And that's what keeps this thread jumping!
I've posted about this before, but I first got into Rush between Signals and GUP, which is when we first got cable and MTV. I'm pretty sure I knew that Rush existed going back to elementary school, but I didn't get into popular/rock music until the summer between 8th grade and high school (1981). The Countdown and Subdivisions videos were my introduction to Rush, and I borrowed a lot of the back catalog from a friend's brother during late '82 and into '83. I was super excited for GUP -- my first "new" Rush album -- but I can recall seeing the video for Distant Early Warning on MTV and thinking "hmmmm...." And then I bought the album when it was released in April 1984, and I was seriously bummed -- especially by that infamously bad inner sleeve photo (at that time, a band's look still mattered to me).
Clearly my Rush story is different - first album I heard was Counterparts and then I went back in a pretty random fashion (I guess whatever happened to be available at the local store when I was actually able to purchase something)...If I remember correctly, it was something like 2112, then Fly By Night, and Power Windows. After that, I thought maybe I should do it more chronologically
And so I went with phase 2 in order, Farewell, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. By then, I was 100% sold and had cemented my Rush fandom.
I do love the synth phase. Power Windows is my favorite, GUP is a close second, then Signals and Hold Your Fire. Signals has Subdivisions which, no matter how many times I've heard, I never get tired of. There's plenty of other songs I love (Analog Kid, Losing It...), but IMO it doesn't quite reach the heights of GUP and PoW - I don't know, those two albums are truly special to me.
What was about GUP that bummed you out, in comparison to Signals? Was it the sound (which admittedly is not my favorite, especially in the drums department)? Or was it the songs overall? And then I imagine it got even worse for you with PoW