Through the Camera Eye - Rush

Through the Camera Eye compiles eight of Rush's early-'80s videos, although "Tom Sawyer" was actually extracted from the Exit...Stage Left live video. As with many '80s videos, there are plenty of cheesy, dated moments, but several clever moments too. "Distant Early Warning" is one of Rush's best, most consistent videos. The performance footage is strong, but this war-themed video is perhaps most notable for the boy-riding-a-missile sequences, which shamelessly rip off the famous scene of Slim Pickens riding an atomic bomb in Stanley Kubrick's classic film Dr. Strangelove. "Vital Signs" was filmed at Le Studio, where Rush recorded many albums. "The Body Electric" and "The Enemy Within" use the same set, and both contain hokey yet well-intentioned science-fiction elements. "Subdivisions" and "Countdown" both use the same performance set too (obviously a money-saving practice in the early days of music video); the former brilliantly depicts a lonely suburban teenager, while the latter includes NASA footage of the first space shuttle launch. "Afterimage," a vastly underrated song from Grace Under Pressure, touches on the emotions that survivors feel after a loved one dies. The video captures these themes superbly through the intensity of drummer/lyricist Neil Peart and the abstract, Victorian-era concept scenes, some of which show a little boy at a funeral. [Through the Camera Eye is out of print in the United States.] ~ Bret Adams, All Music Guide