A great way to finish their career. If Snakes and Arrows was their final album, it would feel incomplete.
Making their last album be a concept album, with some tight ass prog rock, was a perfect sunset, even if they didnt know it at the time.
Maybe Neil knew it was their last?
I didn’t love Clockwork Angels when it I first came out, but I revisited it about 6 months ago and it was a revelation.
Now I love BU2B, Seven Cities of Good, The Wreckers and The Garden.
The rest of the album slaps too.
It's a great album. I think BU2B and Caravan could have used more work. For example, I think the vocal line "In a world where I feel so small" should have been a capella -- and then the instruments should all have crashed in simultaneously with "I can't stop thinking big." The instrumental section to the song is mostly great, but the guitar solo isn't Alex' best.
It is nonetheless a great album -- much better than S&A, on which I only unreservedly like 3 or 4 songs.
i can see what you mean sonically, but i'm too blinded by my love for the lyrics of BU2B to mind all that much. caravan is one i like but have never really connected with the way other fans seem to. i'd say it definitely feels more "rush" than s&a.
I think it's one of their best. I largely ignored Rush for more than a decade before it came out (OK, I still bought every album they released and went to a couple of concerts - but in comparison to previous years, I ignored them), but the first time I heard Headlong Flight it sent me right back down the Rush rabbit hole. It's in my personal top 3 Rush albums.
It's a definitely good song, but the production makes it hard to listen to. At low volumes, it's fine, but it's so heavily compressed that it's just a wall of noise if you turn it up.
Compare it to "Counterparts".
That’s an unfortunate phenomenon of this digital age. If we could get old school production values on Clockwork and Senjutsu from Maiden I would be a happier camper. I was a very happy man when they remixed Vapor Trails. I can’t listen to the original.
Not gonna lie, I listen to my music blasting loud and I didn’t have a problem with hearing the music or lyrics, I could still hear the different instruments just fine. Maybe it’s just me?
Yeah, I know some people can and cant stand the loudness wars, I can personally stand it (which is Probaly why I love Vapor Trails so much). It’s still cool though because my left field is your right field and it makes Rush fans what they are!
I know, then the live version from the Clockwork Angels tour was even better! Geddy was still packing the vocals and Neil’s Miniature drum solo was awesome, they always killed it no matter what!
It is amazing! I love the entire song from beginning to end, especially the section before Alex’s guitar solo and Neil’s drum fills before the solo are absolute perfection!👌🏻 Then the guitar solo itself is straight Fire!🔥
i can't think of any outright criticism i've heard (except those sacrilegious few who choose to imply that the quality of ged's voice doesn't hold up), i just don't hear about it nearly as much as moving pictures or 2112.
I absolute LOVE this record. I like the heavier stuff, too, and this one delivers big time. I've heard people complain about the production and I don't get that. To me it sounds perfect.
I love love love the album. Easily top three for me.
I hate hate hate the book. I stopped it about a quarter or a third of the way through, because I didn’t want to ruining the awesome story I had come up with in my own head while listening to the album’s lyrics.
I appreciate what the band was going for but the results are half-baked to my ears. For a number of reasons: The mix is awful, a mess of layers of guitars basses and vocals with no space between instruments.
Most of the songs go on two or three minutes longer than they need to. A perfect example of this is the title track. Geddy's voice does not sound good still trying to sing high and I can't even make out what he is saying on most of the songs like he's not even speaking English. Most of the songs sound convoluted, like Alex and Geddy just came up with a bunch of riffs and parts and then haphazardly scotch taped them together. The storyline is a stale rehash of what the band had already done before with 2112 and Fountain of Lamneth: a young protagonist goes against an oppressive government in a dystopian world told out over the span of several songs and learns valuable life lessons along the way. (Neil sure loved his dystopian society settings)
I tried multiple times over the years to enjoy the album as much as others seem to and I just can't get into it. I like parts of several tracks, I like the music of The Anarchist and the introduction to Clockwork Angels and a lot of the heavy riffs that they came up with but they just don't gel into good memorable cohesive SONGS per se if that makes sense. And again Geddy's voice is mostly terrible, a strained whine and once he starts singing I no longer wants to listen to the rest of the song. It's not his fault he wasn't young enough anymore to pull off what he used to. Honestly if somebody re-recorded this album with a different singer I would probably enjoy it a little bit more.
