Rush released a new album. It's called "Snakes and Arrows". There are 13 songs on it. Those songs contain words. The words are sung to music that's played by men with instruments. There's a bass guitar, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, and drums. Probably keyboards.
Is this review boring you so far? If so, you have an idea of what actually listening to this album would feel like. Is playing music in awkward time signatures the only thing that qualifies music as "prog" these day? Sigh."But Puffy," you say, flushed and whimpering, "it's Rush! They did 'Moving Pictures' and '2112'!" Yeah, I know they did. Wipe your nose. Those albums were awesome. This album is not awesome. "Snakes and Arrows" is boring, mild and preachy. Every song (except the instrumentals) is basically a big long book of prose sung over your dad's idea of hard rock. There's no catchy melodies, there's no hook, there's not even anything to sing along to. There's just words, lots and lots of words. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, Rush has always been a sort of mellow rock, long winded and slow-burning and Neil Peart's lyrics haven't always been THAT poetic but there's really something missing here. They really want to kick ass and emote and change the way you look at the world but it's hard to convey passion with so much production, the drums are way up front, every cymbal crash and tom thump it clear as a bell and in full stereo, the guitars sound present and resonant and the bass feels like as much a lead instrument as Geddy Lee's voice. Now, here's the reason why I don't hate this album as much as it seems like I do. The music sounds amazing. The instrumental track "Main Monkey Business" is a tight, complex jam that makes it's six minute running time slide by easily. The other instrumental track "Hope" features some excellent 12 string guitar work by Alex Lifeson and is one of the more interesting tracks if only because it's stripped down to the bare minimum. The rest of the album is filled with mellow plateaus and hollow ideas. Tracks like "Way the Wind Blows", "Faithless", and "Bravest Face" try to be relevant and political, calling the masses to arms against corrupt culture and religious bigotry but end up sounding like a snotty college kid trying to school a high schooler about "how the world really works, man." I take issue with the content not because it's political or because it deals with current events, but that it doesn't offer any real solutions to the issues that it brings up. Real rock, even political rock, should still take you away from the constant crotch-kick that is reality, not simply remind you that life is a bitch and there's not a lot you can do about it. I mean, even Bob Dylan and Jesus used allegory and parables to break the bad news. Now granted I haven't heard an album that Rush has released in the last 20 years or so, so I don't know if all this bitching is just old news or what, but I know that as far as "Snakes and Arrows" is concerned Rush has lost their groove. They're still extremely proficient musicians and they know how to crank out a seven minute jam, but this whole album feels very text book. It feels like a contractually obliged album of mediocre rock songs they churned out over a week and a half in the studio. It lacks drive, purpose, a place in canon and overall it lacks anything that will set it apart from the flotsam of modern music in the future. HOWEVER, if you're in a pinch and need something to soundtrack the game of Unreal Tournament you're playing, pop it in and the crunchy grooves will blend nicely with the sound of heads popping off. "M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!"Puffmagic gives "Snakes and Arrows" by Rush (yes, THAT Rush) 2 out of 5 Rob Gordons.
P.S. There's no Indie Equation to accompany this review because Rush is so old and mainstream that everyone knows what they sound like anyway.
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