** RUSH “Presto” <i> Atlantic</i>

It sounds like a Rush album all right--the stuff that half a dozen rock ‘n’ roll revolutions haven’t been able to wipe out. Geddy Lee’s eerily Siouxsie-like wail careers over an ocean of Alex Lifeson’s moody guitar effects; Neil Peart’s drumming is so laid-back you fear he might fall asleep at any moment. The sparely arranged songs, with their spacey lyrics, seem written with stadium performance in mind--Rush learned how to tweak their formula a long time ago, and aren’t about to change things any more than the Stones are--the facetiousness that launched a thousand Bics. After 16 years, the band still sounds a little sad that they’ve never come up with a “Dark Side of the Moon” of their own. Compared to the progressive wing of metal these days, guys like Metallica and King’s X, Rush seems as dated as an AMC Pacer. There is a certain mastery of craft here though, and even an occasional killer riff, man. Later, dude.