SNAKES & ARROWS

Ok, off the bat I always been a big Rush fan... But to be honest the last few efforts have been well let's put it this way. OK (Vapour Trail, Test for Echoes, ect.). Nevertheless good album but a purchase for fan only.

Now back to the present... OMG Snakes and Arrows really kicks, actually in my own personal opinion this album could just be Rush's best album ever. It reminds me of three distinct master pieces of the late 70's and early 80's, first with all the good acoustic guitar Farewell to kings comes to mind, secondly Hemispheres with some distinctive chords and musical and off beat arrangements and last but not least Permanent Waves for the bass tone and complex bass lines found all over the album.

Alex, after a disappointing performance on VP (no solos) picks up is axe as he did on their 2004 tribute album Feedback (remember the solo on Crossroad). I was afraid that he still kept this stubborn no solo attitude after listening to Far Cry, a feedback solo, ok innovative but Lifeson can do better, finally on song 4 the Larger Bowl Lexrs comes back to life and for the rest of the album the son of light is a guitar God. Mind you, the mandolin solo on track 3 is great but I'm a guitar player and there are so many new mainstream rock bands that have forgotten the solos we need to be able to count on our Old School favourite acts to fix.

I would like to point some minor weakness (constructive criticism) for this master piece: First, the rule of lots is as bad as less, most of the album sounds amazing and fuller than other attempts, this is wonderful but I strongly believe that some songs like "Spindrift" for example (around 2:47 especially) have been over dressed a tad (here goes the sequencers live). Secondly, even if Hope is wonderful and perhaps one of my favourite songs on the album it's basically The Main Monkey Business riff all over again. Could Hope be the original inspiration for The Main Monkey Business on acoustic guitar??? None the less I'm glad it's there but could have had a title that relates to the first one like perhaps The Main Monkey Business Part II (Hope).

My last objective critic is targeting the Cover Art... Humm. Hugh usually does such a good job at covers why use the cover from a Yoga book, this is as bad as Counterparts??? At least the material inside looks great and is Hugh Syme's work.

With minimal work this album could have been presented as a good old story album with marathon songs (a story about the different sides of religion) putting an instrumental here and there to break the story in section with two songs 15 to 20 minutes long completed with support songs to fill the rest. Ah the nostalgic in me. We never know what might happen in the future.

All in all I give it a 4.5 * out of 5, since rounding applies I need to give it a 5 :c)

And 6 stars out 5 for Nick on this production, could he be the new and improve Terry Brown???

And a 6 stars out 5 for Nick on this production, could he be the new and improve Terry Bown???