UNIVERSAL JUVENILES

I've recently been compiling a top 30 all time favourite albums and for some reason 'Check' (Track 2) popped into my head so I revisited my vinyl copy of this once fav of mine. The result? it's a very serious contender for my top 30 and put a big smile on my face in the process. I bought it originally back in 1980 on the strength of the Rush duet 'Battlescar' but to be honest whilst that track is a belter it's not the most polished of them (I believe it was recorded 'live' ie a single take) with three out of the other four tracks on side A standing solidly against it (and two of those are definitely better). After buying it again on CD (just so I could get it in the car/office - something I rarely do if I've got the vinyl), I subsequently worked through their back catalogue, but whilst there are a few superb tracks amongst their earlier works - 'Gravity', 'Hangover', The Party', 'Oh War', and 'Research At Beach Resorts' - no one album matches this one for overall quality. As this is a mainly prog archive, and though it merits more than a 4, I feel that a '5' might just be a tad too much.