I listened to AFTK only this year, actually - in the course of an exercise to listen through the whole Rush studio canon while cycling. I still don't like it, yet I do have a grudging affection for it - it's been improved by a patina of nostalgia, furnished by the many times I listened to it as a teenager, trying to like it. Time and time again I listened to it, hoping that it would just "click". Eventually I was forced to conclude that I wasn't missing anything, it really is a poor record unfortunately.
And that really saddened me, because it was my first "new" Rush record, the first one to be released since I became a fan. No getting round it, my favourite band had dropped a clunker on me.
But that made the thrill of Hemispheres, a year later, all the sweeter.
