1. Far Cry (5:18)
Awesome. Off time full on band riff. I love it when they do that. It's fucking raw Rush. Geddy's bass kicks ass. It's been getting some radio play. This is a much better engineered album already over their last couple. The guitars aren't as compressed and seem to come through much better. Just an excellent mix. I'm excited to hear the rest.
2. Armor and Sword (6:36)
Loving the high bass riff, acoustic guitar, and ambiance. Lyrics razor through. Chorus opens up and lets the song breathe with Geddy's beautiful harmony vocals round it out and Neil's tom tom roll blends well. Excellent song. I look forward to hearing it again.
3. Workin' Them Angels (4:46)
Geddy is missing what he used to do really well, and that is melodies. This is a bit of a filler song that isn't really grabbing me and sounds like some of their other songs. But I like the mandolin there Alex! Almost has a slight Celtic feel with whistle hints. Neil's drums sound really, really good though. And I don't mean his awesome playing, but just the "sound" of them.
4. The Larger Bowl (4:07)
Wow, more acoustic guitar. Liking the riff, Alex! Now we have some melody, Geddy! Ah yes, the bass comes in nicely. I really like this song so far. We got dynamics and a really good groove. I want to learn this on the guitar already. Drums once again, rip through, and the solo intro with Geddy doing what he does best on his bass, and Alex's solo itself are perfect.
5. Spindrift (5:23)
The last song nicely blends into this puppy. And odd erie distant guitar is heard and then it kicks in. What a fucked up riff and chord arrangement. Very progressive. I love how it kicks in and builds up. You know what I like most? The delay on the guitars. Again, an excellent sounding album. The bridge into the chorus is nicely done. Wow, Neil's drumming ... sooo good. You can really tell he had a lot of input on song arrangement. Oh! Just when you thought it was over, they kick you in the nuts with even more delay on the guitars. Very, very cool. Takes me back to Caress of Steal a bit with its weirdness.
6. The Main Monkey Business (6:01) - Instrumental
Oh wicked! More acoustic guitar with a high bass and ambient sounds and Neil giving it an African feel. They are really reaching the never before found riffs. Again, Alex's electric guitar hasn't sounded this good in a looong time. Geddy's using his voice as an instrument. I really, really like this song and glad they're keeping the instrumentals going. They are the masters of it. Oh, listen to Neil get louder and louder there at about 2:50. This is just chalk full of dynamics. This is true progressive hard rock baby! Seven more songs to go too! Oh the drums are just ripping through. Neil is God.
7. The Way the Wind Blows (6:28)
No time wasted between songs. This is a bit of a bluesier feel with a slow steady beat. I'm really hearing some influence from the "Feedback" cover album they did a few years ago. I think they really reconnected with their roots again, because I can realy hear it. This is a very flowing album. Again, lots of acoustic guitar and some beautiful singing combined with some killer riffs. I'm glad they're letting songs breathe by not having it full on all the time. A very earthy song ending on a nice major chord.
8. Hope (2:02) - Instrumental
Alex "Lerxst Lifeson" wrote this one "all by himself". That's what it says in the liner notes. Here we go... AWESOME!!! This has a Jimmy Page feel to it. I've never heard Alex play like this. Acoustic 12 string, flowing, and yet raw with good volume changes. Short and sweet.
9. Faithless (5:31)
This song starts on the same chord the last one ended on, so there's a nice transition. Geddy's high bass riff is really cool here. Again, they tease with a slower beat then Neil kicks in with a steady one kicking up the energy. I most certainly like this tune. Good melodies. And now for the chorus, some more acoustic guitar but with an orchestral pad (or real violins?) on the 7th note in the background, again, letting the song breathe out. I just love the direct talk in the chorus:
I don't have faith in faith
I don't believe in belief
You can call me faithless
But I still cling to hope
And I believe in love
And that's faith enough for me.
Oh, the solo just screams! Wow! The song ends on "and that's faith enough for me" and a minor chord with crazy guitar effects fading out. Cooool.
10. Bravest Face (5:11)
Comes in hard, then quiets down with some cool acoustic guitar augmented chords ... again! This feels like it continued on from the last song.
11. Good News First (4:51)
Cool groove. Sounds like a typical Rush song so far, but with a few accents from Neil. Then it breaks down, which is turning into a common new expectation on this album. The chorus breathes again and then the song ends on a major chord. This is a much more mature sounding album. It feels like they took the best dynamics from their last three albums and added more acoustic, more FEEL, and more SOUL.
12. Malignant narcissism (2:16) - Instrumental
Rush has never put three instrumentals on an album. I know of one other album that does this, but it's from Yes, and it's one of their best--Fragile. Being that it had three instrumentals on it, I can see where they get some ideas. The song stars... oh this just totally fucking kicks ass. Geddy's bass dominates this puppy. And again ... the song really breathes out with some woman in the back talking and Alex wailing , then it kick back in. There's a YYZ feel to it, definitely, with drum breaks for Neil, who obviously delivers. Shit, I wish it went on longer!
13. We Hold On (4:12)
Cool hard edged tune that really grooves with little screams from Alex's guitar.
Artwork
Rush's albums/CD cover art and photography have always been known for their beauty and relevance to the album at hand. Hugh Syme once again, delivers
Lyrics
I don't normally pay attention to lyrics, but with Neil Peart, you just can't help it. Vapor Trails felt like an album for Neil to let out his passion and frustration with the death of his daughter and wife. You can really hear it in his lyrics for "Ghost Rider" of which he wrote a book on his motorcycle travels through North America. But now after going though his healing period, he's doing some soul searching, but he has a good idea of who he is. With lyrics like "No one gets to heaven without a fight", he knows what he has to do, just wants to remind himself to follow through. Songs like "Faithless" tell us he believes in what HE believes in for his own good reasons, not because someone tells him what to believe and have faith in.
Conclusion
This is Rush's best engineered album. Yes, I'm saying it. The sound is impecible. You can hear every instrument, effect, and voice just come right through the speakers.
There are dynamics that I haven't heard from them in a long time, if at all. It is a bit mellower than Vapor Trails, but well written, melodic, beautifully thought out, and overall has an earthy feel to it, something new for them to be consistently on one album. Like I said, they seem to reach back to their roots with added energy, drive, and distinctive collaboration and originality. I'd even almost go so far as to call it a true concept album. I say that because of the three instrumentals, dynamics from song to song, track blending, but most of all from its common dark edgy yet hopeful feel to it all.
Waiting five years for an original studio album is a long time; it was most certainly worth the wait. Overall, this is an excellent album and I'd give it 4.29 fists out of 5.
My only critique is Geddy is doing to0 many harmonies on verses and I'm preferring his mid range voice a lot more, especially with Alex's acoustic strumming along like on "The Larger Bowl". His high voice with the harmonies gets on my nerves sometimes--it's overkill. I prefer it when he uses just one vocal track, with the odd hint of harmony here and there.
Neil's drumming honestly couldn't be better. He doesn't hold back and his arrangements truly compliment each and every bar of every song. Alex's acoustic work has a brilliant sound, he adds some really cool hooks here and there on electric, his guitar never sounded better, and Geddy's groovy bass riffs still blow my mind away.
I'm going to have to listen to this puppy a few more times to distinguish the songs. After that, it'll definitely be an album I can drive to the mountains to and one that'll be in my CD player for a loooong time. There is no other band out there right now that has the mix and style of songs that Rush has on "Snakes & Arrows". Even if you're not a huge Rush fan, this is just a good album overall.
