Dave2112
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Having waited five years since 2002’s Vapor Trails, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Rush’s latest disc, Snakes and Arrows. Rush have always had a reputation for changing their inherent sound when the mood strikes them, and now with several years between offerings, the boys from Toronto evolve even more noticeably.
“Heavy” would be one way to describe this album, but that wouldn’t do it complete justice. Much as they did when they created the genre of progressive metal with 1976’s 2112, Rush have once again found a musical style that is pretty much all their own. For lack of a better description, let’s call it “Heavy Jazz”. This is free-form rock at its best. To be quite honest, it took me a couple of thorough listens to “get it”. The song structures are complex, straying far outside the industry’s usual format of rhyming verses linked with rhyming bridges and rhyming choruses. You have to take these songs as a whole, greater than the sum of their parts. Much like 1989’s Presto, this disc needed a few listens to grow on me. However, Presto has since become one of my favorite Rush offerings.
Snakes and Arrows starts out strong with the lead-off track, “Far Cry”. The main riff is very reminiscent of “Stick it Out” from 1993’s Counterparts with a little hint of “Neurotica” off of 1991’s Roll the Bones. Keeping in line with their last studio album, Vapor Trails, there is a lot of background vocal making up the song structure, the flowing “oohs and ahhs” providing a magnificent backdrop to the power of the chorus, much like the aforementioned album’s “Earthshine”.
This disc shows off the literary genius of drummer Neil Peart on every track, but especially so on “The Larger Bowl”. Much like “Anagram” off of Presto, Peart uses his knowledge of poetic structure to create a wordsmithed piece of no small consequence. “The Larger Bowl” is a pantoum, which our creative writing students will recognize as a series of four line stanzas where the second and fourth line of one stanza become the first and third line of the next, and so on until the final stanza brings us back to the beginning.
There are two songs that deal with religion, or the lack thereof as it may be. Easily the most melodic track, “The Way the Wind Blows” deals with the things done in this world in the name of beliefs. And the song “Faithless” really struck a chord with me, dealing with the things we should believe in, rather than the things we are told to. The lyrics harken back to “Ghost of a Chance” from Roll the Bones, telling of the belief in love and human kindness over fairy-tale stories and ancient dogma.
Snakes and Arrows contains three instrumentals, each offering something completely different from Rush’s overall sound. The longest and most complex, “The Main Monkey Business” finds Rush exploring musical territory first visited on “Limbo” from 1996’s Test for Echo. It is a very free-form piece that instigates itself into your mind without really knowing why. (Well, there is a little touch of “Cygnus X-1” in there.) It’s a sonic landscape that truly shows off the raw talent of these three virtuoso musicians. The second instrumental, “Hope”, is an Alex Lifeson acoustic guitar piece that is probably the best work of this nature since “A Midsummer’s Daydream” from the other Canadian power trio, Triumph. The final instrumental of the disc is the hard-hitting “Malignant Narcissism”, which only suffers from being far too short. Clocking it at only around two and a half minutes, I found myself wishing it were a longer piece. Another reviewer referred to it as “YYZ Jr.” and I can see the comparison. There is an unbelievably infectious bass groove throughout the piece, and like YYZ, features a section where Geddy Lee and Neil Peart trade off bass and drum riffs.
In the documentary section of the concert DVD “Rush in Rio”, Geddy Lee described himself and Neil Peart as very structured songwriters, whereas Alex Lifeson is a more instinctive player. This truly shows on this album, with his guitar work reaching new heights and exploring sonic realities that most of today’s young guitarists could only dream of.
As I said before, this album defies normal structure, and pieces like “Armor and Sword” and the throwback-progressive “Workin’ Them Angles” do require a couple of listens to follow. Once they insinuate themselves into your head, however, they are a welcome relief from the same old crap that’s been going around for the last ten years or so. The song “Spindrift” is very reminiscent of the main hook from “Time and Motion” from Test for Echo, without being a rehash. The feel is there, with a different take on the presentation.
All in all, Snakes and Arrows probably won’t win over any new fans that aren’t already on the Rush bandwagon. Well, maybe except for the younger generation looking for something new that goes beyond what they’re being offered today. A truly open mind will dig this album. For those of us who’ve been fans for a long time, this is a welcome offering. While not going back to the slickly-produced synth masterpieces of Power Windows or Hold Your Fire, Geddy Lee has at least added a few keyboard sounds to this latest album. In sticking with the overall theme of going back to the progressive sound, he’s credited with playing only the mellotron and pedals, but they work where they are.
Having been a fan for decades, I do know that each new album could be the last. The guys are in their 50’s now and who knows what the future will hold. If Snakes and Arrows does become the final studio album from Rush, then it’s a great way to go out. It revisits many of the themes that have given them such massive staying power since 1974 and is a nice collection of the overall “sound” of Rush in their latter years with enough classic elements to please the most hardcore fans. It’s been five years since the last album, and this one was well worth the wait. For long-time fans or those who’d like to add something new and exciting to their collection, I highly recommend Snakes and Arrows.
