Review:

on 2011-08-23 CharlesMartel Said:

I kind of fell out of love with Rush around this time. To be fair, I had stuck by them through all the criticism they had got during the seventies for being Led Zeppelin clones and then for being the purveyors of overblown concept half albums. But punk had changed my perspective and the lack of money brought about by me becoming a student signified a change in music purchasing. John Bonham had died: rock was dead. I stopped buying Rush albums.

Ironic then that the album which many regard as Rush's finest was the one from which "Tom Sawyer" was drawn. Years later I came back to revisit Rush and while my opinion had not changed sufficiently to prompt me to purchase another album, I did hear "Tom Sawyer" for the first time (as far as I was aware). OK, its OK. Its not great, but it is not what I had expected. Geddy Lee's voice sounds not half bad and the music does well to avoid the excess virtuosity for which they had become known during the seventies. But it is just OK, that's all.
Rating: 6/10