Snakes and Arrows Full Review

OK, finally, my reasonably-well thought-out review of Rush's 'Snakes and Arrows'.

This album deals extensively with the perceived dangers of organised religion and its effects on free-thinking. It's occasionally a bit long-winded, but I think it gets away with it. I have a problem with the double-tracked vocals, which are used excessively.

It's got much better production than the previous studio album 'Vapor Trails', though, which I didn't like at all...

'Far Cry' - great opener, great single. Not sure which phase of Rush it reminds me of the most, but it's excellent. Strong bass and drums, with some very familiar guitar chords interspersed. Excellent.
'Armor and Sword', an interesting track about how things told to children to protect them (god, heaven, etc) can have serious repercussions in adult life if unchallenged. 'No one gets to heaven without a fight'. Great line...
'Working them Angels'. Good enough, but too same-y to the previous songs in feel. There's some good acoustic guitar, though.
'The Larger Bowl'. A jangly pop song, which provides a bit of respite, but it doesn't do much for me, I'm afraid. That 'such a lot of pain...' line is a bit trite.
'Spindrift' - I think I like this, although I'm still undecided. More layers of distorted guitar and multi-tracked vocals, but it has a good gtr solo bit at the end.
'The Main Monkey Business' is the first of the instrumentals, and it's excellent. The bass almost takes the main line and there's a tricksy 7/8 thing going on just to keep you on your toes. Very good.
'The Way the Wind Blows' starts off as a dirty blues song, but develops into a prog-ish epic. A nice take on the problems of organised religion, if a little depressing in its conclusions. Nice, crunchy gtr solo in a dirty blues section.
'Hope' is another instrumental, featuring Alex Lifeson. Nice.
'Faithless', another anti-religion thing. Starting to get a bit tiresome, now, however well-meaning it may be. Nice bass-line, though, and less of the vocal overlay thing.
'Bravest Face'. 'Though we might have precious little, it's still precious'; Genius wordplay or trite nonsense? It's starting to drift back to the 'Vapor Trail' sound again with lots of distorted guitars.
'Good News First'. It seems to remind me of Power Windows-era stuff, but I'm not really sure why - perhaps it's the 'but I do' middle eight. Take it or leave it, really; not particularly engaging, although the gtr solo is pleasant enough.
'Malignant Narcissism', a great instrumental. Powerful, interesting and not over-long
'We Hold On'. An odd choice of final track, I think. When I first read the lyrics, I thought this'd be more of a ballad, but, no, it's a straightforward 'Test for Echo'-era rock song, which just comes and goes.

All in all, some of the initial gloss on first listen has been removed, although I still rate it towards the 7.5 - 8 out of 10 range. Perhaps if a couple of tracks were removed (The Larger Bowl? Faithless?)