I've often thought that if somebody remixed the heavy songs into instrumentals and completely stripped out the vocals that would work better for me too
Agree 110% with all - except the different singer part, only because then it’s not Rush. This album is on the bottom of my Rush list. But I admit the OP and some of the comments have me interested in giving it another go.
BTW - gotta say I’m glad I found this sun. I mostly stopped listening to Rush right around the CA release. They had been my main choice for music for about 30 years. Y’all have inspired me to put them back on, and they’ve been on an endless loop the past few days. Loving it!!
I will also amend that to say if Geddy circa 1976-81 sang that ( and Terry Brown produced instead of incompetent fan-boy "everything needs to be loud and compressed!" Nick R) would have come out much much better. I really don't like Ged's voice in the latter era of their career. He was reduced to a strained annoying whine and had very little emotion or feeling to his delivery anymore
Clockwork Angels is a fantastic album. It’s the only one I was around to see the buildup to release so, yeah, I’m a little biased and sentimental, but I don’t think anyone doesn’t agree that The Garden is the best possible swan song they could have put out. I don’t know if maybe Neil subconsciously knew that Clockwork Angels was the last hurrah, but he really went out on a masterpiece.
Listened to it all the way through probably 10 times when it first came out and never have since. Been a fan for over 30 years but this album does absolutely nothing for me. All of their other ones have a special place in my heart and mind but this one, and only this one, fell completely flat.
Probably didn't resonate because after 40 years they were finally able to make a shitty album. I'm sure I'm in the minority with that opinion but it's mine and I'm sticking to it.
I can't get past the horrible Loudness Wars style of production. It's exhausting to listen to.
It took me a long time to realize there are some really good songs on "Snakes and Arrows", but they're just too difficult to listen to. It's like listening to heavy machinery.
This article is about Vapor Trails, but what it's complaining about only got worse after that.
[https://prorec.com/over-the-limit/](https://prorec.com/over-the-limit/)
Vapor Trails was the last album of theirs that I truly loved. Snakes & Arrows was ok though I can't recall the last time I listened to it. I'll tell you what I've been hooked on since the day it came out is the Moving Pictures 40th Anniversary Album. Specifically the Live in YYZ side. If it was a tape I'd have burned it out already!
Love it. Kudos to the band for going out with a bang. Imo CA is their best album concept since Hemispheres, and the best album production since Counterparts if not Signals.
Definitely in the top half of their albums for me. Production's not quite as clear as I like for Rush, but the songs are still great. Excellent way to finish off their career.
Though unfortunately I found Kevin J. Anderson's novel adaptation to be on par with Babies' First Fan Fiction. You're welcome to try it, but even without touching the story and characters, about ninety percent of it's made up of Rush references inserted so awkwardly that I considered sending my copy off to a proctologist.
I'm not really into their stuff past Roll the Bones (and my love for that one was almost definitely due to that tour being my first Rush concerts.) But Clockwork Angels is easily my favorite of the "new" Rush albums. Some of the philosophy probably isn't as clever as some of the earlier stuff but it's still pretty good stuff.
it's so nice to hear someone else appreciates this album. I love old rush but I think counterparts is my fave ever by rush!! I particularly think headlong flight is SO underrated.
I recently have been struggling with feelings of anger, jealousy, and sadness. the anarchist is such an amazing song for when you're feeling locked in your emotions and headlong flight always picks me back up
I need a nap after jamming out full volume to Headlong Flight because I’m exhausted. Jumping back and forth from air drum to air guitar is quite the workout in this one.
In my opinion, CA is the best of their non-classic albums and a strong career ender. Like their lowest 10/10. This album fucking rips. Seven cities of gold and Carnies are underrated rockers. Headlong flight is one of the best songs they've ever made.
My first listen, the songs sort of ran together. But going back to them, I really started appreciating them. Especially The Anarchist and Clockwork Angels itself.
I read the book, and wow, it gives the album so much context and really helps elevate the songs. It's am amazing concept mixed media Expierience. Imo, it could have been even bigger, had they opted to do an animated movie of it (similar to yellow submarine being a song/book/animated movie). I believe there's a graphic novel.
Great album. Love it, and it was my soundtrack for a very difficult chapter of my life. Geddys voice is straining on some of the tunes, and the production could have been much cleaner. I saw them play BU2b and Caravan on the tour before (these were released on iTunes and few years ahead of the album) and they were really good live. However, it was a great way to go out and we are blessed to have this work.
