 | edt4 (99)
10/15/2007 |  This was my introduction to Rush. I loved it and played it constantly, although Geddy Lee's voice definitely took getting used to. Neil Peart, of course, is one of the best rock drummers ever (which anybody with any interest in music assuredly knows by now). I was a callow teen when I first listened to it-- had no idea who Ayn Rand was, wasn't interested in the "stories" of By-Tor and other fantastical creations, found the Neil Peart drum solos only marginally less boring than those of Peter Criss on the "Kiss" live album-- but I liked the majority of their music...it touched something deep within my adolescent soul. Listening to it now, as a middle-aged adult, I find some of the songs (ok, a lot of them) silly and a bit pretentious, perhaps, but their best songs from this album still move me. I know they've always gotten a critical bad rap (I think Robert Cristgau used to rate any album they put out as a D or D-) and I'm not quite sure why. Yes, they can be derivative, but being derivative includes everyone from Guns'N'Roses to Heart to Aerosmith (Rush also haven't sold themselves out like Aerosmith or Ted Nugent have done). And they can veer a bit too frequently into pretentiousness, but just as often into spheres of aural beauty and they're very seldom dull. Also, they've persevered over the decades and are still going strong, and longevity has to count for something in a culture infested with the likes of Britney Spears and Kid Rock. They're not my favorite group by any means, but their best work is really good, in my opinion, and this album still contains some of their best work.
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