FLY BY NIGHT

They hadn't fully moved into the realm of progressive rock, but what differentiates their second album from the debut is that Fly By Night is a full-fledged classic rock album, with emphasis on the word classic. Their songwriring ability had obviously grown since the first, and not just because of the addition of the always insightful lyricist and drummer Neil Peart. Through their first few releases, Rush wrote a handful of charactaristically original rock song album tracks, and these are their best ones, especially "Best I Can" and "Beneath, Between and Behind." They're still rocking just as hard as on the first (even harder on the energetic and greatly penned "Anthem"), and they even start to explore prog rock territory on the somewhat lightheartedly adventous "By-Tor and the Snow Dog." At some points, it's apparent that they are still a young band at writing, but the songs are stuffed with so many attention grabbers, like the guitar and bass battle in "By-Tor", the very weed-friendly mixing job put on all the songs, best exemplified on the greatly arranged and supremely catchy title track, and the closing "In the End" is one of their most emotinoally resonant heavy rock songs. They would get even more creative on future recordings, but it can be said that they never again made an album that sounds exactly like Fly By Night.