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Snakes & Arrows

Rush - Snakes & Arrows Audio CD

A fair review of the Rush "Snakes & Arrows" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Rush reviews here, or go back to the Rush tabs.

Band: Rush
Title: Snakes & Arrows
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-05-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Far Cry 2: Armor and Sword 3: Workin' Them Angels 4: Larger Bowl 5: Spindrift 6: Main Monkey Business 7: Way the Wind Blows 8: Hope 9: Faithless 10: Bravest Face 11: Good News First 12: Malignant Narcissism 13: We Hold On

Rush is great!
It's great! Like everything they've ever done!. This is but another chapter in the book of Rush.

Really strong, they have little to prove
Anything they write will inevitably be compared to their most successful release "Moving Pictures," and all have fallen short, in most peoples estimation. Rush has been around for quite some time now, and I'm not quite sure what to say whenever a newer album of theirs comes out. Its hard to say where this one falls into the pantheon of Rush music, but as die-hard Rush fan I know what my initial impression of it was. I was at first a little puzzled, it just had a vibe that didn't sit with me for some reason. Then the more I listened to it, the more it grew on me and soon I came to appreciate this CD for what it was, a truly talented and hardworking rock band coming back from a somewhat lousy 30th Anniversary Tour and rocking hard, regardless of age or their level of "cool" on the spectrum of hipness. "Far Cry" is a stunning rock song, evocative of some of their early rock hits from the 70's that spawned legions of impersonators. Songs about faith and spirituality are the main draw in this album, with songs such as "Armor and Sword" and "Workin' Them Angels" addressing religious topics in a direct manner. There are also more instrumentals on here than on any other Rush album, a plus for a band renowned for their exceptional skill on their respective instruments. This album just has to grow on you as a whole, much like its predecessor "Vapor Trails. " As a fan who appreciates music being challenging on some level, I respect that and I applaud Rush for making music that is a little more challenging on occasion than Hilary Duff or whatever musical garbage is being manufactured these days by the music industry. A fine example of a rock band continuing to put out great music and stay relevant, and not fade into obscurity. A very good album and highly recommended. .

A heavy album ultimately undone by the lyrics
The melodies themselves are fine, but I liked Vapor Trails more, even if it was ruined by digital distortion. Being another Rush fan going back to the "Fly By Night" days I am disappointed by this latest effort. The lyrics are the problem. Peart's lyrics while certainly not fine poetry would occasionally rise to nice prose in some of the earlier albums. Here he seems to have lost all subtly and is heavy and obvious. I had hoped that some of the melancholy expressed in Vapor Trails in songs like "The Stars Look Down" due to the loss of his family would have been replaced by a little optimism. Unfortunately this is not the case as he goes from being a hopefully optimistic pagan in the past to attacking religion and embracing nihilism. His reference to the "Dark Ages" demonstrates an intellectual shortcoming since modern scholarship has long given up that term. Regardless, Rush still can lay down some wonderful jams like in the positive named instrumental song, "Hope".

I hope the ghosts that still plague Peart can be banished before the next Rush release and we can listen to great music and some thought provoking lyrics. .

Almost perfect
Fantastic song writing and musicianship as always from these guys. I have been listening to Snakes and Arrows for 2 full years now and I am not even close to getting tired of it. I hear that they are going to collaborate with Nick Raskulinecz on their next album which is great news.

I will admit to being a die hard Rush fan and have very few complaints of any of their albums but the only reason I can't give the full 5 stars is due to the digital compression of the high frequencies which make listening at decent volume on great equipment a bit difficult. It is much better than Vapor Trails in this respect though. Hey Engineers, Not everyone is listening to MP3 files. Master the album better! The Band deserves it!.

A mature, nuanced and intelligent work.
My first album I owned was Exit Stage Left and the first I bought as a new release was Signals. I have been a Rush fan since I was 11 years old back in the early 1980's. I own every Rush album. Some I love, some I merely like and there's a couple I don't like much at all.

This is not one of the latter.

I love this album. It took me about three or four listens to get the album, to grok it, if you will. I had to accept it for what it was instead of expecting it to be "Moving Pictures II" or "Signals II" or "Permanent Waves deux. " You get the idea. Once I accepted it and listened to it for what it was, I was enthralled. My iTunes tells me I've listened to it nearly 100 times since it came out.

Some of the songs I absolutely love and some I merely like. "Good News First," "Far Cry," "Bravest Face," "Spindrift,"The Larger Bowl," "The Way The Wind Blows," are all, I think, awesome songs. I'm not very fond of the instrumentals for some reason which is weird because I love the other Rush instrumentals.

There is a definitely pessimistic outlook to the album. But, that's only on the surface. The optimisism is deeper in that I think that Rush believes that people can still change, the world can still change and we can be agents of change, even if it's only in our personal lives.

Sonically, this is one of the best, if not the best, sounding Rush album. The recording and mastering are way better than the Vapor Trails debacle. Neil Peart's drumming is subtle but masterful. If you aren't listening for it, you might not notice just how amazing the drumming is. In fact, there's no wankery at all in this album. Just solid songs by master musicians. I love Alex Lifeson's work here in a way that I haven't in a long time. And, well, Geddy Lee's bass work is fantastic as always.

As a long time Rush fan, this album is one of my new favorites, if nothing else because it is such a high quality and shows that after more than 30 years, the boys still can rock and be relevant. The songs on here are great and surpass most of the stuff you hear on the Top 10. If you like Rush, you should buy this album.

You can see a complete list of all Rush discography, or go back to the Rush tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.