Snakes & Arrows tracks?

[JohnnyBlaze]

Half the album is filler.

 

Anytime I listen to Spindrift I feel like running into the eye of a hurricane. This isn't a compliment.

 

Bravest Face might be my least favorite Rush song of all time. It's top 5 easy that's for sure.

 

So I listened to S&A twice in a row today and changed my mind from earlier---it's not half filler.

There are 3 or 4 that are filler and another 2 that I don't care about. The other half is decent or good.

 

Dude you sound like me about everything. Stop it! Hate something and just stop liking it more and more! KEEP THAT MIND CLOSED AND DON'T OPEN YOUR HEART TO CHANGE!

 

Don't get me wrong, Spindrift and Bravest Face are still monkey balls. :P

 

One thing though, Far Cry and Armor & Sword are praised a lot on here but to me they'd get a C+ and C respectively.

[Segue Myles]

Half the album is filler.

 

Anytime I listen to Spindrift I feel like running into the eye of a hurricane. This isn't a compliment.

 

Bravest Face might be my least favorite Rush song of all time. It's top 5 easy that's for sure.

 

So I listened to S&A twice in a row today and changed my mind from earlier---it's not half filler.

There are 3 or 4 that are filler and another 2 that I don't care about. The other half is decent or good.

 

Dude you sound like me about everything. Stop it! Hate something and just stop liking it more and more! KEEP THAT MIND CLOSED AND DON'T OPEN YOUR HEART TO CHANGE!

 

Don't get me wrong, Spindrift and Bravest Face are still monkey balls. :P

 

One thing though, Far Cry and Armor & Sword are praised a lot on here but to me they'd get a C+ and C respectively.

 

I don't hate Snakes And Arrows. It's got some good stuff on it.

 

But not one single song would make my ideal setlist and if I never heard it again or wouldn't affect my life. It's a sinful album...neber truly rubbish or truly great but always very...okay...

 

If only Clockwork Angels had this production.

[Wil1972]

Far Cry

MMB

 

 

Classics...

 

Everything else is meh. We Hold On, Workin' Them Angels and TWTWB are listenable. MalNar is YYZ lite. Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

[pjbear05]

Best:

 

Armor and Sword, Main Monkey Business, Working Them Angels

 

Worst: Bravest Face, Good News First, We Hold On

^^^ Yesirree!

[JohnnyBlaze]

 

 

Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

 

When I was listening to Faithless yesterday I thought, "Maybe I was too hard on it. It's not so bad." A couple of minutes later while the song was still going, I thought, "Come on end already! Jeez, why don't you end?!! End!!!" :P

[diatribein]

Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

 

When I was listening to Faithless yesterday I thought, "Maybe I was too hard on it. It's not so bad." A couple of minutes later while the song was still going, I thought, "Come on end already! Jeez, why don't you end?!! End!!!" :P

 

That's exactly how I feel about Clockwork Angels! It just keeps going and going and going for seven and a half damn minutes!!! It is unrelentingly bad. Faithless is wonderful and even if you happen not to like it, there is still a full 2 minutes less of it. I admit that Faithless isn't musically one of the 5 best tracks on Snakes & Arrows though. It really is more of a powerhouse in terms of lyrics. That is where the song really shines. Still, there is so much other awesomeness to choose from on this album, that one can hardly worry about this one song.

[JohnnyBlaze]

Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

 

When I was listening to Faithless yesterday I thought, "Maybe I was too hard on it. It's not so bad." A couple of minutes later while the song was still going, I thought, "Come on end already! Jeez, why don't you end?!! End!!!" :P

 

That's exactly how I feel about Clockwork Angels! It just keeps going and going and going for seven and a half damn minutes!!! It is unrelentingly bad. Faithless is wonderful and even if you happen not to like it, there is still a full 2 minutes less of it. I admit that Faithless isn't musically one of the 5 best tracks on Snakes & Arrows though. It really is more of a powerhouse in terms of lyrics. That is where the song really shines. Still, there is so much other awesomeness to choose from on this album, that one can hardly worry about this one song.

