This album marked the transition between old Rush (Hemispheres, long songs, sci-fi lyrics) and new Rush (Moving Pictures, shorter songs, more mainstream lyrics). In turn, it ends up having the best of both worlds. For example, the great opening combo of Spirit of The Radio and Freewill gave a taste of what was to come on Moving Pictures with Tom Sawyer, Limelight, etc. And Natural Science was a sort of mini-epic comparable to (and actually better than) Hemispheres. Those three songs are absoulte classics, but Jacob’s Ladder is nearly as good, and Different Strings and Entre Nous are about as close as Rush ever got to a ballad, and they are both adequate songs. Geddy arguably turns in his best performance ever on bass here (with the possible exception of MP), and, the lyrics are, of course, excellent (especially Natural Science with it’s usage of tide pools as a metahpor for the human race in a sort of future Utopia). Overall, just an excellent album.