Snakes & Arrows
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| Snakes & Arrows | |||||
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| Studio album by Rush | |||||
| Released | May 1, 2007 | ||||
| Recorded | November - December 2006 at Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York | ||||
| Genre | Hard rock, progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 62:45 | ||||
| Label | Atlantic | ||||
| Producer | Nick Raskulinecz and Rush | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Rush chronology | |||||
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Snakes & Arrows is the 18th full-length studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush. Co-produced by Nick Raskulinecz, it is Rush's first studio outing since 2002's Vapor Trails. The album was recorded in five weeks between November and December 2006 at Allaire Studios in New York’s Catskill Mountains and mixed and mastered at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles, California. Snakes & Arrows was released on CD on May 1, 2007,[1] as a double LP album on June 19 (limited to 5,000 copies), as well as the new MVI (Music Video Interactive) format (limited to 25,000 copies) on June 26. Snakes & Arrows debuted at #3 on the The Billboard 200 chart and dropped off the chart after 14 weeks.[1] It was certified gold in Canada in September 2007.[2] The track "Malignant Narcissism" was nominated for a Grammy Award under the category Best Rock Instrumental Performance.[3]
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[edit] Title inspiration
According to drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, inspiration for the title of the album was conceived after considerable research from several sources; the 2000-year-old Buddhist game called "Leela, the Game of Self Knowledge," the related children's game Snakes and Ladders (also known as Chutes and Ladders), and Hamlet's quote "slings and arrows."[4] This information helped convince bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson to adopt the original painting of the age old game board as the cover for the new album.
[edit] Promotion and release
On March 12, 2007, the band unveiled a new website at the official Rush website, primarily to promote the album. The first single from the album, "Far Cry," was posted as on-demand streaming audio on this site at that time. The band also announced that the single was being released to North American radio stations.[5] On May 8, 2007, the band announced the release of a video for "Far Cry," and on June 1, 2007, "Spindrift" was released to radio stations as the album's official second single. In promotion of Snakes & Arrows, Rush kicked off their planned intercontinental tour on June 13, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia, which ran through October and covered most of North America and Europe. The 2008 leg of the tour started on April 11, 2008 in San Juan, Puerto Rico at José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum and is currently scheduled to end on July 24, 2008 in Noblesville, Indiana.[6] The third single for the album, "The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)" was released June 25 to North American radio where it positioned within the top 30 of the Mainstream Rock and Media Base Mainstream charts.[7]
The album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 93,000 copies in its first week.[1][8] These figures only reflect sales of the CD version of the album, and do not include the MVI or LP versions.
[edit] Writing and production
Writing for Snakes & Arrows began in January 2006 with Lee and Lifeson working at their home studio in Toronto. The pair began the writing process by jamming, which gradually molded their ideas into completed pieces. During this process, Neil Peart wrote preliminary lyrics for the songs – a creative method the band has employed frequently on their earlier works. Peart, originally from the Toronto area, has lived in Southern California since 2000. To continue working with his bandmates for the new album, he commuted to Ontario and New York throughout the writing and recording phases. When Peart was in California, the band occasionally collaborated over the Internet.[9]
By March 2006, rough versions of six songs had been completed. The three band members met in Quebec to listen to the material recorded thus far. In May 2006, they refined the songs in a small professional studio in Toronto. After the first six songs were recorded, the band set out to write and record additional songs in September.
American producer Nick Raskulinecz, who worked with the Foo Fighters, was hired to assist the band in producing the album. Raskulinecz, a self-proclaimed fan of the band, reportedly encouraged the band members to explore the limits of their renowned talents and enthusiastically encouraged the band to incorporate the complex rhythmic and melodic patterns that characterized their earlier works.[10] For the engineering of the album, Raskulinecz used vintage microphones for several applications.[citation needed] The final mix of the album was recorded at Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York; mixed and engineered by Richard Chycki at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles, California,[11][12] and mastered by Brian Gardner.
Neil Peart's customary essay on the writing and recording of the album, called The Game of Snakes and Arrows, has been released on the Rush website.[13] Neil also wrote an article that appeared in the August 2007 issue of Modern Drummer in which he details his writing process for the album.[14]
[edit] Influences and musical direction
Peart, the band's primary lyricist, has stated the lyrical theme of the album is based on his personal reflections on faith, inspired by his motorcycle journeys through North America.[15] Many of the experiences mentioned in the lyrics of Snakes & Arrows evolved from Peart's memoirs from his most recent book: Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour By Motorcycle.
