Artist: Rush 
   Title: Snake And Arrows
   Label: Atlantic Records

On this new LP by Rush, you get what you always don on any Rush offering, top draw musicianship, a crisp clear sound, straight to the head and heart lyrics and of course long songs that sometimes make you wish they'd end just that bit sooner!

Now there's no doubting the talents of Geddy Lee, Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson, especially highlighted within the instrumentals on this LP.  'The Main Monkey Business' with it's pounding drums and ghostly sounding keyboards, 'Hope' and it's lonely acoustic guitar from Lifeson that just cuts through the LP brilliantly even only for it's couple of minutes, but was needed to soften the tone up a touch before jumping back to the "bread and butter" songs and then 'Malignant Narussism', with Lee's bass vibrating throughout bring life to the song and Pearts drumming dominating all the way.

The first single 'Far Cry' with it's beefy drumming and guitar work is the typical Rush song, Geddy Lee's half spoken, half singing style instantly recognisable and setting the tone for most of the album, and at 5 mins 16 seconds long, possibly a bit long for quite a few people probably.  'Armour And Sword' could be deemed slightly controversial in some eyes, based on the subject of religion, aimed at whoever with the repeated line ... "No one gets to their heaven without a fight".  A case of make of it what you want.

There's a similarity between 'Working Them Angels' and their old classic 'The Trees' with it's mixture of electric and acoustic guitar work, Peart's drumming flowing with passion and precision throughout the song as usual, then the hint of a mandolin midway through does just enough to break the songs hardness up almost sounding like a totally different song.

Each song has it's own story to tell or message to give out whether it be about controlled religion or politics and Peart's lyrics couldn't be any closer to his home on 'The Way The Wind Blows', starting with a regimental style drum beat and bluesy guitar, Lee's vocals bursting in telling of a country being controlled within the line ... "So many people think of a way you've got to watch what you say".  Nice!!

If you've got a spare 63 minutes to kill and you'd like to exercise the old grey matter while listening to decent tunes then 'Snakes And Arrows' is the answer because Rush have come up trumps with this cracking album, maybes a tad controversial in places, but that's Rush for you!! Enjoy.

* Review by Bob.

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