What more does Rush have to prove with 2007’s Snakes and Arrows?
Snakes and Arrows let the world know that Rush was back – for good. Vapor Trails let the world know that the band could overcome tremendous personal obstacles and come back as strong as ever, but Snakes and Arrows showed the world that not only is the band back in action, they’re pushing themselves again, too.
Snakes and Arrows is a massive album that covers a lot of new ground and some old. First, the album is 13 songs long, spanning just over an hour of time. Only Vapor Trails is the other Rush album to exceed an hour of runtime out of (at the time) 18 studio albums. Second, this is the first Rush album to feature 3 instrumental pieces on one album. One of these instrumentals Alex Lifeson is the sole writer and composer of, the second Rush song where he is solely credited as the writer and composer (the first was ‘Lessons’ from 2112) Third, the band continues to experiment with longer songs again on Snakes and Arrows. Test for Echo was the first album of the 90s/00s Rush period where long rock songs, not necessarily intricately written or multipart songs, started to eek their way into the band’s albums. Snakes and Arrows continues this trend with ‘Armor and Sword’, ‘The Main Monkey Business’, ‘Spindrift’ and ‘Faithless’ all clocking in past 5, 6 minutes in length.
The true stars of this album are the band’s three instrumental pieces: ‘Hope’, ‘Malignant Narcissism’ and ‘The Main Monkey Business’, the latter of which is the band’s second longest instrumental song behind ‘La Villa Strangiato’. ‘Monkey Business’ is one of the more interesting Rush instrumentals to listen to. Musically it sits somewhere between the ambitious ‘La Villa Strangiato’ and the band’s most recent instrumental, ‘Limbo’, from 1996’s Test for Echo. It harkons to ‘Strangiato’ with distinct, rocking and certainly technically challenging sections, each building up, throttling down and taking the listener on a musical ride that would make 70s Rush fans proud. It feels like ‘Limbo’ because of where the band is creatively and musically. They aren’t the wiley-eyed 20-somethings they were when Hemispheres came out who were punching well above their musical weight. They’re older now, more mature and writing to satisfy themselves and their fans. Moreover, of all the Rush instrumentals, this one feels like it was crafted with live performance in mind specifically for the buildup that occurs around the 2:35 mark, the guitar solo after and reprise of the song’s original theme at the 3:50 mark.
The band’s second instrumental, ‘Hope’, belongs to entirely to Alex. It’s a sweet little solo acoustic guitar piece. The novelty of this song is the listener gets to hear some of Alex’s classical chops for just over 2 minutes. The song is like a tidy little musical package: there are a few ideas being explored around a central motif, and the song doesn’t stray too far in any one direction or another. It always stays within 50 feet of home base and sounds good doing it. If you were looking for a showcase of technical skills, unfortunately, this track doesn’t have that. In the context of the whole album, it helps to break up the thick, full production of ‘The Way the Wind Blows’ before it and ‘Faithless’ coming after.
The last instrumental piece, ‘Malignant Narcissism’ had bass players in a frenzy once they knew what this song was. The story goes that ‘Malignant Narcissism’ began as just a drum and bass piece with Neil jamming on a 4 piece kit and Geddy jamming on a fretless Jaco Pastorius tribute bass in between takes during the recording sessions for Snakes and Arrows. Unknown to Neil and Geddy, the vocal mics were still active and picking up their jam. Producer Nick Raskulinecz was in the booth listening to the whole jam and quickly told the two to play what they were playing again because that was a song that could go on the album. They replayed their parts, Alex came back in and recorded a guitar part over that and when all was said and done, ‘Malignant Narcissism’ was recorded.
The Grammy nominated ‘Malignant Narcisssism’ is a short piece on this album but very satisfying to listen to the way ‘YYZ’ is to listen to. It’s an instrumental piece that captures the listeners attention with a dark, winding bass riff and holds it while the band trades sections in and out and leaves plenty of rooms for bass breaks ala ‘La Villa Strangiato’ and ‘YYZ’. While it features the band all together with Alex later adding his guitar part in, this is without a doubt Geddy’s song on the album.
Without these new exciting instrumental breaks throughout the album on the whole the album starts to wane pretty fast. Most of the songs are mid tempo and the production, as robust and full as it is, has these songs tend to feel stale after a whole, making the overall listening experience of Snakes and Arrows a bit of a grind to get through.
