The Mosh Pit 06.19.09: RUSH

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 06.19.2009

They are one of the greatest progressive bands of all time and 411’s Dan Haggerty takes look at the catalog of the legends. This week is the second installment as we look at the next era of music from 1982 to 1998. If you ever wanted to know which albums to check out, click the link to find out!

First off, before the show. Fun with comments!


sir.... fucking amazing. bar none my favorite band. a lot of this stuff i knew, but there were little things i would have never known. truly epic, thank you.

Posted By: Justin.

And here I left off some of the more obscure things thinking it was overkill. Thanks for reading dude and always be a fan!


Great stuff man, a very good read for a magnificent band. Saw them live on the Snakes and Arrows tour and it was superb.

Only criticism - the over use of terms like "owning" and "built for win"/win used like this (I am not sure of the literary term, but using win in this sense) makes the article sound a wee bit overly "internettish" and net fanboy like.

Don't let this small criticism take away from a brilliant piece on your great site.

Posted By: Ryan

Going back now I would have to agree with you. That is what happens when part of the reviews you pull are from old columns. I'm going to level with you, I didn't get a chance to re-read the column critically like I normal do, and that is the sort of thing that would have spotted those literal idiosyncrasies. I tend to rewrite column at the end due to changing things and trying to get it perfect. This week I noticed a trend to use the work "texture" a lot to describe the synth era of the band.

More importantly, it also catches boneheaded errors as well which also creep into the column and did so bad last week. A little secret for you guys, I usually dedicate about five hours to this column, most of it Thursday night. This column alone pushed eleven pages before the artwork or the response to readers. I type fast and need to go back and check my work because of it. Last week I couldn't due that, and I think it showed in a few ways (mostly with typing gaffs).

But hey, we're here for the music so it is all win for us Rush fanboys!

Just kidding! Enjoy this weeks column man and always feel free to stop into the pit.



Being the music junkie and discographer that I am, I have all but Rush's last two albums.

One day, when I get to the R's, Rush will likely span two and a half Exile episodes (like AC/DC, the Ramones, and Iron Maiden).

Rush, in the form of Chroincles, was sort of forced upon me in high school, by my boozing, party friends. They really irritated me (because of this), until I could explore them on my own.

For me, besides the + after some of the 10's (for me a band can only get one of those +'s, and for Rush, it belongs to 2112), it's all pretty much on spot.

Rock on, Dan-Man...

Posted By: Jesse Coy

I'm doing Rush in three parts too due to size. Well, that and doing Rush in a group of 3 seemed appropriate. Ha!

The "+" actually doesn't mean the best album in the catalog to me, although that is a good idea. I honestly never thought of it. For me, the + means an album that would be on a contender for your top 25 albums of all time. There are so many great albums out there now, I like the idea of a little symbol that makes a 10 just that much better, as if to say "I think there are 100 perfect 10 albums, but these are the best of the best!" It's sort of like saying this album is so perfect it would go on the desert island with you. Most bands are lucky to get one. Rush has two of them for me, along with Metallica. Black Sabbath has 3.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to the Rush show(s)!




Rush Discography Part 2: Post-Golden Era




The Composers

Rush wrap up their biggest success to date with a live album, and enter the 80's headlong a new band. Rush always pushed themselves, and always kept an eye on what was new and interesting in music to do that. The two would combine in the 80's to make for a decade that is, depending on who you ask, either the peak of their career or the greatest stumble. And just to show you how deep that runs it even divides the Haggerty household. I was not happy with the band's late 80's output but the wife thinks they're some of the band's best material. It's kind of funny because we're both huge Rush fans but disagree on where the best run was. At least we both agree on Permanent Waves through Grace Under Pressure, so that makes common ground for road trips.

Anyway, the first part of this new era was the band keeping an eye on the music industry and the obvious impact the synth had on music. It started with Permanent Waves and was building as a "4th player" for two albums, and would take over starting with the third era of the band. When you add this to the new digital technology that allowed bands to really dig in and control their output, the music landscape was a very different creature than half a decade earlier.

The second part of the band's evolution was how they pushed themselves. The band's first four albums were about them playing live, and the second four would see the band grow as writers. Well, the band was always growing, but there was a direct connection in the second era where the band directed their creative energies into writing for the sake of song construction. This hit critical mass with Hemispheres, and the band stepped back to put the same creative force into more succinct and independent statements.