 

Yeah I don't worry about it. Bravest Face and Spindrift are easily worse anyway

[Wil1972]

Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

 

When I was listening to Faithless yesterday I thought, "Maybe I was too hard on it. It's not so bad." A couple of minutes later while the song was still going, I thought, "Come on end already! Jeez, why don't you end?!! End!!!" :P

 

That's exactly how I feel about Clockwork Angels! It just keeps going and going and going for seven and a half damn minutes!!! It is unrelentingly bad. Faithless is wonderful and even if you happen not to like it, there is still a full 2 minutes less of it. I admit that Faithless isn't musically one of the 5 best tracks on Snakes & Arrows though. It really is more of a powerhouse in terms of lyrics. That is where the song really shines. Still, there is so much other awesomeness to choose from on this album, that one can hardly worry about this one song.

 

And I prefer CA over SnA. To each his own, haha! :-)

[JohnnyBlaze]

Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

 

When I was listening to Faithless yesterday I thought, "Maybe I was too hard on it. It's not so bad." A couple of minutes later while the song was still going, I thought, "Come on end already! Jeez, why don't you end?!! End!!!" :P

 

That's exactly how I feel about Clockwork Angels! It just keeps going and going and going for seven and a half damn minutes!!! It is unrelentingly bad. Faithless is wonderful and even if you happen not to like it, there is still a full 2 minutes less of it. I admit that Faithless isn't musically one of the 5 best tracks on Snakes & Arrows though. It really is more of a powerhouse in terms of lyrics. That is where the song really shines. Still, there is so much other awesomeness to choose from on this album, that one can hardly worry about this one song.

 

And I prefer CA over SnA. To each his own, haha! :-)

 

So do I. Easily.

[Digital Dad]

For me a solid album. The only song I would straight up toss is Bravest Face.

 

Top 3

Far Cry

Armour

TWTWB

 

Faithless can go too.

[Digital Dad]

Far Cry

MMB

 

 

Classics...

 

Everything else is meh. We Hold On, Workin' Them Angels and TWTWB are listenable. MalNar is YYZ lite. Faithless and Good News First are turgid.

 

Bravest Face sucks so what I do is go from Hope to GNF. It loses nothing...then right into another quick jam and then the finale.

[goose]

Half the album is filler.

 

Anytime I listen to Spindrift I feel like running into the eye of a hurricane. This isn't a compliment.

 

 

that's.....an interesting putdown of a song :D

 

That song makes me wanna die in the most turbulent of ways :P

The eye of a hurricane is calm. ;)

[JohnnyBlaze]

Half the album is filler.

 

Anytime I listen to Spindrift I feel like running into the eye of a hurricane. This isn't a compliment.

 

 

that's.....an interesting putdown of a song :D

 

That song makes me wanna die in the most turbulent of ways :P

The eye of a hurricane is calm. ;)

My limbs torn to shreds would rest in that calmness

[diatribein]

Bravest Face is EASILY one of the 5 best songs recorded by the band this millennium. In fact, I think all of them are on this album! Great lyrics and an amazing acoustic guitar riff by Alex. What's not to like?!?!

[Wil1972]

I've decided to it might be time to give this album a deeper, 2nd look this weekend. Since it falls at the bottom of the list for me in respect to Rush albums. So I will give it a whirl and after the weekend come back with thoughts. But all of you VT and CA haters should do the same. Let's give those albums a 2nd chance and see how we feel.

 

This will be interesting because I have not listened to SnA all the way through in a few years. I keep about 5 of the songs on my phone. That is low for a Rush album, as I keep almost entire albums by Rush on my phone. But this one never clicked. Will it finally make me feel differently after 10 years? We will see. I will report back Sunday or Monday on my findings.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Wil1972

[Na na na]

Armor & Sword

Far Cry

The Main Monkey Business

[Grover]

Far Cry: Catchy and pretty good lyrics.

Workin Them Angels: I like the odd time signature and the drumming, and how the lyrics mix Rush and Neil's story.

The Way The Wind Blows: Great playing and lyrics.

 

I don't understand all the praise for Armour and Sword. It seems to plod along painfully.

[JohnnyBlaze]

 

I don't understand all the praise for Armour and Sword. It seems to plod along painfully.

Grover, I give it this grade:

 

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060921183413/muppet/images/c/c6/Oldc_06.jpg

[rocket ignites]

 

 

I don't understand all the praise for Armour and Sword. It seems to plod along painfully.

The plodding nature fits the song's heaviness. Great lyrics also. I've praised that song since first listen.

