Permanent Waves | 
 enlarge | Artist: Rush
Label: Island / Mercury
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $5.47
You Save: $6.51 (54%)
New (48) Used (21) from $3.70
Rating:  169 reviews
Sales Rank: 1991
Format: Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.4
MPN: 534630
UPC: 731453463028
EAN: 0731453463028
ASIN: B000001ESN
Release Date: May 6, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
| |
| Tracks:
| • | The Spirit Of Radio | | • | Freewill | | • | Jacob's Ladder | | • | Entre Nous | | • | Different Strings | | • | Natural Science |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
One of Rush's finest moments, second only to Moving Pictures. This album includes two classic songs, "The Spirit of Radio" (which has one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in all of rock) and "Freewill." There's also the epic-feeling "Jacob's Ladder," as well as "Entre Nous," a sort of intellectual love song (if such a thing can be said to exist). The introspective "Different Strings" and the anthemic "Natural Science" (which clocks in at over nine minutes) close the album. Though there are only six songs on Permanent Waves, it's enough; the material is rich enough that more of it would be like overdosing on chocolate. -- Genevieve Williams
|
| Customer Reviews:
 I've heard every single Rush album- This one is the best August 7, 2008
Rush Fanatic (Colorado Springs)
I'm only 20 years old, but I've been a die-hard Rush fan ever since I was first exposed to them some 5-6 years ago. That being said, Permanent Waves is my favorite Rush album of them all. It has tracks that are great for the casual listener, some that are great for the blossoming Rush fan looking to get their first album, some that are great for the prog-rock enthusiast, and ALL that are great additions to anyone's music collection.
Any listener of Classic Rock radio will instantly recognize The Spirit Of Radio and Freewill. Two great radio-friendly tracks that are still proggy by Rush standards (check out the time changes in Freewill). Entre Nous is a very beautiful song, along with Different Strings. Jacob's Ladder is mostly instrumental and involves some more prog elements while combining good story-telling, but the album's biggest prog feature is Natural Science, a nearly 10-minute long track written in three parts that has beautiful melodies, challenging part writing, astounding lyrics, and just general great playing from all three members of the band.
Also, this album is at an interesting place in the guitar-synth-guitar timeline of Rush, as the album is definitely guitar-driven with just enough synths and keyboards to add that little bit of flavor and unique touch that only Rush can. Definitely used for icing more than substance.
I hesitate to say that this album is better than Moving Pictures, based on what the average musicophile will argue, but I will say that this album definitely has the characteristics of an incredible music experience.
Rush at Their Artistic Pinnacle June 20, 2008
William M. Hoar III (Chichester NH)
Permanent waves is Like an Old Friend. You can listen to it over and over and the relationship is always the same, you can fall back on it at any point even if it has been years and everything is right with the world!
Permanent Waves was released in 1980 and followed up the last of the true long suite progressive rock albums Hemispheres while also predating 1981's moving Pictures by one year. Hemispheres is also a modern rock classic but is quite different from Permanent Waves in a number of different ways. First of all the title track of Hemispheres is an entire side of the album like 1976's 2112. Permanent Waves does include a 9 plus minute tune in Natural Science but no instrumentals although sections of Natural Science are fairly long instrumental sections. I would also rank Natural Science as the best track on this great album though there are several excellent tracks here. Natural Science is very relevant today or in any era as our awareness of Climate Change and our "carbon footprint' are very relevant to the theme of Natural Science which discusses humankind's lack of awareness of our effect on the natural world and even hints of genetic engineering or other newer science technologies that we have not fully grasped before unleashing them on an unsuspecting world.
Entre Nous is one of the very few love songs ever penned by Peart, Lee and Lifeson and it is a great one. I am thrilled that they have been performing it live on the Snakes and Arrows tour and am hopeful they will continue to do so as I am slated to see them next month! Different Strings which follows Entre Nous is another excellent love song and is a true ballad, one of the few ever from the group that features some excellent guitar work by Alex Lifeson and it is a gem. I won't discuss Spirit of Radio or Free will because so many others have elaborated on them ad infinitum but I will mention the one clunker here and that would be Jacob's Ladder. This particular song smacks of filler and embodies virtually every cliche' that This Is Spinal Tap so effectively lampooned.
How can I rank an album 5 stars with one out of 6 songs being filler you ask? The remaining tracks are so superb that they overwhelmingly balance out the weak Jacob's Ladder. This one is in the top 5 of all Rush albums to date, highly recommended!
MoFi/Rush a perfect combo May 29, 2008
Barnabas O'Collins (Valley of the Sun)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Preordered this CD the minute I possibly could, and was not disappointed! I have all the other MoFi Rush CD's as well and another awesome product. Geddy's bass sounds more lifelike and that Ricky sound really comes through. Alex's guitars sound more spacious and up front, Neil's percussion is cleaner with a wider soundstage. Geddy's vocals also sound like he's in the room with you, the most lifelike I have ever heard. I would love it if MoFi also remastered Caress of Steel and A Farewell to Kings.
