Rush Signals Rare 1982 Mercury Records Original Robert Ludwig Master Vinyl

$

50

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Signals Studio album by  Rush Released September 9, 1982 Recorded April – July 15, 1982 Studio Le Studio, Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada Genre

• Synth-rock 
• progressive rock 
• new wave

• Rush 
• Terry Brown

1. "New World Man"
   Released: August 1982
2. "Subdivisions"
   Released: October 1982
3. "Countdown"
   Released: April 1983

Signals is the ninth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 9, 1982 by Anthem Records. After the release of their previous album, Moving Pictures, the band started to prepare material for a follow-up during soundchecks on their 1981 concert tour and during the mixing of their subsequent live album Exit...Stage Left. Signals demonstrates the group's continuing use of synthesizers, sequencers, and other electronic instrumentation. It is the last album produced by their longtime associate Terry Brown, who had worked with them since 1974.

The album peaked at No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in the United Kingdom, and No. 10 in the United States. In November 1982, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling one million copies in the United States. Rush released three singles from the album: "New World Man", which became the band's highest charting single in the United States and a number-one hit in Canada, as well as "Subdivisions" and "Countdown". The group supported Signals with a concert tour from April 1982 to May 1983. Signals has been reissued several times, including a remaster with a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix in 2011.

Artwork

The sleeve was designed by Hugh Syme, who is credited with its concept, direction, and graphics, with photography from Deborah Samuel. Syme based his design upon receiving merely the album's title, and recalled a "great deal of trouble" in a cover that he and the group were satisfied with. "I decided that, with such a phenomenally important word with the kind of potency it potentially had, to go with something really dumb, really inane". He noted, however, that the cover still tied into the meaning of some of the songs on the album, in particular "Chemistry". The final concept came out from the result of several failed ideas, including one that Syme devised which would have involved Rush hooked up to electroencephalography machines as they played in the studio and a snapshot of their heartbeats and brain waves taken during a performance.

The front photograph depicts a Dalmatian dog sniffing a red fire hydrant on a green lawn. Samuel shot the image on the rooftop of her studio. The lawn is a piece of AstroTurf, and the hydrant was rented from Toronto and repainted the desired colour for the cover. She recalled a search to find a Dalmatian who could sniff on command, and placed dog biscuits underneath the hydrant multiple times to get the final shot. The back cover is a pretend blueprint of a neighbourhood with what Lee described as "make believe subdivisions", detailing Warren Cromartie Secondary School, a fictional school named after Canadian baseball player Warren Cromartie. He and the Montreal Expos are thanked in the album's liner notes. Syme considered the back cover "a little subtle, perhaps over-indulgent".

Release

The album was released in September 1982. The album peaked at No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in the United Kingdom, and No. 10 in the United States. In November 1982, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling one million copies in the United States.

Rush released five singles from Signals. "New World Man" reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for three weeks in October and November 1982. It is the band's highest charting single in the US, and the only one to have reached the top 40.

Reception

At the time of release, Rolling Stone criticised the band's choice of "emphasizing synthesizers at the expense of Alex Lifeson's guitar," calling the album "mostly a wasted effort."

Louder called Signals the 29th best album of the 80s.

AllMusic retrospectively praised the album, complimenting the band for not simply making Moving Pictures, Pt. II, continuing their exploration of the synthesizer and introducing more contemporary themes into the lyrics.

Ultimate Classic Rock placed Signals seventh in their list of "Top 10 Rush Albums," while Stereogum placed the album third (behind Moving Pictures and 2112) in their list of "Rush Albums From Worst to Best," labelling it "the most audacious album of the band's career."

In the 2010 documentary film Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, Trent Reznor cited Signals as an influence for incorporating keyboards into hard rock. Canadian music journalist Martin Popoff stated that Signals was his favorite Rush album because of the "creamy production."

In 2022, Guitar World named Signals the #9 greatest rock guitar album of 1982, saying that although there was a "shift to a more electro-synth sound", there was "still room for Alex Lifeson to do his thing on his six-string", and that "Geddy Lee remained the best bassist in rock".

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Neil Peart except where noted; all music is composed by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee