I will point out that if you look at their studio albums in sets of four, the first was always the weekest and the latter two almost always the strongest. In this sense it's almost as if they "jumped the shark" several times in order to re-invent themselves.

Yeah, they've always talked about how they tend to move in cycles where each four-album group is a cohesive subsection of their musical focus. That is why they choose to do live albums as "snapshots" at those points. Although the Rush In Rio DVD and album release seem to have messed up that pattern, I'm glad they did it because it makes up for the fact that we never got a DVD out of the Test For Echo (Different Stages) tour.

Anyway, you're right, the strong albums always seem to be the third and/or fourth album of each four-album group. Hm. Makes me think I need to cut them a little slack about Vapor Trails, since it's the first one out of the gate after the last group. (Although I think the standout from the last group of four was Counterparts, the third, rather than Test For Echo, the fourth.) (Not that I wasn't already cutting them slack, with the tragedies that induced the hiatus.)

By the way, played the arcade version of EA's "Need for Speed" over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised to hear "One Little Victory" as the background music for one of the courses...