Approaching the band’s 40th anniversary at the time of this album’s release, this is an ambitious album but to the devoted Rush fan, this is another album showcasing how the band lives to challenge themselves musically and present their results to their fans.
Finally, there was Rob Scheffield of Rolling Stone’s review of the album to have a good chuckle at:
Snakes and Arrows (2007)
- Far Cry – 5:21
- Armor and Sword – 6:36
- Workin’ Them Angels – 4:47
- The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum) – 4:07
- Spindrift – 5:24
- The Main Monkey Business – 6:01
- The Way the Wind Blows – 6:28
- Hope – 2:03
- Faithless – 5:31
- Bravest Face – 5:12
- Good News First – 4:51
- Malignant Narcissism – 2:17
- We Hold On – 4:13
Credits on Snakes and Arrows:
Andrew Alekel | Assistant Engineer |
Pegi Cecconi | Executive Producer |
Richard Chycki | Engineer, Mixing |
Andy Curran | Executive Producer |
Ray Danniels | Management |
George Eastman | Assistant, Illustrations |
Brian “Big Bass” Gardner | Mastering |
Inaam Haq | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
Harish Johari | Cover Painting |
Geddy Lee | Bass Pedals, Engineer, Guitar (Bass), Mellotron, Member of Attributed Artist, Vocals |
Alex Lifeson | Bouzouki, Composer, Engineer, Guitar, Guitar (12 String Acoustic), Guitar (12 String Electric), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Mandola, Mandolin, Member of Attributed Artist |
Andrew MacNaughtan | Illustrations, Photography |
Ben Mink | Strings |
Scott E. Moore | Mixing Assistant |
Neil Peart | Cymbals, Drums, Electronic Percussion, Member of Attributed Artist, Tambourine |
Nick Raskulinecz | Arranger, Audio Production, Engineer, Mixing, Producer |
Rush | Arranger, Audio Production, Primary Artist, Producer |
Ross Ryan | Equipment Coordinator |
Matt Snedecor | Assistant Engineer |
Hugh Syme | Art Direction, Design, Illustrations |
Lorne Wheaton | Equipment Coordinator, Executive Producer |
Snakes and Arrows Tour Setlist:
2007 Set
(Set 1)
- Snakes & Arrows Intro Video
- “Limelight”
- “Digital Man”
- “Entre Nous”
- “Mission”
- “Freewill”
- “The Main Monkey Business”
- “The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)”
- “Secret Touch”
- “Circumstances”
- “Between the Wheels”
- “Dreamline”
(Set 2)
- Video Intro: The Plain of Dharma
- “Far Cry”
- “Workin’ Them Angels”
- “Armor and Sword”
- “Spindrift”
- “The Way the Wind Blows”
- “Subdivisions”
- “Natural Science”
- “Witch Hunt”
- “Malignant Narcissism”
- De Slagwerker (Drum Solo)
- “Hope” (from Snakes & Arrows)
- “Summertime Blues” (alternating with “Distant Early Warning” starting on July 4, 2007 and permanently added to the setlist for the entire European leg)
- “The Spirit of Radio”
- Video Intro: South Park – Lil’ Rush
- “Tom Sawyer”
Encore:
- “One Little Victory”
- “A Passage to Bangkok”
- “YYZ”
2008 Set List
Set 1
- Snakes & Arrows Intro Vide”
- “Limelight”
- “Digital Man”
- “Ghost of a Chance”
- “Mission”
- “Freewill”
- “The Main Monkey Business”
- “The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)”
- “Secret Touch”
- “Red Barchetta”
- “The Trees”
- “Between the Wheels”
- “Dreamline”
Set 2
- Video Intro: Harry Satchel in What’s That Smell?
- “Far Cry”
- “Workin’ Them Angels”
- “Armor and Sword”
- “Spindrift”
- “The Way the Wind Blows”
- “Subdivisions”
- “Natural Science”
- “Witch Hunt”
- “Malignant Narcissism”
- Drum solo
- “Hope”
- “Distant Early Warning”
- “2112 (Overture/The Temples of Syrinx)”
- Video Intro: South Park – Lil’ Rush
- “Tom Sawyer”
Encore
- “One Little Victory”
- “A Passage to Bangkok”
- “YYZ”
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