So I'm doing something with Rush I've never done with any other band. I'm (kinda) discovering them by listening to their entire discography in chronological order. The discussion on DTF gave me the motivation for that.
You know, I'm the diehard prog fan that only cared for what people said were their proggy albums, and wasn't in the slightest interested in the post-MP albums (DT lol) that had shorter songs, more synthetizers, etc. (for what people said, not that I listened to any of them). So I got from 2112 to Moving Pictures. And I liked YYZ, The Camera Eye (mi favorite song from them), parts of 2112, etc. but never considered any of their albums a masterpiece.
Until I listened to Hemispheres (I left that one for last I don't know why). %$&$ %&$$ what an album!!! It's incredible from start to finish, I love every second of it. Of course, it's the ideal album for a prog fan with the epic and the instrumental and everything, but I've finally seen Rush as a truly great band, and I can certainly appreciate the changes in their sound and styles even in the short span of 5 albums. From Hemispheres to Moving Pictures is already a big leap! So what I'm going to do is a study on their evolution as a band, at the same time listening to their other 9 albums for their first time. I hope it's gonna be an Amazing Journey.
EDIT: The name of the first song I'm gonna listen to is "Finding My Way", and the last is "We Hold On". They work very well as opener and closer IMO.