Grace Under Pressure is the tenth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released April 12, 1984, on Anthem Records. Following the tour for 1982’s Signals, which came to an end in April 1983, Rush got together in August to start work on the followup. After some difficulty finding a suitable producer who could commit, and deciding not to go with their hitherto producer Terry Brown, the album was recorded with Peter Henderson. Largely considered one of the band’s darkest albums, Grace Under Pressure was influenced by the growing tensions in the Cold War in the 1980s. The album’s running theme is “pressure” and how humans act under the influence of it.

World events inspired the lyrics, especially the Cold War, the threat of superpowers and the nuclear annihilation and all of that stuff, and these giant missiles pointed at each other across the ocean. Distant Early Warning was written about the loneliness of someone who worked the DEW Line – a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War, and provide early warning of any sea-and-land invasion. Afterimage was written about Robbie Whelan, a tape operator at Le Studio who was killed in a car accident a year prior to the album’s release and is about the loss of a friend. The album was dedicated to his memory.

Red Sector A is a song by Rush that provides a first-person account of a nameless protagonist living in an unspecified prison camp setting. Neil Peart has stated that the detailed imagery in the song intentionally evokes concentration camps of the Holocaust, although he left the lyrics ambiguous enough that they could deal with any similar prison camp scenario. The song was inspired in part by Geddy Lee’s mother’s accounts of the Holocaust. Geddy’s mother Manya was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, while his dad Morris Weinrib, was liberated from the Dachau concentration camp a few weeks after his wife as liberated.

The Enemy Within has this reggae riff and a great bass line that makes it a great song to listen to and chill. Far from the doom and gloom, this upbeat track is rhythmically supreme, especially with Lee’s bass. The Body Electric is both a positive & negative look at the computer age and possible future. No wonder I always associate Rush with Star Trek! Kid Gloves features a staccato guitar riff from Alex Lifeson and is mostly up tempo, is about learning the tough lessons about life, possibly about even school and learning things through trial & error. Similarly Red Lenses, is comparing things that are red and about pressure of war in the horizon while trying to juggle daily lives. Beneath The Wheel is about the dangers of things that can crush you and how you can avoid it but once it can easily crush you and everything can be destroyed.

While staying their rock lane, the band manages to  give war embraces to new age, funk & reggae with enthusiasm. Grace Under Pressure reached number 4 in Canada, number 5 in the UK, and number 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200. It was certified platinum in the U.S. for selling one million copies.