1-I Overture
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
4:33
1-II The Temples Of Syrinx
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
2:12
1-III Discovery
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
3:29
1-IV Presentation
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
3:42
1-V Oracle: The Dream
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
2:00
1-VI Soliloquy
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
2:21
1-VII Grand Finale
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
2:14
2 A Passage To Bangkok
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
3:34
3 The Twilight Zone
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
3:17
4 Lessons
Lyrics By – Alex Lifeson
3:50
5 Tears
Keyboards – Hugh Syme
Lyrics By – Geddy Lee
3:30
6 Something For Nothing
Lyrics By – Neil Peart
3:58
Credits:
Bass, Vocals – Geddy Lee
Guitar – Alex Lifeson
Percussion – Neil Peart

Even though the lyrics of this record rely heavily on the writings and philosophy of Ayn Rand, don't think for a minute about throwing the baby out with the bathwater, because this album shines regardless of any mediocre novelist/faux "philosopher" who inspired its thematic content.

Geddy Lee can't sing, but he can screech. He can screech better than any banshee. And while he's not the most attractive thing to look at up there on the stage (not his fault, he was born that way), he can sure play bass and synthesizer simultaneously like no other rocker in history.

Don't confuse Alex Lifeson for Jimmy Page. But don't confuse Steve Jones for Alex Lifeson. When the guitar needs to sound like science fiction itself — as it does on 2112 — or later in their careers when it sounds like an outlawed automobile being chased by an "alloy air car," nobody in rock history has ever made the electric guitar sound so consistently and convincingly dystopian.

Neil Peart? Ever heard of him? If you haven't, he's the most technically skilled (or was, in his prime in the 1970s & 80s), versatile, and virtuosic rock drummer who's ever lived. Set the needle (if you have one) on side one of 2112, and listen to Overture/Temples of Syrinx, and hear the incomparable blitzing beat of genius. He drums faster than a bullet train, but it's intelligible-fast, each thwack distinguishable from the one preceding it, unlike the fast-thrash-ubiquitous-bashing predominant in today's harder-tinged music.

The Sex Pistols released one album in their "career" — iconic and influential as it was, granted — that garnered them a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While Rush, dozens of great albums out, all (except their first) filled with Neil Peart's poetry — yes, poetry — lyrics that could pass as poetry and not just lyrics (read Closer to the Heart, The Trees, Freewill & Red Barchetta for starters), and worldwide critical acclaim (except in almighty America) are not — huh? — in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Get serious. Rush, in fact, hasn't even been nominated for the Hall of Fame. Absurd.

I'm no rock critic, but I'd posit that if a "career" based solely on 1977s, Never Mind The Bollocks by the Sex Pistols, is worthy of Hall of Fame status, then so should Rush gain entrance into the Hall of Fame based solely on its 1976 release, 2112 — an album sonically superior and lyrically more astute (even despite Ayn Rand's nefarious influence) than that raucous, one-chordish, and angry (but not very bright) Sex Pistols record. ( )