Snakes & Arrows | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Rush | ||||
Released | May 1, 2007 | |||
Recorded | November–December 2006 at Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York | |||
Genre | Progressive rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 62:50 | |||
Label |
|
|||
Producer | Nick Raskulinecz and Rush | |||
Rush chronology | ||||
|
||||
Singles from Snakes & Arrows | ||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | (73/100) |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
About.com | |
AllMusic | |
IGN | (7.5/10) |
Jam! | |
Manchester Evening News | |
NOW | |
PopMatters | |
Rolling Stone | |
Sputnikmusic | |
The Washington Post | (favorable) |
Snakes & Arrows is the eighteenth studio album, by the Canadian rock band Rush. Released on May 1, 2007, it was their first studio outing since 2004's Feedback, and their last studio album officially with Atlantic Records (at least in the US, where they changed distributors to Roadrunner Records as of August 31, 2011). 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, as a double LP album on June 19 (limited to 5,000 copies), as well as being the first album released on 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 where it remained for 14 weeks. It was certified gold in Canada in September 2007. The track "Malignant Narcissism" was nominated for a Grammy Award under the category Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The album was named as one of Classic Rock‘s 10 essential progressive rock albums of the decade. It was reissued and remastered in 2013 as a part of the box set The Studio Albums 1989–2007.
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." 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.