“Subdivisions” by Rush

Rush's 1982 album Signals gave up "Subdivisions" as its second single, and it's the sound of a power trio rewiring itself. The song came out of soundcheck jams between tour dates after Moving Pictures had paid off, rough ideas caught on cassette and hammered into shape, and at its core sits Geddy Lee's synthesizer rather than a guitar riff. With Lee's hands on the keys, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart locked together as the rhythm section, Lifeson even working the bass pedals, and the whole thing moves with a cool, clipped precision.

Lee and Lifeson wrote the music and Peart the words, and Terry Brown produced alongside the band, with Paul Northfield engineering. In the US it reached No. 5 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.