“Heavy” would be one way to describe this album, but that wouldn’t do it complete justice. Much as they did when they created the genre of progressive metal with 1976’s 2112, Rush have once again found a musical style that is pretty much all their own. For lack of a better description, let’s call it “Heavy Jazz”. This is free-form rock at its best. To be quite honest, it took me a couple of thorough listens to “get it”. The song structures are complex, straying far outside the industry’s usual format of rhyming verses linked with rhyming bridges and rhyming choruses. You have to take these songs as a whole, greater than the sum of their parts. Much like 1989’s Presto, this disc needed a few listens to grow on me. However, Presto has since become one of my favorite Rush offerings.
Snakes and Arrows starts out strong with the lead-off track, “Far Cry”. The main riff is very reminiscent of “Stick it Out” from 1993’s Counterparts with a little hint of “Neurotica” off of 1991’s Roll the Bones. Keeping in line with their last studio album, Vapor Trails, there is a lot of background vocal making up the song structure, the flowing “oohs and ahhs” providing a magnificent backdrop to the power of the chorus, much like the aforementioned album’s “Earthshine”.
This disc shows off the literary genius of drummer Neil Peart on every track, but especially so on “The Larger Bowl”. Much like “Anagram” off of Presto, Peart uses his knowledge of poetic structure to create a wordsmithed piece of no small consequence. “The Larger Bowl” is a pantoum, which our creative writing students will recognize as a series of four line stanzas where the second and fourth line of one stanza become the first and third line of the next, and so on until the final stanza brings us back to the beginning.
There are two songs that deal with religion, or the lack thereof as it may be. Easily the most melodic track, “The Way the Wind Blows” deals with the things done in this world in the name of beliefs. And the song “Faithless” really struck a chord with me, dealing with the things we should believe in, rather than the things we are told to. The lyrics harken back to “Ghost of a Chance” from Roll the Bones, telling of the belief in love and human kindness over fairy-tale stories and ancient dogma.
Snakes and Arrows contains three instrumentals, each offering something completely different from Rush’s overall sound. The longest and most complex, “The Main Monkey Business” finds Rush exploring musical territory first visited on “Limbo” from 1996’s Test for Echo. It is a very free-form piece that instigates itself into your mind without really knowing why. (Well, there is a little touch of “Cygnus X-1” in there.) It’s a sonic landscape that truly shows off the raw talent of these three virtuoso musicians. The second instrumental, “Hope”, is an Alex Lifeson acoustic guitar piece that is probably the best work of this nature since “A Midsummer’s Daydream” from the other Canadian power trio, Triumph. The final instrumental of the disc is the hard-hitting “Malignant Narcissism”, which only suffers from being far too short. Clocking it at only around two and a half minutes, I found myself wishing it were a longer piece. Another reviewer referred to it as “YYZ Jr.” and I can see the comparison. There is an unbelievably infectious bass groove throughout the piece, and like YYZ, features a section where Geddy Lee and Neil Peart trade off bass and drum riffs.
In the documentary section of the concert DVD “Rush in Rio”, Geddy Lee described himself and Neil Peart as very structured songwriters, whereas Alex Lifeson is a more instinctive player. This truly shows on this album, with his guitar work reaching new heights and exploring sonic realities that most of today’s young guitarists could only dream of.
As I said before, this album defies normal structure, and pieces like “Armor and Sword” and the throwback-progressive “Workin’ Them Angles” do require a couple of listens to follow. Once they insinuate themselves into your head, however, they are a welcome relief from the same old crap that’s been going around for the last ten years or so. The song “Spindrift” is very reminiscent of the main hook from “Time and Motion” from Test for Echo, without being a rehash. The feel is there, with a different take on the presentation.
All in all, Snakes and Arrows probably won’t win over any new fans that aren’t already on the Rush bandwagon. Well, maybe except for the younger generation looking for something new that goes beyond what they’re being offered today. A truly open mind will dig this album. For those of us who’ve been fans for a long time, this is a welcome offering. While not going back to the slickly-produced synth masterpieces of Power Windows or Hold Your Fire, Geddy Lee has at least added a few keyboard sounds to this latest album. In sticking with the overall theme of going back to the progressive sound, he’s credited with playing only the mellotron and pedals, but they work where they are.
Having been a fan for decades, I do know that each new album could be the last. The guys are in their 50’s now and who knows what the future will hold. If Snakes and Arrows does become the final studio album from Rush, then it’s a great way to go out. It revisits many of the themes that have given them such massive staying power since 1974 and is a nice collection of the overall “sound” of Rush in their latter years with enough classic elements to please the most hardcore fans. It’s been five years since the last album, and this one was well worth the wait. For long-time fans or those who’d like to add something new and exciting to their collection, I highly recommend Snakes and Arrows.
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