Hold Your Fire

Hold Your Fire is the twelfth studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released in the fall of 1987. The album was recorded at The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey, Air Studios in Montserrat and at McClear Place in Toronto.

Although Hold Your Fire uses nearly as much synthesizer as its predecessor, Power Windows, Hold Your Fire’s guitar riffs and solos are considerably more prominent on several songs. Nevertheless, like with Power Windows, some Rush fans consider repeated listening to be the main factor in enjoying Hold Your Fire.

In terms of songwriting, Rush continued to explore new territory with Hold Your Fire. The song “Tai Shan”, for example, has significant eastern influences, and is a reference to Mount Tai, in Shandong province. Til Tuesday bassist and vocalist Aimee Mann contributed the first vocals from an artist outside of Rush to "Time Stand Still" (she also appears in the Zbigniew Rybczynski-directed video for the song). Mann's laughter is also sampled in the opening minute of the song "Force Ten." Finally, like with previous Rush albums, Hold Your Fire features complex bass lines that deviate from the guitar riffs.

Hold Your Fire stalled at #13 (the first time a Rush studio album failed to reach the Top 10 since 1978's Hemispheres) and sold a million copies according to the band's then-label Mercury Records although the American RIAA has it listed at Gold.

Track listing
All music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson and lyrics by Neil Peart, except where noted.

"Force Ten" (lyrics: Peart, Pye Dubois) – 4:31
"Time Stand Still" – 5:09
"Open Secrets" – 5:38
"Second Nature" – 4:36
"Prime Mover" – 5:19
"Lock and Key" – 5:09
"Mission" – 5:16
"Turn the Page" – 4:55
"Tai Shan" – 4:15
"High Water" – 5:33
Personnel
Geddy Lee – bass guitar, synthesizers, vocals
Alex Lifeson – electric and acoustic guitars
Neil Peart – drums, percussion
Aimee Mann – additional vocals ("Time Stand Still")
Andy Richards – additional keyboards
Steven Margoshes – strings arranger and conductor
Geddy Introduces the Roland D-50 to his keyboard use.

Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1987 The Billboard 200 13

Singles
Information
"Time Stand Still"
Released:
Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson & Neil Peart
Produced by: Peter Collins and Rush
Chart positions: #3 US Mainstream Rock

"Force Ten"
Released:
Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart & Pye Dubois
Produced by: Peter Collins and Rush
Chart positions: #3 US Mainstream Rock

"Lock and Key"
Released:
Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson & Neil Peart
Produced by: Peter Collins and Rush
Chart positions: #16 US Mainstream Rock

"Prime Mover"
Released:
Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson & Neil Peart
Produced by: Peter Collins and Rush
Chart positions:

Remaster Details
A remaster was issued in 1997.

The tray has a picture of three fingerprints, light blue, pink, and lime green (left to right) with THE RUSH REMASTERS printed in all caps just to the left. All remasters from Moving Pictures through to A Show of Hands are like this. This is just like the cover art of Retrospective II.
Includes all the artwork that came with the original album.