I had a very
similar experience.
They were my
first “favourite band,” discovered them when I was about 12, shortly after the
release of ATWAS, and to this day I list them among my favourites.
But like
you, I went through a 12-year stretch where I stopped buying their albums, declaring
their last worthwhile album to be Grace Under Pressure – dismissing all subsequent
releases as synth heavy, light on guitar and pop leaning.
Then in the late 90s, on a
Genesis forum, of all places, I was chatting with a fellow Rush fan and after expressing my passion for the band's early output, he encouraged me to give Counterparts a try.
And so I did,
not expecting to be impressed, and was completely taken aback.
It made me realize at that point,
I hadn’t really given the albums after GUP a proper chance. Instead, judging
them largely based on individual tracks that seemed to support my previous
dismissal.
So I bought
the missing albums and went through a period of discovery and grew to appreciate this previously maligned group of albums.
I also share
the view Rush went out on a high.
Their last
three studio albums I thought were great.