I skimmed over the posts but I'm guessing I agree completely with Gr00vus and wikkidpissah, you just cannot have enough Rush albums on here. And, listen, I get the jist of what you guys are saying, Moving Pictures is a fantastic album bordering on perfection and this thread needs more Rush albums to keep it going, great thinking!
So I used to go to lunch with a couple of guys, one loved Rush as much as I do and another one hated Rush as much as our Rush hating friends in this thread. This is like 30 years ago now so this love-hate of Rush has been going on for a LONG time.
Anyway, this one day Pete (big Rush fan) says "I mean, you gotta love Peart's lyrics, they're so well thought out, not like this crap you hear on the radio now." Brian (not a Rush fan) says "oh yeah, that line Catch the Spirit, Catch the Spit, that's soooo well thought out and has suuuuch deep meaning to me, I meant that's just pure genius." Pete says "he didn't write the lyrics to Tom Sawyer, Pye Dubois wrote that." And without missing a beat Brian said "oh, I see, so the great lyrical genius Neil Peart didn't write the lyrics to their most famous song, got it." And on and on the argument would go through lunch.
I get it the hate, I used to detest Rush myself but I'm a convert. All my HS friends were huge into Rush in the 80's, I was into heavier groups until I "discovered" old Rush when I was in college and then slowly I came around, album by album, song by song. I opened up my mind to it, I think it's probably an acquired taste for some, some like it instantly, some never will. I don't understand why it bothers people so much, I do find Rush to be polarizing for some reason.
I will say this much, to me, 4 of my favorite 5 Rush albums are from that era, those being Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Signals and Power Windows. To me, those four albums almost sound like they were recorded at the same time and just divided out into different albums. My fifth favorite is Fly By Night. I used to think of Limelight as "whiny" too but then as I have grown older and I've been around more people, I always thought that was Neil's way of saying he's socially awkward or that he has asperger's syndrome but what do I know?