The latest Rush album to receive the “box set treatment” is their classic 1982 offering, Signals. Despite ‘82 simply overflowing with eventual hard rock/heavy metal classics (The Number Of The Beast, Screaming For Vengeance, Blackout, Diver Down, Creatures Of The Night, etc.), Signals showed that Rush was moving further away from the prog metal direction of the ‘70s and more towards a synth-heavy direction. But unlike bands who over the years utilized synths to sweeten their sound, Rush introduced them as simply another sonic element (in other words, they didn’t use it to attract a pop audience).

The album’s best-known tunes remain the MTV hit “Subdivisions” and the rock radio hit “New World Man,” but some of the lesser-known tracks are just as good, including the hard rocking “The Analog Kid,” the slightly Police-ish “Digital Man,” and the album-closing epic, “Countdown” (the latter of which a video was filmed for, but I can speak from first-hand experience as a regular MTV viewer at the time – it was never aired on the channel). But what tends to get overlooked is that the album contains some of Neil Peart’s very best lyrics – especially the aforementioned “Subdivisions” (which deals with social stratification) and the underrated “Losing It” (which deals with attrition).

But one final question remains…what exactly is included in the 40th Anniversary box? It depends on which edition you invest in, but expect to be dazzled by both CD and vinyl versions of the album, as well as a hardcover book and other assorted doodads and doohickeys (unfortunately, a live recording from the Signals tour is nowhere to be found).

Still on the fence? Be cool or be cast out!