Rush: Permanent Waves (Mercury)
John Swenson, Creem, April 1980
IN THE PAST Rush has been an easy target for trigger-happy critics looking for something so colossally bad it could absorb a double load of buckshot without flinching. Personally I laid off — the band's slow, excruciating climb from heavy handed Led Zeppelin imitators to cloying, pompous art rockers schooled in the strident Ayn Rand mythology of Self was just too much for me to bear. Criticizing them would have been like going fishing without any water. But this grim Canadian power trio has done something so remarkable I can no longer hold my tongue — after seven tries, Rush has finally made a good album.
Total word count of piece: 685