The singer Geddy Lee never gets tired of listening to: “All day long”
Any singer who tries their hand at progressive rock is usually in for a few vocal acrobatics. It’s hard for anyone to play any instrument in the genre, so when it comes to singing, most vocalists are going to need to either take some advanced courses in breath support or hope for the best when they try weaving a melody together through nine different sections of an epic tune. While Geddy Lee had no such problem making the kind of vocal leaps Rush did back in the day, he admired what this singer brought to the music world in the 1990s.
By the time Rush entered the age of grunge and alternative music, though, Lee had admittedly cooled it with his higher register. Compared to every other spirited prog singer like Jon Anderson or David Gilmour, Lee had the raw aggression of Robert Plant in his delivery half the time, which made records like Hemispheres sound like Genesis if they had been filtered through the lens of hard rock.
As the band entered the 1980s, it was clear that Lee had to change things up. No vocalist could sing that high forever, and that meant he tried to create more simplistic melodies without sacrificing the integrity of the song. That didn’t mean that the group suddenly stopped taking chances, either.
Going through their catalogue in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, they always tried to balance the number of keyboards and guitars on each record, leading to pop tunes like ‘Time Stand Still’ on one record and heavy-as-hell guitar tracks like ‘Animate’ only a few albums later. It was all a part of being fearless, but Bjork had been taking those chances before she became a solo star.
As far back as her days in the Sugarcubes, the Icelandic marvel had been building textures on every song she sang, whether that meant working outside of the conventional time signatures or throwing in wild jazz pastiches out of nowhere. Even if not everything was radio-friendly, it was still something different, and Lee was absolutely transfixed by what he was hearing.
When talking about the newer names in music that he loved, Lee said that he always had time to listen to Bjork, saying, “I can’t really say that I feel very current. I look on the charts here at the record company and I don’t recognise half the bands. I am probably a bit embarrassed to admit that I am not very current, but I picked up some records the other day that had some very interesting music. I never get sick of listening to Bjork’s voice. She could sing to me all day long.”
But part of the reason why Bjork works so well is that she never stays in one lane for too long. Post definitely has traces of everything from industrial music to jazzy ballads, but Homogenic may as well have taken place in another galaxy, especially when she brings in those sweeping strings on ‘Joga’.
For true artists like Lee and Bjork, that’s what music is all about. Anyone can try their hand at being the next shiny pop star, but it’s much more fun to take risks and let the chips fall where they may every time you write a tune.