The end result of both was a band that had done what they wanted as writers and was now evolving into writing on a larger music scale – As composers. This would be the idea of bringing in new sounds and building songs as compositions. It was writing taken to the next evolutionary step.

Rush had started as a rock band, had moved on to art rock, and now was poised to paint musical pictures as art. It was bold, and it would be the most controversial part of their career…



Signals

In the 80's, there emerged a defined separation of Rush fans. Basically old school versus new school. What makes Signals interesting is that it is one of those albums that both could see as common ground. Moving Pictures was a guitar album with heavy synth use, while this was a synth album with heavy guitar use. Alex was still all over the place being the axe master even if he had taken a step more into the background. But the studious student of Rush will tell you that what he us doing is still the stuff of legends. He and Lee practically jam through "Analog Kid" and his solo is good stuff.

The keyboards are pushed forward, but there are still rhythm and texture that merges in a creamy pool of muse that lifts these songs as mini-suites of light contemplation, as much a feeling as thinking mans music. Lee is the man who emerges as a bigger force simply by virtue of playing those synths. The screams have receded to his modern voice, his bass drives you home, and now the keyboards swirl around the stage to paint the pictures of a new era. You can tell the guys write music on the guitar in the keyboard solos, which are tremendous, and "Countdown" has one of the best keyboard solos for my money. Don't let those keys fool you here, there is a lot of depth with them, something new wave would eventually fail at.

And while Rush might have abandoned the long conceptual epic pieces, that still didn't stop Peart from working around ideas that he was thinking about. The albums would contain some songs that worked around conceptual themes, and in the case of Signals that theme was the idea of "territories": Physical, societal, or personal. Rush's artwork always ties in to this as well. The blueprints inside the gatefold, or the cover hinting at the dog's monitoring of his territory.

Peart dazzles less as mass percussionist, but this was the first album I really put together just how precise he is. He doesn't keep time; he drives this alum on the finest engineered machine (i.e. him) available. It's like a heartbeat that provides life to the body. Damn.

"Subdivisions" greats you and immediately the new sound order hits you. Heavy keys and beats working in mathematic accuracy to pump a tale of societal divisions. A world separated by cultural idioms of our own manufacture (and reinforcement). I call this bad boy out as your proto-industrial sound. Might not look like it from the outside, but under the hood the engine is most of the way there.

"The Weapon" is just great, the driving beat of the first cut on side one is here but trimmed back into a small precision marathon, the soundtrack to the motivational abilities of fear and how people use that as a weapon to get what they want. Alex's solo is not technical, but he hits the pockets with tons of feeling that produces a chilling groove that is to light and free to be groove.

Long time readers know I'm not a big ballad person, too many and too easy (and formulistic) as far as I'm concerned. But I do like a good one when a ballad is written well and produces the emotions it should. "Losing It" is one of my favorites, and on the wrong day hits me between the eyes. It's a flowing contemplation of life as seen from the final twilight of your days, told through the eyes of Ernest Hemingway. Simply beautiful. Plus it holds another awesome Lifeson solo.

Finally, "Countdown" is a bit contrived (if not a little cheesy) but dammit I like it. The band was invited to see a space shuttle launch by NASA, and they reciprocated by making a song in honor of seeing the event. I love the line: "When super science mingles with the bright stuff of dreams". That is such a wonderful statement on the fundamental nature of man I think it should be taught in school, and I'm 99% positive Peart knew it when he wrote it.

Don't look for it on tour anytime soon though, Peart doesn't like it.

I dig this album a lot, which surprises a lot of people (but not as much as the next). Is it perfect like a few Rush albums? I don't think so, but it's up there. At worse a few tracks are "only" good, but not great. But the great ones make it run with many of the band's greatest statements.

Rating: 9






Grace Under Pressure

Also known as "P/G" to fans due to the band putting that cute math formula on the ensuing tour. This would be a milestone for the band, because here are the first real signals that the band was going to go beyond rock and play in new terrain. The keyboards push the limit of their march to dominance while the band explores other styles like reggae and even ska (!?). But that is buried under the fact what we have here is an incredibly dense and dark album. The second darkest (next to Caress of Steel) and certainly the heaviest in weight to swim through. The band complains about the sound a bit, because they experimented with a new producer who didn't take charge and tried to please them, so the album was a tough slog for them to master with no one throwing balanced answers back at them. And let's face it, even a great band needs someone to sound off of, not a yes man.