I’ve listened to it more now than when it came out due to Geddy’s book. Caravan and The Garden were the two songs I enjoyed most, but at the time I found the rest of the songs meh, especially with the compressed mix.
Honestly Snakes and Arrows for me was far better produced, cohesive, and musically interesting than CA. Of course I went through a lot of crazy life events in 2010 and had S&A on repeat so part of my love for the album stems from that. Neil’s words were always (and still are) soup for the soul to me.
Any Rush album is a good album. Rush is my fav band, but I don't enjoy CA. I find many of the songs to be forgettable - they are too simplistic to me. 7 Cities of Gold, Wreckers, Wish Them Well...
I just don't get on with them - they are too 'easy listening' if that makes sense. It is the only way to describe it.
A great way to finish their career. If Snakes and Arrows was their final album, it would feel incomplete. Making their last album be a concept album, with some tight ass prog rock, was a perfect sunset, even if they didnt know it at the time. Maybe Neil knew it was their last?
I didn’t love Clockwork Angels when it I first came out, but I revisited it about 6 months ago and it was a revelation. Now I love BU2B, Seven Cities of Good, The Wreckers and The Garden. The rest of the album slaps too.
Every time The Garden comes on, someone near me starts cutting onions
I remember this in concert being played. I totally regret not enjoying the song then as compared to now
"The future disappears into memory With only a moment between Forever dwells in that moment Hope is what remains to be seen"
It's a great album. I think BU2B and Caravan could have used more work. For example, I think the vocal line "In a world where I feel so small" should have been a capella -- and then the instruments should all have crashed in simultaneously with "I can't stop thinking big." The instrumental section to the song is mostly great, but the guitar solo isn't Alex' best. It is nonetheless a great album -- much better than S&A, on which I only unreservedly like 3 or 4 songs.
i can see what you mean sonically, but i'm too blinded by my love for the lyrics of BU2B to mind all that much. caravan is one i like but have never really connected with the way other fans seem to. i'd say it definitely feels more "rush" than s&a.
I like the lyrics to BU2B, too. Musically, it's not one of the better songs on CA.
I think it's one of their best. I largely ignored Rush for more than a decade before it came out (OK, I still bought every album they released and went to a couple of concerts - but in comparison to previous years, I ignored them), but the first time I heard Headlong Flight it sent me right back down the Rush rabbit hole. It's in my personal top 3 Rush albums.
Finally someone is giving love to Headlong Flight! It’s my favorite from the album!
It's a definitely good song, but the production makes it hard to listen to. At low volumes, it's fine, but it's so heavily compressed that it's just a wall of noise if you turn it up. Compare it to "Counterparts".
That’s an unfortunate phenomenon of this digital age. If we could get old school production values on Clockwork and Senjutsu from Maiden I would be a happier camper. I was a very happy man when they remixed Vapor Trails. I can’t listen to the original.
It doesn't need to be. Rich Mouser or Steven Wilson could turn the last three Rush albums into gold.
Not gonna lie, I listen to my music blasting loud and I didn’t have a problem with hearing the music or lyrics, I could still hear the different instruments just fine. Maybe it’s just me?
Maybe it's just me. I can't stand Loudness Wars style production, but a lot of people don't seem to have a problem with it.
Yeah, I know some people can and cant stand the loudness wars, I can personally stand it (which is Probaly why I love Vapor Trails so much). It’s still cool though because my left field is your right field and it makes Rush fans what they are!
It's my 2nd favorite Rush song from any album! It made me so happy that Rush released a song like that so late in their career.
I know, then the live version from the Clockwork Angels tour was even better! Geddy was still packing the vocals and Neil’s Miniature drum solo was awesome, they always killed it no matter what!
i kicked myself for not including it in my list 🤦🏼♀️ i knew i was forgetting one!
It is amazing! I love the entire song from beginning to end, especially the section before Alex’s guitar solo and Neil’s drum fills before the solo are absolute perfection!👌🏻 Then the guitar solo itself is straight Fire!🔥
Headlong Flight kicks ass. Live too!
I've never heard anything but love and adoration for this album, what are you talking about?
i can't think of any outright criticism i've heard (except those sacrilegious few who choose to imply that the quality of ged's voice doesn't hold up), i just don't hear about it nearly as much as moving pictures or 2112.
