Kid Gloves

A tough-minded song about growing up and learning to handle the world without protection — taking off the "kid gloves" and facing reality with resilience. It functions as something of a thematic sequel to "The Analog Kid" from Signals, following that dreamy youth into harder-edged maturity.

The arrangement is among the more guitar-forward tracks on the album, with Lifeson delivering some aggressive riffing that pushes against the synth textures. It represents the rebalancing of guitar and keyboards that the band was working toward.

While not the most celebrated track on the album, it's a solid mid-album rocker that demonstrates the band's ability to write about universal coming-of-age themes without sentimentality.