But that being the case, the bad memories is for them because I'm calling this a fine masterwork on its own. The album is heavy and dense, but that was a pleasant change up from the creamy and smooth Signals, and the dark tone fits the music well. I think their slog through production purgatory paid off in dividends with an album that fits the futuristic aftershock of the ideas underfoot. This album has an almost artsy feel as if the band is reading literature at one of those underground bars, and the music rolls and rumbles with the weight to take that idea serious.

The theme this time is pressure, from nuclear, the future, foreign policy, manhood, and of course our fears. Take a deep listen, because after P/G it's a haul to this much fusion of rock again. "Early Distant Warning" kicks off the beast in fine fashion, Alex blowing his chops wide in a storm of keys and ideas of a nuclear apocalypse gleaming on the horizon. The dark overtone continues on "Red Sector A" when Lee delivers one of his darkest tales about a Nazi concentration camp; listen to those lyrics - chilling stuff. And for darkness, Alex is hands down sinister and practically shaking the plaster with the finality of "Between The Wheels". If you have ever contemplated the phrase "A cog in the machine", then you can piece together what would happen to that cog when it gets stuck in that moving machine. How's that for fatality.

And this is what I love about this band. They've done the positive songs and the contemplative songs, and here they take a turn at going into darker areas of the human experience. No resting on laurels there. And it is done damn well without being heavy handed, preachy, or acting like we need to do something about it. It just leaves an impression then leaves you alone to contemplate it. THAT is how real art should work.

Final thoughts go to "The Enemy Within" which is the final part (or the first part) of the fear trilogy. Next week when I wrap this up I'm going to talk a bit more about all three parts including the meanings and the origins of the songs. And also I must mention the futuristic AI of "The Body Electric" which highlights the non-rock of the album but is a great tale of computer divinity.

The casual rock fan can easily be turned off from this blast of sounds. Between the keys, the ska and reggae beats, and the irregular flow there is a lot of the casual punter to NOT rock out to. But that is not the point, and if you sink into the smothering depths of this mass there is also a lot to unlock and love.

For me, this is easily the dark house of the catalog. It's not their best. But it stands with them if a little to the side, and in a way, if it could talk, I think this album would like it that way.

Rating: 9.5









Power Windows

Oh man, what did they do to Alex. Why is one of the greatest guitarists in prog and roll playing as a texture to everyone else? Sure, he's up front in fine fashion for "Big Money" with huge swings, but I'm not exactly feeling the man who invents note constructions being demoted to power chords, let alone trying to support these contrived lyrucks. I mean, they're bitching about money? That was old when it was a new idea.

And Peart is now working his electronic drum kit, which is fine but it is tuned to the 80's and comes across so clinical and artificial that I'm wondering if "Mutt" Lange was called in to produce him. Don't get me wrong; what Peart is playing is great. The man can take Lars' trash can drum set and own Hammersmith with one arm tied around back. But the sound is just machinery to me.

At least Lee sounds good. He sounds great! To bad most examples involve him playing keyboards that are doing everything him and Alex use to do.

Now the songs range from boring to great, sometimes in the same song, and the band is in full composer mode proving that a great musical mind can still make inferior pieces work together. "Big Money" as music is an occasional guilty pleasure (live), "Manhattan Project" is bold and wonderful in construction with the band still fusing engaging lyrics (the first atomic bomb) to epic mini-suites. "Marathon" flows effortlessly and pulls off the contemplative feel of being larger than life while being so introspective (it's about pacing onself for the long run through life). Songs that should have been good are weighted down. "Mystic Rhythms" should be a tour de force (and is great live by the way) but here the stainless steel makes those rhythms sit there. "Territories" is a bit contrived but has good writing but again the flow is killed. Meh.

Fun Trivia: Can you identify all of the powered windows on the cover and the inner book?

I'm just not digging the view from this hill. Some songs are great, making this an great EP with a lot of filler for me. This would be an 8.5 if some of the keyboard parts were handed over to Alex, Peart got on his old drum kit, and they recorded it on analog.

Rating: 6

The wife thinks I'm full of crap and loves this album by the way. So it is likely worth a spin for you to judge or yourself.




