As a long time fan of Rush since the seventies I eagerly awaited their new release Snakes & Arrows which arrived in stores today. For the most part I really like their first full length studio album in several years. Musically this album is one of their finest. It has a bit of the feel of "Farewell to Kings" to it but the CD stands totally on its own with a lot more acoustic guitar work mixed in. Snakes & Arrows certainly does not sound tired and is really quite a good effort for a group that released their first album in 1974.
I was also interested in the new album because previously it was reported that drummer and lyricist Neil Peart was writing on faith.
The artist tells Billboard.com his lyrics for the as-yet-untitled set were greatly influenced by his motorcycle journeys throughout the United States, chronicled in the new book "Roadshow: Landscape With Drums."
Peart says he was struck by the ubiquity of religious billboards that have sprung up on America’s highways, which got him thinking about some weighty topics. "Just seeing the power of evangelical Christianity and contrasting that with the power of fundamentalist religion all over the world in its different forms had a big effect on me," he says.
"You try to put your own way of seeing the world into some kind of congruence with other peoples, and that’s difficult for me," he admits. "I mean, I see the world in what I think to be a perfectly obvious and rational way, but when you go out into it and see the way other people think and behave, and express themselves on church signs, you realize, ‘Well, I’m not really part of this club.’"
"I looked for the good side of faith," Peart says. "To me it ought to be your armor, something to protect you and something to console you in dark times. But it’s more often being turned into a sword, and that’s one big theme I’m messing with."
Well I am horrible at interpreting lyrics as to their meanings which for most rock is probably a good thing. Though reading through the lyrics for the new CD it certainly appears that Neil Peart did not find too much on the good side of faith. For example in The Way the Wind Blows.
Now it’s come to this
It’s like we’re back in the Dark Ages
From the Middle East to the Middle West
It’s a world of superstition
Now it’s come to this
Wide-eyed armies of the faithful
From the Middle East to the Middle West
Pray, and pass the ammunition
…Now it’s come to this
Hollow speeches of mass deception
From the Middle East to the Middle West
Like crusaders in unholy alliance
Now it’s come to this
Like we’re back in the Dark Ages
From the Middle East to the Middle West
It’s a plague that resists all science
I had hoped for better from Neil Peart, oh well. Though it is only the above song and one called "Faithless" whose lyrics are annoying, but there are three instrumentals. The instrumentals have a different feel to instrumentals on previous albums. You can always expect a lot of guitar virtuoso work from Alex Lifeson and the one titled “The Main Monkey Business” is no exception.
Lyrics aside if you like Rush you will like their latest offering.
22 comments
Maybe I’m wrong, but Rush has always had anti-religious lyrics. Aren�t they a bunch of Ayn Rand Objectivists?
Yeah, that’s too bad. I’ve sort of lost interest in Rush over the years but am still really enjoy the 2112 to Permanent Waves era immensely. Neil Peart has always been big into Ayn Rand and his lyrics are both blessed and cursed because of it. Similar but different to Roger Waters. Waters is a brilliant lyricist, but because of his liberal, anti-theist hangups he sort of self destructs. It used to be you could look past his left-wing ideology and at least appreciate his talent for expressing it. Not anymore. I hope the same thing hasn’t happened to Peart. But it’s always good to remember that it’s never too late until it’s too late, and it’s obvious that Neil Peart likes to think…it might be just a matter of time. Thanks for the review.
No rhythm, silly lyrics, and shrill vocals; that’s Rush.
Personally, my favorite is Hemispheres. I have the first 16 studio albums, the last being Test for Echo. Their more recent lyrics have become somewhat annoying, especially since I’ve grown in maturity.
Looking at their discography, I may want to check out Vapor Trails and Feedback along with Snakes & Arrows.
I’ve always appreciated their musical virtuosity. Alex Lifeson is a phenomenal guitarist, and yet I view him as the “weak link” as far as musicianship goes.
Rich, I don’t understand the “no rhythm” comment. See above.
I’m with the Jester on his review. I, too, was lured into Ayn Rand’s cult of personality, largely through the exposure to Rand’s “Anthem” via Rush’s 2112. Incidentally, I’ve always been amused by the fact that Ayn Rand hated music with drums, and considered drumming to be bestial, primitive, and anti-rational. Rand would have excommunicated Peart for the great sin of percussion.
