FLY BY NIGHT

Honestly, this album is harder to listen to for me than their debut. While RUSH had begun to shed some of their hard rock cloning habits by even this point in their career, and the addition of NEIL PEART saw an immediate increase in quality of the lyrics, there is still far too much here that isn't quite... well, the Rush we know and love. "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" and the title track are wonderful pieces, the former being a progressive epic that still has a great deal of hard rock in it and the later being a beautiful acoustic piece. However, I honestly can't recall the other tracks aside from "Anthem" even immediately afterward.

In regard to "Anthem": I REALLY don't like Ayn Rand, so a song about one of her books just serves to annoy me. This would be petty of me if not for the fact that the song is built around copping LED ZEPPELIN moves, from the riffs to the vocals.

If you get this, it would only be for the title track and "By-Tor." Two stars.