Hold Your Fire

Never has a name of an album held so much subtle meaning for the contents. One of the greatest prog bands ever, the guys that made a career out of taking their instruments and "going for it", do in fact hold back their playing. Their abilities are subservient to the ideas they wanted to work with. A great three man band has become sanitary, shinny, and two dimensional. They go for it as creators of some soundtrack to a movie I don't want to see, but as a rock band they do hold their fire and completely bury themselves into that soundscape. That works for many bands, and this band is so good at writing music that it should be a walk in a park, but it doesn't. How a three piece rock band writes their only guitar player into an afterthought is simply criminal. When he's there it is good stuff, but that is tragically rare.

Now, I like a few tracks on here. "Time Stand Still" is a wonderful song, perhaps a little overrated by the rank in file fans of this era, but a good piece. "Force Ten" attempts to rock out underneath the machinery and is okay. "Open Secrets" has a nice flow, and I like the keys. "Mission" is a wonderful turn of verse as well. The final cut is my favorite, "High Water" being for me what the band was going for (or should have been). I dig the flow of that song and how it builds subtly towards the climax of the album. Lifeson is alive, Peart if driving in a subtle way as a percussionist story teller (!?). This is how the new wave 80's could have gone and been gold.

But a few really blow it for me as well. "Second Nature" is just pretentious and comes across as Bono's half-whitted little brother. This is Rush for god sake, and outside of the abstract final track this is just safe writing.

The really odd thing for me is that this album and the last are the most dated sounding albums to my ears. They feel very tied to the era they were made (the 80's). The albums they made a decade earlier feel more vital and current than that. Go figure. Again, a decent EP hiding in a below average album. Actually, if you pulled a few favorites from this and Powered Windows you'd have a good album.


Rating: 6

Again, the wife thinks I'm really full of crap and loves this album. A lot. So it is likely worth a spin for you to judge or yourself. Or better, just check out a song from any number of the greatest hits albums floating around all over the place.






Show of Hands

Another four albums and another era ends with a live release. This is an album I should not like due to the set list, but turns out there is a lot to be said for this album.

On the bad side, 75% of the album comes from the last two albums I just gave bad poor ratings to. Signals and Grace get tossed a pittance, and we get two classics from the golden era. Thus, you can see my consternation going into this. In fact, I wouldn't have gone into it if it wasn't for the fact the wife got this album and played the unholy snot out of it.

But the good thing is that, in a live environment, a lot of these songs come across better than on their original albums. The fact sequencers and such are used to pull off the heavy compositional parts freed the guys to stick to their main instruments. Alex is more prominent than the original cuts and that is a cool thing. Songs like "Mystic Rhythms" feels more alive due to Peart sounding great in a live (i.e. real) environment.

Toss in the fact that 95% of this album is, again, all songs you have not heard live before (maximum bang for thy buck) and you get a great little live album. But for Gods sake do we really, really, REALLY need to have one of the best bass players in the biz represented on the cover playing a keyboard? Ugh.

Rating: 7






Integration

Rush had reached the end of being composers, Fire being to compositional writing what Hemispheres was to progressive writing. The band would also start getting over being so busy on stage with the keyboards, sequencers, and what not to pull off the vast arrangement they had concocted. The result was a band entering the wastes of the 90's with a desire to get back to basics. But with Rush, it is never that simple – They simply couldn't stop being themselves or forget what they had done. So with a new musical landscape to work through the band would compose songs as writers to play live. They would try to be all the parts of who they were, integrated into a whole. The result would burn brightly then fade as double tragedy would strike…


Presto

This would the beginning of the next era, but what it is really is a transition album as the band moves from the pop-purgatory of the popcorn 80's to something more robust. Lifeson was ready to get back to being upfront, and here it starts to show on songs such as "Show Don't Tell" or "Superconductor" that sees him playing equal time to the synth again. It's systematic of the album in that the band is scaling back on the extras a little. Presto, as a result, is a stand alone album that is unique in the catalog. Part 80's, part something different. A stop on the way to the next album.

But that doesn't mean it is a bad album, in fact this is a lost album of the catalog. It doesn't have the brilliance of the golden era, but it also doesn't have the super produced pop polish we got in the 80's. The aforementioned "Show Don't Tell" and "Superconductor" are testaments of that with their driving musicianship and big hooks. It's an album that rattles as much as it rumbles, and gleams as much as it rolls.

