Snakes & Arrows

1. Far Cry
2. Armor And Sword
3. Workin' Them Angels
4. The Larger Bowl
5. Spindrift
6. The Main Monkey Business
7. The Way The Wind Blows
8. Hope
9. Faithless
10. Bravest Face
11. Good News First
12. Malignant Narcissism
13. We Hold On

Coming about five years after their last studio record (2002's "Vapor Trails") and three since their last studio offering ('60s covers EP "Feedback"), Rush's 18th studio effort, "Snakes & Arrows", has been highly anticipated amongst the fan community, if nothing else due to producer Nick Raskulinecz's comments of this record being a return to the band's '70s sounds. I've found over the years there's a desire among fan bases to see band's recreate their old favorites rather than moving on-- witness the recent popularity of recreation of classic albums live, reunion tours, bands returning to their "classic sounds", etc. As someone who's all for progress and has always loved Rush primarily for their willingness to keep looking forward and finding new sounds, I can safely say I was a bit nervous. While their restlessness has produces its share of bunts over the years (1996's "Test For Echo" being the most recent), it's produced a number of great records that could only have existed with the bravery of changing sounds. I mean, we're talking about a band that redefined progressive metal ("2112", "A Farewell to Kings"), found commercial success ("Permanent Waves", "Moving Pictures") and abandoned it time and again to embrace everything from new wave ("Signals"), synth-driven rock ("Grace Under Pressure"), alternative (my personal favorite Rush record, "Counterparts") and a noisy, almost punk sound ("Vapor Trails"). Thankfully, upon listening, Raskulinecz wasn't quite correct.

What I suspect he was aluding to wasn't so much a return to a sound but rather to a way of working-- to complexity and layering, to many of the things that made those '70s Rush records so interesting but without regressing to create a "A Farewell to Kings" Part II. "Snakes & Arrows" finds its textures primarily in guitars and guitar-like instruments, indeed Alex Lifeson is credited in the liner notes as playing "six and twelve-string electric and acoustic guitars, mandola, mandolin, bouzouki", and all of these are pretty clearly evident-- doubled, tripled on a given piece, providing a swirling platform under which Geddy Lee's growling bass and Neil Peart's typically fantastic drumming can reside. There's also some limited keyboards on this record, Lee is credited solely with the melotron, but I'm wondering if there's not some modern key snuck in there. They're used in a decorative capacity largely, similar to how they were used on the band's early '90s records. But it really is the acoustic guitars that stand out, they're all over the place, and not just as introductions but instead informed throughout.

This textured sound is readily apparent from the start-- opener "Far Cry" starts off with a churning introduction before settling into a bouncing riff that wouldn't've been out of place on "Roll the Bones", a great crisp bassline and a catchy chorus. Likewise, similar layered textures can be seen on the largely acoustic "The Larger Bowl", Lifeson's acoustic is countered by Lee's growling bass and a staggeringly confident vocal that almost makes you wonder where it came from, or on completely intriguing "The Way the Wind Blows". Opening with a brief blues-rock passage that could have come off of a Cream record (or "Feedback" for that matter) before settling into a throbbing rhythm with just a superb vocal from Lee, maybe his best. Along the way, there's also standout alternative-tinged "Spindrift", tension-driven "Faithless", downright affecting 12-string acoustic guitar solo "Hope" (which beautifully captures its title) and a brilliant, brief and totally self-indulgent (but in a good way) instrumental in "Malignant Narcissism".

There's a few tracks I don't really care for-- "Armor and Sword", clocking in at over six and a half minutes, drags a bit, "The Main Monkey Business" ends up being a neat but not "wow" instrumental, and a few of the tracks aren't terribly memorable, particularly towards the end of the record ("Bravest Face", "Good News First", but also "Workin' Them Angels" early in the disc, saved but superb lyrics). But by and large, it's an awfully good effort. Not quite on the band's masterpieces, but certainly it's a piece worth listening to. Recommended. -- Michael Stack (Watertown, MA USA)

Release Date: 05/01/2007

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Moving Pictures

1. Tom Sawyer
2. Red Barchetta
3. YYZ
4. Limelight
5. The Camera Eye
6. Witch Hunt
7. Vital Signs

It's a testament to the talent of this trio that one of their most accomplished releases musically and lyrically is _also_ one of their most accessible.

Lots of times, when musicians' musicians get together to record an album of 'prog rock', the results are interesting to their fellow musicians but leave the average listener in the dust.

