FLY BY NIGHT

I decided that this would be either the worst three or the best two that I have ever given, and I gave it one more listen before writing this review just to be sure. This album isn't particularly bad, indeed it has it's good parts/songs, but in all honesty it doesn't come quite up to par with even much mediocre prog and especially anything the band made between 2112 and Hold Your Fire (which is a lot of music). It was obviously a step up from their debut and the inception of Neil Peart now sets the band's progress in motion. The Led Zeppelin influences are unmistakable, but it is definitely the hard prog Rush we know and love, just in it's infancy (in fact... practically just born). Overall the material presented in this album is a bit raw and immature, especially for progressive rock, but serves as an adequate hard rock album nonetheless, and proves that band can write decent music and play like real rock musicians. It almost seems like Alex is the lesser musician of the band now, which definitely says something. The main highlights are Fly by Night, as good if not better than much of the material on Caress of Steel and even 2112, along with By-Tor and the snow dog, which is probably the biggest indicator of progressive thinking, most likely thanks to our intellectual friend Peart. Anthem, the opener, is a pretty good track as well. Keyboard, story-based songwriting, and musicianship are all presented, if not hinted at in this album. Geddy's singing is probably the worst part of the album, which is not so bad, though he has a ways to go before he finds his own unique sound. I recommend this album primarily for Rush fans alone who love their music, even that which isn't spectacularly progressive. My concluding rating is a around a 2.4/5.