But under the hood you get some good stuff worth checking out. Lee has started to express himself as a singer better and is much more dynamic. Peart has expanded his kit and also in experimental mode. Don't be fooled into thinking there is a lot of over dubbing to the man, for the song "Scars" is indeed him performing that whole part. He actually rebuilt his drum kit to pull it off! That I can confirm since I saw him do it live (with the giant bunnies!) And as I said Lifeson is back in the picture at least so life is good for the Rush fan.

Other songs also stand out as well. "The Pass" is a wonderful turn of verse, often cited by Lee as a fav that has crept back into the band's set list in modern times. I dig "War Paint" as a tale of self inflicted illusions that pours over big beats and a grand chorus. I'm the only one, but hey. The title track is a welcome return to the acoustic for Alex and closing the album is a rare ballad in "Available Light".

The feeling I get from this album is a sort of identity crisis that makes you wish to get on to the next album and hear exactly where the band intends to go with their music. Guitar based versus crash into mainstream choruses and the whole eclectic mess results in an album only a Rush fan can love, for only he will take the time to unlock and appreciate Lee's solo work in "Show Don't Tell", Peart's percussion in "Scars", or Lifeson's leads in "Superconductor". It's a good album, but a little bit of work to unlock.

Rating: 7.5






Roll The Bones

I said it in a review a long time ago, and I'll say it again: This is how the 80's should have sounded. Not for metal, but for the radio tunes. If we were going to get the synths and all the happy stuff then here is the blue print. To bad we had to wait to 1991 to find out!

Alex is back and an equal member of the band, the journey started one album back is now complete with the band reaching the destination of full fusion. Take a deep breath though, for this is the last time you hear Rush with this sound. Things get more organic and guitar driven from here on out. You are already aware of this with the opener as Lifeson comes out axe swinging, the dramatic choruses working do to his sheer presence. I also dig the conversational tone of the lyrics.

This albums theme is built around the idea of chance and the roll it plays in life. The title track highlights this perfectly with its nonchalant take on the randomness of our existence. It also holds one of the few raps I like, built around an acoustic chorus. But I'm also biased since seeing this live with that Mohawk topped skull busting out the rap. "Where's My Thing?, Pt. 4: Gangster of Boats Trilogy" is the first instrumental since "YYZ" and is great despite the fresh coat of gloss from the production. Well, that and being to bouncy for it's own good. See, you can have fun pulling off this stuff if you try. Just look at that name. And I'm still convinced every band should take 5 minutes to show off.

"Ghost Of A Chance" is Rush's answer to a love ballad, and is a nice piece of muse. The fact they don't go this way often makes these moments bigger, which is nice. But one of my favorites is "Neurotica" with it's massive bass line. The verse is Lee dominating, until the pre-chorus sees Alex open up with some blistering axe work. Notice the dramatic shift to a simple chorus though, the band already predicting that particular coming alternative rock style well before everyone bandwagoned the Pixies via Nirvana.

The philosopher in me also smiles at the closer "Bet You Life". The music is simple enough, but those lyrics is something only Rush would do (and pull off).

This is the album they tried to pull off for years in my opinion. They switched after this with the era, but really, I can't help but think they changed up their sound after this simply because they had finally did everything they wanted. This is a very good album and the best representative of the more pop leaning Rush era.

Rating: 8.5







Counterparts

The best comment on first impressions for this album is something I read from a critic I respect, so I'll just use his phrase: Lifeson has given up his sonic vegetarianism.

What a wonderful surprise that was. Welcome to the 90's guys! Something apparent when the raw notes get lobed out of the speakers and slide down your face. This is a band that has stepped further from composing songs to get back to basics. But this is the 90's and Rush, ever vigilant of new ideas sees a new rock and roll and makes those basics fat with grease and smoke. Rush might be keeping up with the times, but damn its Rush with real guitars that roar with energy.

Lee's affection of watching and learning from modern trends has lead to the new white meat of commercialism: 90's alternative rock. In many ways, Rush has not returned to form like it was hyped; only they have updated their 80's pop sounds for the 90's version. Guitar driven alternative soundscapes mix it up with varying shadows of what Rush once was and degrees of what the band is capable of. At times it works, and bursts with hope for the future direction of the band, but at other times it breaks down into a morass of average and becomes a tough sludge to wade through.