[RUSHHEAD666]

I get a lot of the larger toilet bowl banter on here for many tracks on here, however I can't understand the disgust for "We Hold On."

 

Alex kills it on the guitar.

 

The lyrical content is actually in a positive manner. Is this a cynical song? I don't think so.

 

It's a perfect last song on a solid record.

 

"We Hold On" is a brilliant track. The ending is awesome!

 

To each their own.

 

"Snakes And Arrows" is to "Hemispheres" as "Vapor Trails" is to "St. Anger."

[Wil1972]

Okay, so I gave Snakes another spin last night. Bottom line: do I still find the album to be their weakest? Yes. And for a number of reasons. Bear with me and I will try not to get too long-winded.

One of the overarching problems is that many of the songs are melodically awkward and weak. Ged's choices for melodies sound forced and uninspired. Many songs here sound like rejected Geddy Lee solo songs rather than proper Rush songs. That coupled with the dragging mid-tempo arrangements to almost every track makes for boring songs. Some songs that start with a lot of promise falter under this weight, such as Armor and Sword, Spindrift, and The Bravest Face.

Another weakness is found in the lack of Rush's signature quirkiness. Far Cry and The Main Monkey Business get it and exemplify the best of Rush on Snakes. Those two songs sound like Rush songs. But that element is absent from much of the rest of the album. They sound as if they are trying too hard to write straight-forward pop songs. When those attempts clock in at 5 and 6 minutes, a turgidness and blandness sets in. Especially when that occurs over the course of several songs in a row. Pick up the pace!

All of these problems become much more cogent when you stack them back-to-back, which brings me to my next point: the pacing of the album. Any one of these tracks could almost be accepted on their own, sequenced differently, amongst contrasting material. But here that mid-tempo groove gets monotonous after 4 or 5 tracks. More upbeat material along the lines of Far Cry interspersed with the other songs might have lifted it somewhat. Instead you have a draggy album full of average songs. And with 13 tracks, that makes for a long listen. Even Vapor Trails, which I love, is a little long and could have been made better had they shaved a track or two. But at least that album had a full-throttled passion, whereas Snakes has little, if any. In fact, it sounds very stiff and workmanlike in places.

But it's not all bad. The album itself sounds stellar. I wish Vapor Trails had sounded this good. The remix helps but Snakes is still their best sounding record of recent years. And the other saving grace of this album is Al's guitar playing. I found myself really enjoying everything about his work here and it made a lot of the songs I do not particularly like at least listenable. So Al gets the MVP award.

Did my opinions change about any specific songs? Not really. My favorites are still my favorites: Far Cry and Main Monkey Business. Second tier songs that I like but do not love include Workin' Them Angels, MalNar, The Way the Wind Blows and We Hold On. I still find Faithless to be the worst song here.

But in spite of all this, it is Rush. And the few great songs make it worth having. I just don't plan on making it a habit to sit through the entire thing again anytime soon.

 

PS. My wife, having not heard this album all the way through in some time either sat in with me and we swapped thoughts and opinions, and she made some helpful observations about it. Her least favorite album before we sat down to hear this one had been Caress of Steel. So in all fairness, we listened to both. Her takeaway? Caress is no longer her least favorite Rush album.

 

[jnoble]

Remember (for you old timers over 40) when the batteries in your Walkman would start dying and the songs on the tape would..starrt....slooowing....doooooowwnnn?

That's what Armor&Bored sounds like to me. There's an audio option on the YouTube desktop page where you can speed a song up by 1.5 or 2'xs. A&B sounds much snappier and Rush-like if you listen to it that way, no joke

[ytserush]

No fillers. Just pure unadulterated fruity goodness. Not a month goes by without listening to this.

[EagleMoon]

Remember (for you old timers over 40) when the batteries in your Walkman would start dying and the songs on the tape would..starrt....slooowing....doooooowwnnn?

That's what Armor&Bored sounds like to me. There's an audio option on the YouTube desktop page where you can speed a song up by 1.5 or 2'xs. A&B sounds much snappier and Rush-like if you listen to it that way, no joke

 

The entire album needs a shot of speed. That's my biggest complaint about the album. It's too slow.

[jnoble]

I just realized that the opening riff of A&S sounds a lot like Ghost Of A Chance if it was (again, my earlier analogy) played on a Walkman with almost dead batteries lol