Rush Snakes & Arrows CD

Rush: Alex Lifeson (guitar); Geddy Lee, Neil Peart.
Personnel: Geddy Lee (vocals, Mellotron, bass guitar); Alex Lifeson (acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar, electric 12-string guitar, bouzouki, mandola, mandolin); Ben Mink (strings); Neil Peart (drums, cymbals, tambourine, electronic percussion).
Audio Mixers: Nick Raskulinecz; Richard Chycki.
Recording information: Allaire Studios, Shokan, NY (11/2006-12/2006); Grandmaster Recorders, Hollywood, CA (11/2006-12/2006).
Illustrators: George Eastman; Hugh Syme; Andrew MacNaughtan.
Photographer: Andrew MacNaughtan.
Arrangers: Rush; Nick Raskulinecz.
In the five years since their last full studio album, a covers EP (2004's FEEDBACK) and two live releases (2003's RUSH IN RIO and 2005's R30) hardly sated the throngs of Rush fans hungry for new music. SNAKES & ARROWS is all they could have possibly hoped for and dreamed about. The brash, contemporary vibe of 2002's VAPOR TRAILS has been shed as the trio returns to the polished production and complex arrangements of their most beloved works.
Woven into the later-era Rush song stylings are no less than three instrumentals: "The Main Monkey Business" (a hard rocking full-band workout), "Hope" (a solo acoustic guitar piece written and performed by Alex Lifeson), and the humorously titled "Malignant Narcissism" (featuring Geddy Lee's riffy, fretless electric bass and Neil Peart's tasty drum breaks). Keyboards are few and far between on SNAKES & ARROWS, with erstwhile Geddy Lee collaborator Ben Mink contributing strings. Peart's lyrics remain cerebral and poetic--challenging conventional spirituality ("Faithless" and "Armour & Sword"), examining the often troubled nature of mankind ("The Way The Wind Blows" and "The Larger Bowl") and the frailties of communication ("Spindrift" and "Good News First"). All the elements of classic Rush are here, making perhaps the band's finest late-career statement.
When Rush issued Vapor Trails in 2002, they revealed that -- even after Neil Peart's personal tragedies in the 1990s had cast the group's future in doubt -- they were back with a vengeance. The sound was hard-hitting, direct, and extremely focused. Lyrically, Peart went right after the subject matter he was dealing with -- and it was in the aftermath of 9/11 as well, which couldn't help but influence his lyric writing. In 2004 the band issued a covers EP that was in one way a toss-off, but in another a riotous act of freewheeling joy that offered a side of the band no one had heard for 30 years. There were a couple of live offerings and a 30th anniversary project as well that kept fans happy perhaps, but broke -- though Rush in Rio was the kind of live album every band hopes to record. Snakes & Arrows represents the band's 18th studio album. Produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver, Superdrag), the record is another heavy guitar, bass, and drums...drums...and more drums record. The title came -- unconsciously according to Peart -- from a centuries-old Buddhist game of the same name about karma, and also from a play on the words of the children's game Chutes and Ladders. Its subject matter is heavy duty: faith and war. From the opening track (and first single), acoustic and electric guitars, bass hum, and Peart's crash-and-thrum urgency in the almighty riff are all present. When Geddy Lee opens his mouth, you know you are in for a ride: "Pariah dogs and wandering madmen/Barking at strangers and speaking in tongues/The ebb and flow of tidal fortune/Electrical charges are charging up the young/It's a far cry from the world we thought we'd inherit/It's a far cry from the way we thought we'd share it...." At the same time, inside the frame of the refrain, Lee refuses to be conquered in the face of chaos: "One day I feel like I'm ahead of the wheel/And the next it's rolling over me/I can get back on/I can get back on." Alex Lifeson's guitars swell and Peart's crash cymbals ride the ri