2112

That this embarrassment of an album is highly praised by anyone who is not a Metal and Sci Fi-obsessed pimply teenage fanboy is simply inexplicable. It's full of pointless pretention and ludicrous concepts together with some of the worst singwriting Rush have ever committed to vinyl. Yes, this is defintiely where Prog Rush was born, but all the problems of that particular period - and they are legion - are here in full force; heavy-handed experimentation side by side with tired cliché, ludicrously high intellectual ambitions entirely unmet and laughable philosophizing with all the depth of a sun-dried puddle.

The Prog period that this ushered in was definitely better on these counts, but this is obviously a faltering step into that area with heart (and brain) still firmly in Hard Rock territory. I believe Rush got better the more they moved away from both these aspects; the stiff virtuosity of their Prog style as well the hackneyed Hard Rock that they started out with, and there's really nothing *but* these two aspects on this album.

So, this is one for completionists, Hard rockers or Objectivists. Not for anyone else.