Snakes & Arrows is the eighteenth studio album by Canadian Hard Rock band Rush, released in 2007 through Anthem Records (in conjunction with Atlantic Records internationally). Their first album produced by Foo Fighters producer Nick Raskulinecz, the album received great reviews from fans and critics and the album hit #3 on the Billboard charts upon release. The tour for this album was documented on the concert film/live album, Snakes & Arrows Live.
Tracklist:
- “Far Cry”
- “Armor and Sword”
- “Workin’ Them Angels”
- “The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)”
- “Spindrift”
- “The Main Monkey Business”
- “The Way the Wind Blows”
- “Hope”
- “Faithless”
- “Bravest Face”
- “Good News First”
- "Malignant Narcissism"
- "We Hold On"
Principal Members:
- Geddy Lee - vocals, bass, mellotron, bass pedal
- Alex Lifeson – electric guitars, acoustic guitars, twelve-string guitars, mandolin, bouzouki
- Neil Peart - drums, percussion
Snakes And Tropes
- Album Title Drop: Snakes and Arrows in the song “Armor and Sword”.
- Darker and Edgier: Most of the songs on this album have exceptionally bleak lyrics.
- Epic Rocking
- Instrumentals: There are three on this album, being “The Main Monkey Business”, “Hope”, and “Malignant Narcissism”.
- Loudness War: As with other recent Rush albums, this album is unfortunately affected by this trope, although thankfully not as badly as Vapor Trails was. It was given a vastly more dynamic remaster
in 2016 for a digital and vinyl release (DR12 as opposed to the original's DR6), although unfortunately in this case there are brief gaps between what were Siamese Twin Songs on the original. However, a person should be able to edit these out from the digital version with audio editing software. Unfortunately, for the vinyl edition there is nothing anyone can do. - New Sound Album: Rush features ’60s-retro and folk elements on this album.
- One-Word Title: “Hope” and “Faithless”.
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: ”Hope” is nothing but Alex Lifeson performing a gentle acoustic riff for two minutes.
