envelops Animals and the first disc of The Wall slithers into the album, it is bookended by mournful odes; while still personal, they are a more shared experience, based upon the mental degradation of former Floyd frontman Syd Barrett. While the album is largely dedicated to his memory, it lives beyond it, and intimate knowledge of the band’s history should not be necessary to enjoy the simple elegance of the album.

The dynamics of Pink Floyd are on pure display here. The music shifts from gorgeous to spacey to aggressive to rollicking time and time again, and no song is longer or shorter than it probably should be. These aren’t playlist songs, though; “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” a gorgeous ballad with multiple shifts, is split into two fifteen minute parts, and even the shortest song, the cynical “Have A Cigar,” is over five minutes long. Still, there’s a dramatic shift between Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here; Dark Side of the Moon carried far more jazz in its roots, while Wish You Were Here is a more rock-focused album.

While the lyrics and songwriting credits shift largely from guitarist David Gilmour to bassist Roger Waters, Wish You Were Here is home to most of Gilmour’s best guitar work. While Dark Side of the Moon has already come and gone, and though “Comfortably Numb” looms on the horizon, none of his work places quite as much emphasis on beauty as Wish You Were Here. Both “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Wish You Were Here” carry long sections where Gilmour’s guitar is given first chair, and it is the most melodic and sustained in his career. His acoustic guitar playing receives a limelight almost throughout, the only exception being “Have A Cigar,” perhaps the most open and brazen torching of the music industry Pink Floyd has ever put out, with rollicking guitar lines throughout.

Sadly, the musical anarchy of these critiques is facile in comparison to Dark Side of the Moon’s “Money,” and both “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have A Cigar” simply feel out of place between the more personal dedications of the bookends. Waters isn’t a master of this cynicism yet, and the digs at the industry almost feel token. They are definitely musically interesting, though; “Welcome to the Machine,” in particular, has a lot of great acoustic guitar work, the sort that The Wall uses on “Is There Anybody Out There?” to great effect. And keyboardist/synthesizer wizard Richard Wright goes into hysterics throughout, proving his efficacy to the band with “Machine” and “Diamond” time and time again. But “Machine” and “Have A Cigar” are too broad and impersonal to be more than musically interesting; “Machine” would have fit better on Meddle or Side Two of The Wall, while “Have A Cigar” is the sort of boogie that could have divided “Goodbye Blue Skies” and “Empty Spaces” moderately well.

The larger narrative of Wish You Were Here is confused; the critiques of the music industry simply feel out of place next to the beautiful ballads bookending the album, and a longer middle section might have made the album feel a little more complete. The critiques seem to echo a sort of regret or envy for the type of music Barrett would have liked to keep making, a sensation that Pink Floyd had “sold out.” However, this bitterness is still too distant to truly be affecting; on Wish You Were Here, all one needs to follow is the mourning this group of friends feels towards the loss of the one who brought them all together. Or simply play audience to a group of extremely talented musicians playing the most simplistic and beautiful soundscapes they’ve accomplished thus far.

4/5

HIGHLIGHTS: “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)”

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: “Welcome to the Machine,” “Have A Cigar”

CATALOG CHOICE: The Wall (Note: For those looking to understand what kind of musical mind Barrett was, check out Piper At The Gates of Dawn)

NEXT STOP: Yes, “Close To The Edge”

AFTER THAT: The Who, “Tommy”