SNAKES & ARROWS

The days when Rush would majorly evolve their sound over every four albums or so were long since over when Snakes and Arrows came out - to a large extent, this is a continuation and refinement of the same general musical direction they'd been taking from Counterparts onward, which by and large had served them well, bar for some lightweight moments on Test For Echo and the botching of the original mix of Vapor Trails. Still, as a polishing and further refinement of that approach, Snake and Arrows is very good - perhaps the best of this era of the band. If you don't like anything they've done since 1993, it's not going to persuade you otherwise, but if you're at all open to conceding the merits of the run of albums from Counterparts to Vapor Trails you will likely find a lot to like here, and probably less to dislike than on the weaker parts of those albums.