The three members of Rush (Geddy Lee, vocals and bass; Alex Lifeson, guitars; Neil Peart, percussion and lyrics) don't work that way. They _are_ musicians' musicians (and they don't achieve their appeal by dumbing anything down), but they never retreat into technodazzle and flashy obscurantism; their music is just (or almost) as intelligible and enjoyable to a listener who wouldn't know 7/4 time if it bit him on the behind. (Even Geddy Lee's solo release _My Favorite Headache_, which you might expect to be filled with all sorts of at-last-a-chance-to-show-off bass theatrics, is on the contrary a fine collection of really good _songs_.)

Likewise, Peart's lyrics are intelligent and thoughtful, but they never talk down to us listeners or hide from us in a private, hipper-than-thou symbolic language. They're well-lit, with the clarity of sharp lights and shadows -- 'deep' without being hard to follow.

_Moving Pictures_ gets my vote as the CD to start with if you want to introduce yourself to this great band. Mind you, that's not because I share the common opinion that they jumped the shark in the mid-1980s; I may be alone in the world in thinking that these guys have never released a bad album, but that is in fact what I think.

No, the reason I name this album as the place to begin is that its quality is stratospheric even for Rush. This stuff is, lyrically, some of Peart's tightest writing, and the music (mostly by Lee and Lifeson with occasional contributions from Peart) is from start to finish as streamlined and clean-cut as a rocket.

Everybody has heard 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Limelight', so I won't comment on those. As for the rest: the futuristic road-warrior SF of 'Red Barchetta' is like a miniature _2112_; the magisterial and menacing 'Witch Hunt' is every bit as timely today as it was in 1981; 'YYZ' (the airport designation for Toronto -- tap it out in Morse code) is one of their finest instrumentals (and their last until a decade later); 'The Camera Eye' manages to turn two short 'snapshot' verses (about New York and London) into a sprawling eleven-minute epic that doesn't feel anywhere near that long; and the Police _wish_ they could have written and recorded the impossibly infectious 'Vital Signs'. The music is brilliant throughout, and Peart's incisive lyrics carry on his healthy celebration of individualism, liberty, and self-reliance without burying us in Ayn Rand references.

The bottom line is that if you're going to like Rush, you'll like this CD, and if not, not. Oh, you could do almost as well by starting with _Permanent Waves_. But most of their catalogue has _something_ on it that a Rush newbie might not appreciate (even _2112_).

This one is a gem, released when these guys had just broken through to the mainstream and were absolutely at the top of their game. If you have even a casual interest in Rush, don't miss it. -- John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Silver Lake, OH)

Release Date: 06/03/1997

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Rush of Fools

1. Undo (Digital Single Version)
2. We All
3. When Our Hearts Sing
4. Your Love
5. Fame
6. Peace Be Still
7. All We Ever Needed
8. Can't Get Away
9. For Those
10. Jesus Hurry
11. Already

This is a great new album. Their single "Undo" has already made it to number one on the Christian Music charts. Personally I like "When Our Hearts Sing" the best. The music and lyrics are both so well matched and performed from the heart. It's nice to have lyrics that are not all the same old cliches and shallow repetitiveness so prominent in today's "worship" music. I think these guys are going to do well if they keep producing music like this. -- Scott Holmes (Los Angeles, CA)

I don't even remember how I stumbled onto this band but I'm sure glad I did. After playing through the cd a few times I must say that I am impressed and have been recommending Rush of Fools to friends.

I always hate describing the way bands sound since the only way to do that is to reference other bands - which never seems fair or accurate. I'm not a The Fray fan, but I guess you would have to say the styling is in a similar sort of mold, I guess. Kinda. Not very helpful, I know! Just think of a mix of acoustic and electric rock brushing up on the very edges of hard rock. The lyrics are very well written and the instrumentation is excellent. And, unlike some Christian rock, it actually puts you in a worship state of mind. I look forward to seeing the band live sometime in the near future. Amazon has this cd for $11. Come on, you have eleven bucks. You won't be dissapointed. -- B. Barnes (Georgia)

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2112

1. 2112
2. A Passage To Bangkok
3. The Twilight Zone
4. Lessons
5. Tears
6. Something For Nothing

This album is the one that brought me to the Rush party. It's still one of the finest rock albums there is.