Musically, the new CD is fantastic – the best since Roll the Bones. But Peart’s lyrics have recently gone from muddled romanticism to a sort of fundamentalist secular sermon. I can appreciate the strident atheism of a Richard Dawkins, but I can’t understand how someone as clever as Neil Peart could be so blatantly ignorant of the religion(s) he attacks. It is as if all he knows about religion are those billboards he sees. It puts me in mind of one of my favorite Chesterton quotes:
“They cannot be Christians and they cannot leave off being Anti-Christians. Their whole atmosphere is the atmosphere of a reaction; sulks, perversity, petty criticism. They still live in the shadow of the faith and have lost the light of the faith… The worst judge of all is the man now most ready with his judgments; the ill-educated Christian turning gradually into the ill-tempered agnostic, entangled in the end of a feud of which he never understood the beginning, blighted with a sort of hereditary boredom with he knows not what, and already weary of hearing what he has never heard.”
I find it incredible that Peart, in asserting primacy of conscience, could maintain the theory that he has his own moral compass, and that is sufficient. It doesn’t take much effort to look around and see how effective the old “moral compass” is. Peart’s relativistic view would be unable to make any value judgment on the actions of Cho Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech, for example. Good old Cho was just following his own moral compass.
Additionally, for Peart to decry superstition is ludicrous. Not that long ago he was converted to belief in Tarot reading.
The man clings stubbornly to his “rationalist” creed with all the faith of a true believer. I am sad for him (as I am for Roger Waters), for Peart has been given and has shared many gifts. But mostly I am sad for the loss of his critical judgment, and can only sum it up with some of Peart’s own words:
“For you the blind who once could see, the bell tolls for thee.”
Does anyone know how we are to interpret Rush’s frequent use of the pentagram and quasi-satanic symbolism on some of their album covers?
I used to like them, but the fear of God has kind of moved me away.
I liked them for a while when I got too old to listen to Kiss. That was over 20 years ago. They can play their instruments, for sure. But I can’t listen to most rock lyrics anymore.
Speaking of good playing and stupid lyrics…that reminds me of Zappa, whom I grew into after the Rush phase. Zappa’s famous quote about Rock Journalism: “People who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t think, for peope who can’t read.” Kinda sounds like ole G.K.
tony c,
Frank Zappa also said “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
What kind of Catholic Truths do you expect from a rock and roller.
Nice drummer,not much else.
Yay, Xanadu!
A gleaming alloy aircar two lanes wide?
What the crap!
I never really liked Rush, but I have come to be more critical of artists since becoming Catholic. Though it all, though, U2 has never failed to impress.
I think in the good ole days before music became an industry people who were good at poetry wrote lyrics and people who sang well performed. I think it is time we consider the many failures of this system and try to resurrect something of the old.
Who’s “Rush?”
Sounds like the only reflecting Peart really did was on his own (pardon the pun)Nealism.
Rush, quite possibly responsible for some of the most boring music of the rock era. And the voice of that lead singer! Is there anything more grating on the ears?
Yes, the voice of Robert Plant. Like a knife in the brain.
Rush was one of those bands in high school that the freaks (as in Freaks and Geeks) thought were profound. I always had to laugh when listening to The Trees — “There is unrest in the Forest. There is trouble with the Trees…”
This guy’s a rock star. He’s one of these few people on Earth whose occupation comes with an idiocy license. Only few choose not to use ’em.
I mean…what does this guy know about the Dark Ages that hasn’t been derived from crude Renaissance sound bites by equally crude modernists?
I used to be a big fan of Rush and other ‘ethereal and pensive’ bands like Pink Floyd and Ronnie James Dio. The common thread that runs through them all is that they are faithless. This is clear when you see their lyrics about the negative elements of religion and how faith is some esoteric ‘other’ which prods them toward Ayn Rand and not toward God. It used to be cool and even impressive in a landscape riddled with lyrics about sex, drugs, and partying. But now, it’s sad and reaffirms that these folks are our patients, not our enemies. Pray for them.
I’ve only been listening to Limbaugh since the Clinton administration.
Rich, I don’t understand the “no rhythm” comment. See above.
Technical prowess isn’t rhythm. The last time they had any was when they toned down the showy drum fills and bass slaps for Tom Sawyer and Red Barchetta, and that was twenty-five years ago.
I can’t agree with the ‘no rhythm’ remark either. Signals has some amazing rhythm work, Presto does as well. You don’t just ‘lose rhythm’ and their early work clearly shows that rhythm is present in Rush.
“I’ve only been listening to Limbaugh since the Clinton administration.”
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of him when I read the title. I started listening in the late 80’s…
“Sounds like the only reflecting Peart really did was on his own (pardon the pun) Nealism.”
Or perhaps malignant narcissism… ;o)
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