Dynamic Range Album: 11 1. "Show Don't Tell" 2. "Chain Lightning" 3. "The Pass" 4. "War Paint" 5. "Scars" 6. "Presto" 7. "Superconductor" 8. "Anagram (for Mongo)" 9. "Red Tide" 10. "Hand Over Fist" 11. "Available Light" All lyrics written by Neil Peart, all music composed by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee. Geddy Lee - bass guitar, synthesizers, vocals Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals Neil Peart - drums, percussion Additional Rupert Hine - additional keyboards, backing vocals, production Jason Sniderman - additional keyboards Stephen W Tayler - recording and mixing Released November 21, 1989 Recorded June - August 1989 at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec and McClear Place in Toronto, Ontario Label Anthem (Canada) Atlantic Producer Rush, Rupert Hine Presto is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1989. It was recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights and at McClear Place in Toronto. Presto was Rush's first album with their new international label Atlantic Records, which the band signed to in early 1989 after deciding not to renew its contract with Mercury/PolyGram Records. The band had intended to co-produce the album with Peter Collins, who had produced the previous two studio albums, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire; however, he reluctantly declined the offer for personal reasons. An objective ear was found in producer Rupert Hine. All singles released from the album ("Show Don't Tell", "The Pass" and "Superconductor") charted, with "Show Don't Tell" hitting #1 on the Album Rock Tracks chart. The album itself charted at #16 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and sales of Presto earned the band a gold record (sales in excess of 500,000 copies) in the US, and Platinum in Canada. Presto is generally held by fans to have marked the beginning of a transition period, moving away from a sound dominated by synthesizers and toward more traditional rock instrumentation and pop songwriting. In an interview in Canadian Musician, Geddy Lee explained: "We wanted [Presto] to be more of a singer's album, and I think you'll notice that the arrangements musically support the vocal[s]. . . . Neil's lyrics to me are a lot more heartfelt. Presently, they're experience oriented. I think they deal with living . . . This album was a real reaction against technology in a sense. I was getting sick and tired of working with computers and synthesizers. Fortunately, so was [co-producer] Rupert [Hine]. . . . We made a pact to stay away from strings, pianos, and organs—to stay away from digital technology. In the end, we couldn't resist using them for colour." "Scars" features a complex drum pattern in which both acoustic and electronic drums are utilized. The pattern was derived from a tribal rhythm Neil Peart experienced while on a bicycle tour of Africa (later chronicled in his first book, The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa). He has gone on to incorporate this pattern into his live drum solos. The song also features the use of a sequencer in place of, and often mistaken for, a bass guitar. According to Lee during the Rush in Rio concert (as well as the recent "Box Set" episode on VH1 Classic), "The Pass" is one of Rush's favourite songs. In a 2011 interview, Peart said of Presto: "That was an album that, for all of us, should have been so much better than it was... If we could do one [album] again, it would be that one, because we still love the songs from it, but... you can never make magic happen." During the 1990 Presto Tour, the title track itself was never played. It was first played live during the Time Machine Tour in 2010.

• published: 11 Nov 2013
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