Rush
Fly By Night

THE REVIEW

The Rush are one of the best things contemporary music has given birth to. Deciding to focus on one of their albums is tremendously difficult, given the vast and varied discography they have produced.

It's 1975, and the band is on its second album. The self-titled one from 1974, their first release, has the flavor of the seventies but something is missing: despite the technical and compositional skills of leader Geddy Lee (bassist-singer) the tracks do not fully stand out, even if they wanted to break out of that terrible heard-it-before hole (it was the golden era of Led Zeppelin, and Lee's screeches on that seventies platform made him too similar to Plant).

In Fly By Night there's a novelty: a new drummer, Neil Peart, a sacred monster of percussion (and still considered one of the best and most eclectic drummers in rock), joins the band. And it’s a whole different music! The Rush gain vitality, as if they had met the love of their life ("wow... you look great! What have you done?"). Anthem, the opening track, is surprising. The sound does not deny the seventies, but it has matured incredibly. The drums energetically support the instruments, which, as if they have gained confidence, indulge in structured and exhilarating compositions.
Geddy Lee's bass, Alex Lifeson's guitar, and Peart's drums engage in continuous "ménage à trois" like "Best I Can" or "Beneath, Between & Behind." It’s in "By-Tor & The Snow Dog" and its progressive orientation that the future of the band is read, dominated by breaks, compound times, and experimentation. The title track "Fly By Night" follows, incredibly fascinating with its genuineness and that bass line that blocks all its "impossible" variations.

That is, and that will forever remain. Fly By Night is surely an excellent album to start getting to know these three "brilliant minds."