The Magical Mixing Laboratory--the hype is real May 27, 2008
S. McCrea (Henderson, NV United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first started seeing "Gold" CDs in the mid-80s I thought it was just another way to get me to pay more money for basically the same quality as aluminum-substrate CDs. In other words, I thought it was all...hype.
I even had a Tower Records employee tell me, "The only difference is that the gold doesn't oxidize as fast." (Given the intellectual level of the average Tower employee, that he used "oxidize" was impressive enough.) Which, while true, it also tells me that the guy had either never heard one of the discs or didn't have access to even mid-level audio equipment.
So I've been laboring under a 25+ yr delusion that Gold CDs were a marketing ploy.
Well, I've justed listened to Mobile Fidelity's "Permanent Waves", Special Limited Edition no. 3042. (I read somewhere that only 5000 are made, if so I got lucky since I almost passed it up.)
Not only was a I wrong, I was DEAD WRONG. I feel like such an idiot. I could have--SHOULD HAVE--all of MoFi's Rush editions. Now they are going for $100 and up (if nothing more than an investment!). The wife--sadly, like most women, a Rush-hater--ain't gonna go for dropping that kind of cash.
As for the sound quality I concur absolutely with many of the reviewers: this is simply the best sounding "Permanent Waves" I've ever heard, and I've owned FOUR previous editions (LP, Cassette, un-Remastered CD and Remastered ["The Rush Remasters"] CD) and this blows them ALL away.
The sound quality is breathtaking. I used the "STRAIGHT" setting on my Yahama HTR-6050 Receiver so that none of its decoders would alter the sound out-put from my Toshiba HD-A30 (yes, it's an HD-DVD player, it's also a d*mn good CDDA player). Only in concert (esp on this last tour) have these songs sounded better.
Geddy's bass: clean and punchy; sharp and fat at the same time (Rush fans should know exactly what I mean), something rarely fully captured on disc ("Power Windows," even pre-remastering, was an excellent example--and don't I wish I had that Mo-Fi version of that!).
Alex's guitar: Mr. Lifeson's guitar ranges from shimmering (the 12-string on "Natural Science"), to the emotive scream of "Spirit of Radio's" solo, to the measured, martial pace of the mid-section of "Jacob's Latter." (The last being the only Rush song ever called "beautiful" by a Rolling Stone reviewer--not that we Rush fans CARE what Rolling Stone thinks anyway.)
Neil's percussion: probably the most amazing thing about this disc is the complete fidelity to his "old" kit, with its plethora of percussive devices both familiar and bizarre.
The tympanis on "Jacob's Ladder", to give one example, reverberate so cleanly it was almost as if I could reach out and touch them. His snare snaps back with a wicked authority so many drummers aim for and so very, very few achieve.
The only better sounding disc I've ever heard are SACD's, e.g. Coltrane's "Lush Life" and Janine Jansen's "Four Seasons". Of course, even this disc doesn't equal an SACD, but it's closer than anything else.
I could write 10,000 words about this gem of a remastered disc. But Amazon only allows 1000 and I doubt most folks would want to read it.
For an album I've listened to on at least a weekly basis since 1983, if not daily, I was further surprised as how many "new" things I discovered from this single listen. (Needless to say, there'll be many more.) The opening tidal pools of "Natural Science" to the closing crash of the in-coming tide reminded me so much of La Jolla Shores it was eerie.
Hugh Syme's piano work on "Different Strings" is also beautifully rendered. I don't know if he was playing a Steinway grand--it certainly sounded like it. Whatever it was, few of my "classical" piano CDs sound this pure. The fidelity is so good that at the end of this track I can hear what I believe Alex's pick tapping a pick-up. It's THAT good.
If you're a Rush fan and an audiophile (and aren't the two really synonyms?), you simply MUST have this disc.
Let's hope this disc sells enough copies to warrant yet more Rush albums from MoFi's Magical Mixing Laboratory. They deserve it--and so do we.
I only hope that more Rush CDs are coming from MoFi's Magic Mixing Laboratory.
The packaging also wasn't quite what I expected. However, it looks excellent. Fortunately, Amazon shipped it in an extra thick card-board container and it didn't suffer the damage that so many of my recent purchases have.
Finally, HUGE props to Shawn R. Britton (of MoFi) who did the remastering job.
What is retarded are Ultra Magnus comments. May 25, 2008
George F. Britting (seattle, wa)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ultra Magnus obviously knows nothing about Mobile Fidelity or fine recordings in general. The sound is superb and Rush definitely got their cut from the licensing process that MoFi goes through. What an ignoramus!!
|
|
|
