[Rick and Roll]

Nothing wrong with an educated opinion.

Ain't no way this ear can hear the things you hear, man. If I could, that would probably concern me too.

The dynamic thing does strike a chord (pardon the pun). I have friends who complain about Iluvatar (especially the vocalist) - same concern. And music is indeed more vibrant with peaks and valleys.

Now here's why I like it. With the exception of a few tracks, I was very pleased with Counterparts. The three releases prior were just spotty, and not up to Rush standards. Keeping that in mind, I was expecting TFE not to be as good. But it's better.

Driven, Virturality, and Time and Motion are very powerful. Just flat out great hard rock.

Time and Motion has traces of Cygnus, Dog Years has Bastille Day riffs, and Half the World had parts of Lakeside Park. A good little flashback, for me.

Half the World, Totem, and The Color of Right are really mature tunes. They have a lot of depth. Limbo is maybe their best instrumental since YYZ.

I really like Neil's lyrics on this record (esp. Half the World, Driven, TFE). The problen is that since Power Windows, Geddy keeps repeating them - he sings way too much in the later rush catalogue.

I'm not real happy with Resist (especially since their live acoustic is so much better) or Dog Years. But overall, it's the cleanest sounding Rush record I've heard.

Now if you want to get me started, explain why Vapor Trails is good.............

Thanks for the post Jim. Hearing your opinion, even if it differs, is exponentially beter than "it sucks" or "it rocks".