According to Lifeson, musical themes for the album were written and developed using acoustic guitars to work out the major parts. These parts were ultimately recorded using acoustic or electric guitars, or other instruments. Lifeson found that writing the songs on acoustic guitars provided a certain purity, assisting him in conceiving the instrumental parts. Both he and Lee used this as an alternative to more traditional methods of song development, which saw the use of amplified electric guitars and the assistance of electronic instruments.[citation needed] David Gilmour is credited in the liner notes because he inspired Lifeson to write songs mostly on acoustic guitar. According to an interview from the Sept 2007 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, Lifeson mentioned meeting Gilmour at a concert at Toronto's Massey Hall during Gilmour's "On an Island" tour.[16]
According to Lee:
| “ | It's hard to describe. It's big, it's bold, and I think it's some of the best work we've done in years. I'm really pleased with the quality of the songs, and there's lots of playing on it... Playing those songs [from Feedback] that we loved and grew up on, I think it helped us remember how sometimes it's the simplicity or the directness of an arrangement that really makes a great song. And the other thing is, we played all together in the studio for a lot of the Feedback stuff. That's something that a lot of producers had been pushing us to do for a while but which we hadn't done in years. It was great to turn off the click and just play — you know, not worry so much about being so, quote, metronomic — and that definitely carried over into this record. | ” |
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- – Geddy Lee, interview with Revolver Magazine.[17]
According to Raskulinecz, the album has a similar sound to Rush's albums of the late 70s, such as 2112, A Farewell to Kings, and Hemispheres.[11]
[edit] MVI Format
Snakes & Arrows is one of the first albums released on Warner Music's "MVI (Music Video Interactive) format."[18] This format is a 25,000 copy limited edition. The album comes in a deluxe box, and includes the 13 songs on the album in hi-resolution audio, the entire album in 5.1 surround sound, a 40 minute video documentary on the making of the album, 26-page booklet (4 pages more than the otherwise identical CD booklet), wallpapers, buddy icons and an exclusive poster for fans that register the MVI copy. After continuous production delays, the album was released on June 26, 2007.
The DVD-ROM portion has 192-kbit/s MP3 files of the entire album. The DVD-Video portion contains both a "high-resolution audio" track (96 kHz/24-bit stereo LPCM) as well as a 5.1 surround-sound track (448 kbit/s Dolby Digital, 48 kHz). There is no DVD-Audio content on the disc.
[edit] Track listing
All music written by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee, except where noted. All lyrics written by Neil Peart.
- "Far Cry" - 5:18
- "Armor and Sword" - 6:36
- "Workin' Them Angels" - 4:46
- "The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)" - 4:07
- "Spindrift" - 5:23
- "The Main Monkey Business" - 6:01
- "The Way the Wind Blows" - 6:28
- "Hope" (Lifeson) - 2:02
- "Faithless" - 5:31
- "Bravest Face" - 5:12
- "Good News First" - 4:51
- "Malignant Narcissism" - 2:17
- "We Hold On" - 4:13
[edit] Instrumental tracks
In a first for Rush, this album contains multiple instrumental tracks: "The Main Monkey Business," "Hope," and "Malignant Narcissism."[19] This also marks the first new instrumental piece(s) composed by the band since "Limbo," on 1996's Test for Echo. "The Main Monkey Business" is the second-longest instrumental on a Rush studio album, after "La Villa Strangiato."
[edit] Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | The Billboard 200 | 3 |
| 2007 | Top Rock Albums | 1 |
| 2007 | Top Internet Albums | 1 Week 10: S&A dropped 4 spots to #58 on the The Billboard 200 chart, and shot all the way back to #1 on the Top Internet Albums chart. |
[edit] Singles
| Information | |
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"Far Cry"
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"Spindrift"
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"The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)"
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[edit] Personnel
[edit] The band
- Geddy Lee - bass guitar, bass pedals, mellotron, vocals
- Alex Lifeson - six- and twelve-string acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki
- Neil Peart - drums, percussion, electronic percussion
[edit] Other musicians
- Ben Mink - string arrangements on "Faithless".
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Rush - Snakes & Arrows. Billboard.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
- ^ Gold & Platinum Certification. Canadian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved on 2007-10-26.
- ^ 50th annual Grammy Awards nominations - Entertainment News, Award Central News, Media - Variety
- ^ Peart, Neil The Game of Snakes & Arrows Accessed September 17, 2007
- ^ RUSH - Official Website. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
- ^ Official Rush Website Rush tour schedule
- ^ Snakes and Arrows chart rankings Power Windows website - Chart news Accessed August 12, 2007
- ^ Katie Hasty, "Ne-Yo Scores Second No. 1 In Debut-Heavy Week", Billboard.com, May 9, 2007.
- ^ Peart, Neil. NEWS, WEATHER, and SPORTS. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ NEP news. Neil Peart official website (2006-12-08). Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
- ^ a b Gibson, Mike (2007-02-17). Beyond Foo. Metro Pulse. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
- ^ Impending Rush, Dolores O'Riordan Releases. Richard Chycki's official website (2007-02-18). Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
- ^ Peart, Neil (2007-04-04). The Game of Snakes and Arrows. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Peart, Neil. The Drums of Snakes and Arrows. DW Drums Website. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
- ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2006-09-11). Rush wrestling with faith on new album. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
- ^ Different Strings - Alex Lifeson Gets out of His Comfort Zone to Craft His Biggest Tones Ever - Guitar Player Sept 2007
- ^ Revolver Magazine
- ^ Rush's "Snakes & Arrows" pre-order page for the DVD-album Format
- ^ Get Ready to ROCK! album review. Retrieved on 2007-04-03
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