SNAKES & ARROWS

After five long years, the new Rush album has arrived, 2007 finally celebrates the release of Snakes and Arrows, a concept album devoted to the motive of the most irrational and inmost human sentiments and actions, namely religion.

As for the lyrical aspect, it is not hard to discover, how difficult singing these songs. There are a lot of Rush songs where the lyrics sipmly does not fit into the musical framework created by Alex and Geddy, but this is the first album, when nearly all of the songs have the same problem. Listening to the songs it seems so obvious that Geddy sings someone else's words. The vocal melodies are sometimes a bit forced, as a consequence of this. Musically, the experience can be shocking for the very first time. I mean there is a typical Rush sound, a from far recognizable structure of the songs, a trademark song-pattern, which can be found even on the weakest (or badly mixed) albums such as T4E (or VT, Presto). This is obviously not the case here. This is the first Rush album which doesn't sound like a Rush album, definitely set a new direction. The songs are tend to be simply-structured (neither imaginative tempo changes nor odd time signatures) and melodies play the crucial role throughout the whole album. This is why - and another reason is the tone Geddy uses - S&A sounds like the second part of My Favorite Headache: very catchy mellow melodies with a little bit dark and melancholic overtone. To sum up briefly, if you mix the darker songs from MFH (Window to the World, Working at Perfect, ) and the lighter ones from VT and T4E (The Stars Look Down, How It Is, Half The World, Totem, Carve Away The Stone), spiced with a small Counterparts feeling and lots of Feedback influence (a Feedback influence means of course late 60s impression), then you get something stays not too far from Snakes and Arrows.

Far Cry is a typical Rush song (the only song can be considered as "typical"), strong and catchy, not surprisingly, most of their opening songs are very strong (apart from OLV, so the start was less scary for me than VT was for the first time). Then comes Armor and Sword, a setback after the promising start. Not a bad one, but a bit languid, I wouldn't have put it in the second place. The next two are much better, Workin' Them Angels and The Larger Bowl are among my favorites, nice solos from Alex in both. The latter one is stunning, a simple but loveable tune, with some REM favour. Lots of acoustic guitar can be heard everywhere, usually followed by a cool riff and a killer solo. Alex has succesfully proved that he still got the ability to write marvellous solos. Possibly his performace is the best on the album.

Spindrift is sadly a big let down, reminds me the worst momets of T4E, but after there comes the biggest moment is the history of Rush: the Main Monkey Business. Simply the best instrumental they have ever written. A huge Tool/Porcupine Tree influenced jam. This song alone makes the cd worth to buy. The middle section of the disc is the weakest, some not awfully bad but unispired semi-acoustic songs, Hope (a short acoustic instrumental track from Alex, not bad, but unnecessary) and Faithless are among the better ones, whilst the Way the Wind Blows and Bravest Face are the weakest songs on the album, in my opinion, both are "Feedback-escapees", the latter one reminds me the song Shapes of Things, which I dislike the most on Feedback.

Thankfully the last three songs are much better, again some Tool influences in the last song, probably because of the eastern melodies Alex plays in the main riff. Malignant Narcissism is an outstanding instrumental again, could have been longer.

All in all, this album is definitely and album for adults from adults. Mellow songs and wise words, do not forget, they are their mid-50s! There are at least 8 songs I rate as above average and 5 out of them are outstanding, this is not bad. And definitely the best sounding album, every instrument sounds so naturally, perfectly clean and dense. Is it the last Rush album? God knows...

Far Cry - 8, Armor and Sword - 7, Workin' Them Angels - 8, The Larger Bowl - 10, Spindrift - 5, The Main Monkey Business - 10*, The Way the Wind Blows - 6, Hope - 7, Faithless - 7, Bravest Face - 5, Good News First - 9, Malignant Narcissism - 10, We Hold On - 9

7.5 - 8 / 4 stars