But the good makes this a fine album. "Animate" pounds like the band hasn't in years. "Stick it Out" overcorrects on Lifeson's absence in the last decade. Things get better with "Cut to the Chase", with its wonderful shifts between Alex and Lee; it is well written and the band seems motivated to punch it through on the backs of their instruments. The rest rises and wanes like the tide, hints of greatness mixed with the tarnish of playing to a new scene. "Nobody's Hero" is decent, and I appreciate Alex keeping the acoustic work in his vocabulary, but the made of radio chorus with its soap-box lyrics drags it down from lofty heights. "Double Agent", "Leave that Thing Alone", and "Cold Fire" drives forward with hints of greatness too and are fine listens.

The album kind of falls apart for me on side 2 to be honest, as a few tracks also just drift into background noise. I can see the promise land, but there isn't just enough fuel to get there. But really, it is a fine album overall with some solid songs and a few great tracks, plus it's well produced and the guitar tone is killer. Worth owning and giving a spin, and if you got into rock after Seattle hit the map this might be the perfect Rush album for you.

Rating: 7.5





Test For Echo

More like test for heartbeat. Man, this is officially the worse Rush album. Mind you, in a catalog this rich in material, that is not a bad thing, but man… This is the epitome of filler in the best and worse sense of that word. The songs here are not bad, but outside the title track their not that good. Some are just boring and Peart must have outsourced these lyrics. I mean, songs about internet chatting and mans life through the metaphor of a dog? What? I feel ashamed suggesting that these are phoned in.

Musically, it's like the band is burnt out. You can see the ideas, understand the times with post grunge and modern rock forming, but it's just not coming together here. But also they're not bad. Really. If you take any song and play it alone it's a decent song. But as a whole album all of them is just an excuse to get bored and start doing something else. One thing is the production, reduction, overduction, and dubbing that has replaced keyboards as composing standards. We get a ton of guitars, albeit distorted and worked to the point of being lifeless, but we get guitars. The band should have just walked into the studio and busted these tunes out; it would have been a whole lot better. A 70's rock band take on 90's alternative would have been a lot cooler than an overproduced alternative band trying to sound like Rush. Blech.

The title is, by the way, a play off of sonar where they send out a pulse and the echo that returns tell you where an object is. Think of the old moves with submarines. In this case, the band is sending out an echo to test for other intelligent life, a metaphor on the state of the world. Cool concept.

Like I said, I like the title track and the songs are decent when played alone, but… man, even the albums I ripped a bit on above have a few tracks that are cool. This is just average through the whole thing. It's like… man, forget about it.

Rating: 5





Different Stages

This is the Rush live album to own. Seriously. I know that this era of the band has it's ups and downs, and what we should be getting after four albums is a band highlighting those albums, but here is where the band breaks with tradition and throws at you a whole package that you can't refuse.

This bad boy is 3 CDs! The two "proper" parts of the album is culled from performances from this era, but it is chock full of songs from all eras of the band, with nothing from Show Of Hands repeated. So it's fresh and new (I think 16 years between repeating live songs is fine). That is cool since some of the later stuff I obviously didn't care for. But wait, it gets better, for all those songs that I didn't like that make it on sound really good here! At this point in Rush's career, there was a purposeful shift away from the synthesizers and bigger productions. This produces a more organic guitar sound for the later stuff and encourages the band to revisit some of their early material. When combined with the third disc of a 1978 show, the result is that some great classics are seeing the light of live recording for the first time. The list reads as a roll call of honor: "Limelight", "Analog Kid", "Natural Science", "Farewell to Kings", "Cygnus X-1", and "Cinderella Man". And that's still not all - You also get the piece de résistance in the first ever full live performance of "2112"! No cuts or modifications due to space, just a full on performance.

OH HELL YEA!

Seriously, this is just a great Rush live album and if can only get one, then this is it.

Rating: 9

*


Well, that was part two. Next week we finish the tale with Peart's tragedy, the new decade stuff, some notes on live albums and greatest hits packages, a few video packages, the "Fear" trilogy, and finally I'll hit a few solo projects from the guys.

Until then, you guys keep it real and see you in seven.