Exit... Stage Left is a *horribly* produced and mastered album.

I agree with you so much on that point that ESL is the only Rush album I have that is not in my empeg. And keep in mind that Rush is virtually the only rock music I have. (Well, Tony made me get Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon") He keeps sending me snippets of music that he likes, and I keep sending him snippets of music that I like. I keep the ones he sends me in a playlist called "STSMTIDTIL" (Songs Tony Sent Me That I Don't Think I Like). He tells me he has a very similar playlist in his empeg, called "Classical".

On the other hand I *love* the versions of La Villa Strangiato and The Trees on ESL

I love "La Villa" so much that I don't care for the ESL performance of it. Even the difference between "Hemispheres" and the re-mastered "Hemispheres" performances of La Villa are such that I took the original version off my player and keep only the re-master. If you don't have the re-mastered "Hemispheres" you owe it to yourself to get it. After listening to it, the original is like listening to them play in a closed room across the hall.

tanstaafl.