The good news first: the mastering isn’t as hot as on Vapor Trails, with the clipping being pretty much kept at bay.

While my personal bias is the Hemispheres—Signals period, you can’t deny that the drums always sounded like they were right there in front of you, crisp and well defined. Today’s mixing techniques make Neil Peart sound like he’s hitting cardboard boxes in another room. The drums lack balls. His playing is great and intricate as ever, I just wish I could hear it.

Geddy Lee has said in some interviews that there is Taurus pedals are all over this disc. While that sounds exciting, they’re hard to hear and they don’t sound like most of us remember them, not to mention that they don’t really stand out and are hard to hear. They should have been more up front and could have given Snakes & Arrows a warm retro feel. He should have ditched the orchestra strings preset and used the pedals instead.

This brings me to my biggest issue with some of the material: there’s not enough space between the music, there’s too many things going on and vying for your ear. For example, the wall of vocals effect doesn’t give the music room to breath. Can you imaging replacing the Taurus pedals on “Freewill” or “The Spirit of Radio” with some “oooohhhhhs oooohhhhhs” and “aaaahhhhs” a la “Earthshine”? Personally, I think the live versions of the Vapor Trails material that appears on Rush in Rio and R30 sounds much better. It’s stripped of the layers and it’s just the band rocking as a three piece.

Unlike most of today’s music, Snakes & Arrows is certainly not one dimensional. There’s a great deal of textures being explored and while that can be viewed as Rush pushing their boundaries, at times the songs sound a bit disjointed. Quirky for the sake of being quirky. With the exception of “Far Cry” and “Malignant Narcissism”, everything is mid-tempo. As a result, there isn’t any particular track that grabs you instantly.

Given the hype regarding the disc having elements of “classic” Rush, expectations were high. While there certainly are moments when you can hear these elements, you also hear some overtones of their output from the 90s and their most recent studio release, Feedback. Can’t say I enjoyed that one much, but that really has nothing to do with the band or their interpretations of the material… I just don’t care for music from the 1960s.

After 23 days with this on my iPod… a solid B.

Far Cry
The teaser clip for “Far Cry” gave us hope with “The Hemispheres Chord.” The reality is that it’s the disc’s most radio-friendly track but comes up short of the promise vested in that one chord. It has its moments: the “It’s a far cry…” lines sound like vintage Geddy. The “One day I feel…” lines have that 60s/Feedback feel that mucks this up a bit for me.

Armor and Sword
Interesting drum opening from Neil with the ringing guitar sounds like U2’s The Edge. This could have fit in perfectly on My Favorite Headache. The melody during the “No one get’s to their heaven” line is wonderful.

Workin’ Them Angels
Is it me or do the opening chords and verses sound like they could have come off of Caress of Steel? While the song is unremarkable, for some reason the chorus pops into my mind during various times of the day. If the song can do that, I guess I shouldn’t call it unremarkable, huh?

The Larger Bowl
Folk-rock that I could see them doing during the acoustic break (if they have one this tour). One of the benefits of the song’s dynamics is that you really get to hear Geddy’s strong and expressive voice. The layering of his vocals, however, is starting to get a bit old by now. Same goes for the “whoaho whoaho”s as well. Another one with the dreaded 60’s vibe. No great shakes.

Spindrift
Right now – for me – the best song on Snakes & Arrows. The opening atmospheric soundscape reminds you of something off of Hemispheres. But there are those damn “oooohhhhhs” again – enough already! It sounds like Hemispheres meets Permanent Waves during the verses with a nice melody for the “A little closer to you…” lines.

The Main Monkey Business
Ditch the “oooohhhhhs oooohhhhhs” and use the Taurus pedals instead! That would be a tasteful way to acknowledge your history. While not as mundane as either of the “Thing” instrumentals from the 90s, it doesn’t quite measure up to “YYZ” or “La Villa Strangiato”. There’s a great break that begins at 2:26, especially as Neil brings it to a crescendo but it loses its momentum by dropping into a loopy solo at 2:50. They should skip this solo and delete everything between 2:50-3:13 and jump right to the screaming solo at 3:13. I’m such an armchair producer… don’t you love it?

The Way The Wind Blows
One genre I never “got” was the Blues, so anything that sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughn, BB King, etc. is simply a turn off for me. I’m just not a fan of that guitar tone and it doesn’t sound like Alex Lifeson. It gets pretty decent when the verse kicks in but then breaks into an odd sounding bridge. The “We can only…” lines and acoustic break sounds great but overall, not one of the top songs for me.

Hope
This is a nice, unexpected surprise. Alex should do an entire album in this vein – if he could keep it interesting for at least 40 minutes. This sound really suits him, much more than the Victor material. Come on Alex – let’s see a solo disc of Appalachian inspired folk guitar. I’m dead serious.

Faithless
I read somewhere that this song is the lyrical bookend to “Freewill” and I agree. The chorus sounds like a blend of My Favorite Headache and Hold Your Fire. A “classic” sounding solo from Alex – you could smell the arena-refer on this one.

Bravest Face
The switching between placid acoustic guitar verses and hard rocking choruses is starting to sound a bit Nirvana-ish: Soft/loud/soft loud/solo/loud/soft/end. Contains another great melody found in the chorus.

Good News First
Crank up those Taurus pedals in the beginning – I can hear them but they’re buried. Damn, this is as close to vintage Rush as we’ve gotten in 20 years. The verse is so-so and the lyrics a bit iffy, but there’s classic Rush buried all throughout this one. Some of Geddy’s phrasing sounds familiar, but I still can’t peg it.

Malignant Narcissism
Bass. Guitar. Drums. Absolutely no “oooohhhhhs hhhhhoooos” to be found and no porn sounding guitar solo. Just the three of them with some great interplay between Geddy and Neil… you hear some “YYZ” in there, but not as complex. Second best track but could have used a smoking solo.

We Hold On
Somewhat Pearl Jam-ish. I hate to bring this up, but what happens at 1:20? Sounds like a cut and paste gone wrong. Maybe this is why the special edition is delayed until June? I wonder if they caught this late and wanted to fix it before the second release. Anyone else hear the “Red Barchetta”-ish harmonics between 2:57 and 3:00?

“‘The Main Monkey Business’ is the first and certainly the most impressive of three instrumental outings. It’s interesting to see what Rush make of a piece that doesn’t have to accommodate the lyrics, and the result is a guitar-led motif with a vaguely Celtic/Zeppelin sounding feel, and a real sense of presence and controlled power. The mid-section slips into a Space Rock outing that resolves itself in a Prog Metal oeuvre as layers of keyboards beef up the melody line.

Hopefully they cut out the monkey business and moved back to “La Villa” or “YYZ” territory as far as melody, complexity and creativity are concerned. I found the various ”Thing” instrumentals rather rote, uninspiring and over processed.

Both “La Villa” and “YYZ” have ethnic overtones that give the songs character and make them listenable today. The “vaguely Celtic” sound mentioned above is encouraging… we’re seriously overdue for another barn stormer instrumental.

Unofficial tour dates are posted at rushisaband.com. Official announcement of dates is supposed to happen on Monday, March 26.

You can register for pre-sale information on Musictoday.com.