I happen to also be a Rush fan, more of yore -- though Michael, I don't think their DOWNFALL was until, say, Presto

...
But I like some songs I heard off Vapor. I have this friend over right now, he's watching the World Series with my husband (Bay Area, Go Giants ...) and I showed him the article. Interesting. A non-audio guy but such a Rush fan he's gone on pilgrimages to places in Canada where he knows members are from, spent time in, etc. His devotion to the band far eclipses mine ... I asked him first, "What do you think of Vapor trails?" His response: "Oh, .... it's alright."
"What don't you like about it?"
"It has no punch," he settled on, after struggling with how to describe such sonics the way non-audio-engineers do.
The general public hears this shit. It's not just musicians and engineers who know this kind of processing is unnatural. It's the sonic equivalent of a Twinkie, or Wonderbread. Really, we all know it's made up.
He was pissed when I showed him the wave forms.
And I want to add that, my favorite Rush album of ALL TIME has to be Hemispheres ... Right after that, Moving Pix. The thing is, when you listen to old Rush, their art-prog-rock days, you understand dynamics are a huge part of who they are. They're not Incubus! It's not pop-metal! This mastering style is ill-suited to them.
It's like in some Back Room, the record mooks have 5 mastering algorithms they plug everything into based on genre ... like those cheap boom boxes that offer up EQ presets such as "Jazz" and "Rock" and "Country" ... well, THANK YOU for tellin' me jest how Ah Lahk ta Hair Mah Moozik ... Cuz I's too Stoo-pid ta figger out mah-selfs ...