FLY BY NIGHT

The opening riffs to "Anthem" inform the listener that someone new is behind the kit, someone not to be trifled with. Neil Peart's first album with Rush contains some gems such as "Anthem" and "Fly By Night", but overall the band is still basically playing a very standard Zeppelin influenced hard rock/heavy blues. Certainly the musicianship has been raised up several notches with the addition of Peart; the playing sounds tighter, more focused. The track "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" gives us a glimmer of what is to come, but the album version is slow and listless compared to the absoutely stunning performance of it on "All The World's a Stage" (one of this reviewer's favorite live tracks by any band, ever.) The line from "Making Memories" is apt: "our future still looks brighter than our past". The album is a good step up from their debut but non-essential.