Before 1976, Rush had released a competent but undistinguished Self-Titled Debut, with bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee (Gary Lee Weinrib), guitarist Alex Lifeson (Alex Zivojinovich, of which 'life-son' is a literal translation), and drummer John Rutsey doing a passable imitation of Led Zeppelin. Following Rutsey's amicable departure, Lee and Lifeson were joined by mad percussionist and thoughtful lyricist Neil Peart, whose influence was evident over the next two LPs (_Fly By Night_ and _Caress of Steel_). But although there was lots of good music on them, the band hadn't quite found its voice yet.

Then came _2112_ -- without which quite a few of us would never have _heard_ of their first three albums. This one got lots of people's attention, including mine; I was introduced to it by a junior-high buddy who was as blown away by it as I was. As of this release, Rush had _arrived_.

The title piece, as you surely know, is a twenty-minute science fiction 'rock opera' inspired largely by Ayn Rand's _Anthem_. Don't let that put you off; you don't have to have a high opinion of Rand's work in order to appreciate _2112_. (I don't think much of her as a philosopher myself, although I've enjoyed some of her non-ATLAS SHRUGGED fiction.) Peart is nobody's follower, and when it comes to Rand he knew which bits to keep and which to reject.

Here (as in his other Rand-inspired material) he seizes on the right stuff: individualism, iconoclasm, reason, intellectual self-reliance, respect for human competence and achievement, and a deep commitment to political and social liberty. He and the band also have some things Rand didn't: the desire to rock out, and the ability to do it extremely well. (All these of guys were, and are, consummate craftsman who have consistently earned the respect of other musicians of all types. Unfortunately they didn't know, in 1976, what Rand actually thought of rock music.)

The result is an absolutely blistering first track (originally an 'album side') and as clear-sighted a hymn to individual freedom and nonconformity as rock has ever seen. Pretty good work for three guys in their early twenties -- particularly in heavy metal, a genre not ordinarily noted for elevated philosophical discourse.

The rest of it ('side two') is decent enough too. The best of it, arguably, is the TANSTAAFL sermon 'Something for Nothing', but I also enjoy 'A Passage to Bangkok' (devoted, incidentally, to another subject Rand wouldn't have approved) and the lugubrious 'Tears' (lyrics by Geddy Lee). The other two tracks -- 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Lessons' (lyrics on the latter by Lifeson) -- are okay but they aren't Rush's best work.

Now, as much as I love _2112_, I can't say I think it's Rush's best release ever; they followed it up with a string of magnificent albums, pushing further and further into what turned out retroactively to have been 'prog rock', opening our ears and our minds as they went. (And they're not done yet.) I have my opinions about which albums are their best, and other Rush listeners have theirs.

But this one has a special place in history -- both Rush's history and mine. I still play it, and I still enjoy it as much as I did twenty-eight years ago. Thanks, guys -- from me and all the other geeks. -- John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Silver Lake, OH)

Release Date: 05/06/1997

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A Farewell to Kings

1. A Farewell To Kings
2. Xanadu
3. Closer To The Heart
4. Cinderella Man
5. Madrigal
6. Cygnus X-1 Book One-The Voyage Prologue

While 2112 was the first Rush song I ever heard, A Farewell To Kings was the first Rush album I owned (the store didn't have 2112 at the time). Sentimentally, it's a favorite because it was among my first progressive rock albums, but beyond the gushiness I still love this album because it's great music.

For a band that critics hated, Rush had quite a following at this point, picking up numerous fans who'd been dazzled by the band's stunning musicianship, philosophical reflection typically disguised as fantasy/sci-fi stories (but not always...sometimes it was just a story), and the fact that they freakin' rocked. A Farewell To Kings produced one of the band's most popular songs, "Closer to the Heart," which continues to receive the attention of classic rock radio stations all over the place. I don't use superlatives too much, but I must say that this is the best song under three minutes EVER. The socially conscious title track squeezes a lot of "progression" into a 5 minute song. The highlights of this album are the mesmerizing "Xanadu" and the rockin' space adventure known as "Cygnus X-1, Book I." Even though the latter is best appreciated as a precursor to the phenomenal "Hemispheres," it's a great song even on its own. The first movement is ominous, the second is catchy and exciting, and the third is an insane rhythmic assault underscoring Lee's screaming vocals.

Finally, like most of Rush's work, this really doesn't sound dated at all, despite being released in the late 70s. Timeless music is great music! -- Lord Chimp (Monkey World)

Release Date: 05/06/1997

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