Fly by Night [Remaster] - Rush (CD 1997)

(Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Album Overview" section. The section titled "Detailed Track Discussion" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and they do not constitute the essence of this review. Lastly and most importantly, this review is not necessarily written by the point of view of a Rush fan.)

Introduction

OK so Neil Peart joins the band! ... Nerd.

Track Listing

Best song:

Anthem B-
Best I Can A-
Beneath, Between and Behind C+
By-Tor and the Snow Dog B
Fly By Night B+
Making Memories B-
Rivendell C-
In the End C-

Overall score: 4/5 (weak)

Review Body

Pretty much everyone in the world hates this band except for a class of people known as geeks. But I like them. They're a heavy-metal/prog band but at least they keep their material at a relatively accessible level. This is a pretty good album; there's nothing dismal about this at all. Major complaints come at the end where the Tolkein fantasy ballad "Rivendell" puts me to sleep, which incidentally reminds me of my experiences reading the book! The conclusion, "In the End" is pretty messy and, if you ask me, musically silly. But up until the final third, this is a solid product.

My favorite song is easily "Best I Can" is a fun song with some great guitar crunches and, yes, we can hear Neil Peart's excellent drums enhance the sound of the song. Peart used the album's introduction, "Anthem" to show off everything he can do with the drums (which is kind of fun to hear), but that was done to the expense of the songwriting! Alex Lifeson also shows off in that track, but ... would you rather listen to a bunch of dorks in their mid-20s show off their instrumental skills or listen to a real *SONG?* ... A song for me, thanks.

Rush's first epic prog song comes in the form of "By-Tor and the Snow Dog." Well, I could use the lyrics as toilet paper, but the song is structured well and it's fun to hear. It's a generally solid song although they clearly lacked the type of inspiration that drove such bands as Genesis.

Rush is a band that really doesn't seem to mean anything to anyone who champions songwriting. This seems to be more of a band of three virtuosos. (Well, Geddy's singing does get awfully annoying sometimes). Nonetheless, many of these songs are fairly well written and, as virtuosos, these guys sound like they know what they're doing. And, there's nothing like listening to the electric guitar and drumming of people who know what they're doing!

Detailed Track Reviews:

I'm wary of any album that starts with a song called "Anthem." Especially if the band has a reputation for being prog-rock! Well, for crying out loud, this song isn't much different from their debut album except the drummer sounds more keyed up! There are a lot of power chords here although I don't get the feeling that this is just another blatant rip-off of Led Zeppelin. OK, so I like the drumming, but this time I do think Geddy Lee's vocal performance is just a tad bit over the top. The electric guitar solo is incredibly quick and tight (unlike the debut), which was probably done to match the style of the new drummer. So the instrumentation is technically proficient and show-offey (on the other hand, what would bands like Rush be if they weren't show-offey?) One major thing about this song I don't like at all is that they seemed to have forgotten about the hooks. This is one big old hunk of bland hard rock! They took this opportunity to triumph their instrumental skills instead of their songwriting skills (which they clearly do possess). This kind of decision will sink anyone! OK, I'm exaggerating a bit ... I also admit some sort of geeky pleasure in listening to these guys play their instruments.

OK, I'm relieved. "Best I Can" is more of a return to songwriting this time, so I can rest easy! Now, we can hear all of Neal Pearts drum playing actually enhance an already well-written song instead of all that show-offey stuff on "Anthem." The song has a catchy melody and some particularly fun crunches of the electric guitar. This is an excellent arena rock song! The electric guitar solo is much more accessible, too. OK, Rush doesn't suck after all.

There are many guitar chords in "Beneath, Between and Behind" ... so much so that I just get the feeling that they're doing it to be loud and little else! Where's the melody? I get all the guitar chords, the loud drumming and the scales, but is that all there is to it? ... This isn't prog-rock, guys. It's just show-offey nonsense!!!! ... And it's well played. But even a top-notch piano player would be capable of botching up Beethoven.

Oh yeah, Rush is a prog-rock band. "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" not only features a funny song name, but it's nearly nine minutes long! Ouch!!! As you might have guessed, the lyrics behind this song came from uber-geek Peart who liked to read fantasy novels. There's nothing wrong with writing songs about fantasy novels, but that does make you seem like big geeks! The good news is that this geeky hard-rock/prog-rock song is basically enjoyable. Guitarist Alex Lifeson makes a weird barking noise with his guitar, which I can't say I've ever heard before. Peart seizes the moment to do some drum soloing (which I don't care for). Oh, there are a few flaws, though. The choppy chords could have been substituted for something a little more effective. The slow, atmospheric part in the middle kind of came all of the sudden, although it's not bad in itself. I know Styx tried doings songs like this but were nowhere near this successful, so I guess Rush is kind of awesome in that way. This song is very well played and very enjoyable despite the flaws.

"Fly By Night" is a fun and catchy hard rock song. Nothing can make a song better than a catchy melody ... even cheesy hard-rock/prog-rock groups such as Rush! The song is relatively simple by design. The occasional electric guitar chord, and Peart does his own nutty things with the drums. There's an electric guitar solo thrown in here for good measure. ... Well, this isn't as catchy as all of the bad songs The Beatles wrote, but this is pretty good for this group.

I guess it's time for an acoustic track! And make it sound like a Led Zeppelin accoustic track, why doncha? Anyway, "Making Memories" isn't a bad work at all! It's a good work if anything. I like the acoustic strumming and the riff they're playing. The melody is slightly less catchier than a Led Zeppelin folk song. The chorus is good! Points off for lack of originality, but this is a decent Zep send-up.

These dorks like The Lord of the Rings! ... Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm going to shut up now. Technically I shouldn't hate this because it sounds like they're pretty serious about what they're singing and not engaged in musical hackery like their contemporaries, Kansas. The song is done in an English folk style except without the cool, Medieval chord progressions! If they would have used some nice chord progressions, I probably would have loved it. But it's just boring. It's just a guitar strumming, Geddy singing very gently (which is almost refreshing) and some dumb old synth-pad playing in the background. Peart is nowhere to be found! Well, he wrote the lyrics, at least. I do appreciate their dorkiness, but this is a major snoozefest.

Ooo, they really kind of fizzled out. "In the End" is a weird song that jumps between its initial slow section to a hard-rocking section to a bunch of choppy chords and a lackluster ending. The transition between the sections are extremely spotty, and as a whole the song comes off as a mess. There are a few moments in this song that are OK. Notably around the song's final third, the song is generally good. I read a review of this album that said Rush was *ahem* rushed trying to put this album out as early as possible. Unfortunately, I think "In the End" was one of the victims.

Concluding remarks

This hard rock band adopts some fantasy lyrics and some prog leanings! ... Nerds.