Fly By Night
by Rush
Rush bestography
Fly By Night is ranked 10th best out of 38 albums by Rush on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Rush is Moving Pictures which is ranked number 165 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 8,797.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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Fly By Night track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Fly By Night rankings
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Fly By Night ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 383 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 02/07/2026 01:25 |  UofTBlues | 3,622 | 71/100 |
| ! | 01/23/2026 16:50 | hebbo137 | 199 | 79/100 |
| ! | 01/11/2026 14:14 | Sentido | 350 | 83/100 |
| ! | 12/28/2025 10:27 | Exist-en-ciel | 7,508 | 70/100 |
| ! | 11/10/2025 01:38 |  LukasAntoine00s | 381 | 80/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 4% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.7/100, a mean average of 76.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.9.
Fly By Night favourites
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Fly By Night comments
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It's just so good...Fly By Night delivers! Perhaps their best music was still to come, but this release balances accessibility with complexity and ambition - a balance Rush don't always strike with their albums.
A strong release from this iconic Canadian three-piece.
Underrated. To me, Fly By Night is definitely one of the finest works of Rush.
8.5/10
Right from the off, there's Neil Peart. Total gear-shift from the debut album. Increased variety and loads of proggy elements. Good album
A precursor of what was yet to come. This is a very good album and the presence of Neil Peart in the drum stool countered with his lyrical expertise hints to exciting times ahead. Anthem and By Tor set the scene for the classics which will follow
luigybetis 02/10/2017 19:23 | #185217
Rivendell is incredible, I can't understand why it has the lowest rating in the album. In my opinion it is the best only overcome by Anthem, Fly By Night and In The End.
Fischman 12/14/2016 22:17 | #180160
Kickass album here bookended by the superb opening 'Anthem' and close by the epic 'In the End.' All the stuff in between is excellent as well, especially the title cut.
AAL2014 06/07/2016 04:35 | #168089
A very solid second album for Rush. As a whole it's not incredible, but there are some real shining moments. You can really view this as the birth of Rush as we know them as it is the first record to feature Neil Peart on drums and first to introduce the more prog songwriting.
sszwalbenest 07/30/2015 00:24 | #146706
"Anthem" and "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" were quality numbers. The rest is only ok. "In the End" follows musical just about every musical cliche in the book.
covecove 03/30/2013 06:51 | #70551
Not Rush's best album but it has some great moments. The title track for example is THE definition of what Rush should always sound like, three of the best on their respective instruments completely owning the moment, the guitar solo is sublime...
There are quite a few well constructed songs on here (I disagree on every level with junodog's comments about 'songcraft' and 'lyrics' on later albums - I feel Rush would become excellent in both categories in later releases). Sadly, the other half of the songs don't really do much for me. The opener is a blistering rocker - one of the band's best. After that, it's pretty uneven; most tracks have an element I like, such as the acoustic work in Making Memories or the guitar riff in Best I Can, but it doesn't necessarily gel together into a top-tier album.
They still had a little ways to go before they hit their stride.
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