Rush
As I've repeatedly said, Snakes and Arrows (2007) is one of their best, if not THE BEST ever.
But more than that, they always changed with the times and it's hard to compare the Rush of '77 with that of '87 as they are very different sounding bands and not necessarily "better" and "worse" because the sound, while still "Rushesque" is just so different.
Still, I maintain that overall their musical and song writing ability has progressed. That's why a great song like "Closer to the Heart" is not as musically advanced or sophisticated as a song like "Mission" (one of my absolute favorites). It may be that one will like "Closer to the Heart" better, but "Mission" is by far the more accomplished song.
So while one may like a certain era of Rush better than another, it is not like one is so clearly "good" and another just "bad" like so many other bands. Take a dozen Rush songs from all stages of their output and the more recent ones tend to be more complex and mature at least than the more unstructured/undisciplined earlier years, and this shows a growth of creativity and artistry few bands exhibit over the years, much less decades.
Take, for instance, the album openers: "Far Cry", "Dreamline", "Tom Sawyer", "Bastille Day", "Force Ten", "The Big Money", "Animate", "The Spirit of the Radio" or "Fly By Night"...which is "better"? If pressed I'd say "Tom Sawyer" is the best of all of these, but then I find myself listening to most of the others just as frequently because all of them are great in their own ways. At the very least one is not overwhelmingly "better" than any other, and none are "bad" at all, in fact they are all great songs. Some are just "more greater".
Nor are any Rush albums incredibly better or worse over any others (save Rush, Counterparts, Caress of Steel, and Test For Echo which are Rush's worst 4 albums imo). That's because Rush's level of quality has rarely slipped over the years, and instead increased overall I maintain.
And again, enough Rush rambling...