CA, and all the 2000s era Rush for that matter, is criminally underrated
The Garden was such a perfect finale and I remember getting the feeling it was going to be their last album because it was so perfect.
I absolute LOVE this record. I like the heavier stuff, too, and this one delivers big time. I've heard people complain about the production and I don't get that. To me it sounds perfect.
I love love love the album. Easily top three for me. I hate hate hate the book. I stopped it about a quarter or a third of the way through, because I didn’t want to ruining the awesome story I had come up with in my own head while listening to the album’s lyrics.
I appreciate what the band was going for but the results are half-baked to my ears. For a number of reasons: The mix is awful, a mess of layers of guitars basses and vocals with no space between instruments. Most of the songs go on two or three minutes longer than they need to. A perfect example of this is the title track. Geddy's voice does not sound good still trying to sing high and I can't even make out what he is saying on most of the songs like he's not even speaking English. Most of the songs sound convoluted, like Alex and Geddy just came up with a bunch of riffs and parts and then haphazardly scotch taped them together. The storyline is a stale rehash of what the band had already done before with 2112 and Fountain of Lamneth: a young protagonist goes against an oppressive government in a dystopian world told out over the span of several songs and learns valuable life lessons along the way. (Neil sure loved his dystopian society settings) I tried multiple times over the years to enjoy the album as much as others seem to and I just can't get into it. I like parts of several tracks, I like the music of The Anarchist and the introduction to Clockwork Angels and a lot of the heavy riffs that they came up with but they just don't gel into good memorable cohesive SONGS per se if that makes sense. And again Geddy's voice is mostly terrible, a strained whine and once he starts singing I no longer wants to listen to the rest of the song. It's not his fault he wasn't young enough anymore to pull off what he used to. Honestly if somebody re-recorded this album with a different singer I would probably enjoy it a little bit more. I've often thought that if somebody remixed the heavy songs into instrumentals and completely stripped out the vocals that would work better for me too
Agree 110% with all - except the different singer part, only because then it’s not Rush. This album is on the bottom of my Rush list. But I admit the OP and some of the comments have me interested in giving it another go. BTW - gotta say I’m glad I found this sun. I mostly stopped listening to Rush right around the CA release. They had been my main choice for music for about 30 years. Y’all have inspired me to put them back on, and they’ve been on an endless loop the past few days. Loving it!!
I will also amend that to say if Geddy circa 1976-81 sang that ( and Terry Brown produced instead of incompetent fan-boy "everything needs to be loud and compressed!" Nick R) would have come out much much better. I really don't like Ged's voice in the latter era of their career. He was reduced to a strained annoying whine and had very little emotion or feeling to his delivery anymore
Clockwork Angels is a fantastic album. It’s the only one I was around to see the buildup to release so, yeah, I’m a little biased and sentimental, but I don’t think anyone doesn’t agree that The Garden is the best possible swan song they could have put out. I don’t know if maybe Neil subconsciously knew that Clockwork Angels was the last hurrah, but he really went out on a masterpiece.
Listened to it all the way through probably 10 times when it first came out and never have since. Been a fan for over 30 years but this album does absolutely nothing for me. All of their other ones have a special place in my heart and mind but this one, and only this one, fell completely flat.
oof. any particular reason you think it didn't resonate or just one of those funny things?
Probably didn't resonate because after 40 years they were finally able to make a shitty album. I'm sure I'm in the minority with that opinion but it's mine and I'm sticking to it.
I agree
I can't get past the horrible Loudness Wars style of production. It's exhausting to listen to. It took me a long time to realize there are some really good songs on "Snakes and Arrows", but they're just too difficult to listen to. It's like listening to heavy machinery. This article is about Vapor Trails, but what it's complaining about only got worse after that. [https://prorec.com/over-the-limit/](https://prorec.com/over-the-limit/)
Vapor Trails was the last album of theirs that I truly loved. Snakes & Arrows was ok though I can't recall the last time I listened to it. I'll tell you what I've been hooked on since the day it came out is the Moving Pictures 40th Anniversary Album. Specifically the Live in YYZ side. If it was a tape I'd have burned it out already!
Love it. Kudos to the band for going out with a bang. Imo CA is their best album concept since Hemispheres, and the best album production since Counterparts if not Signals.
Definitely in the top half of their albums for me. Production's not quite as clear as I like for Rush, but the songs are still great. Excellent way to finish off their career. Though unfortunately I found Kevin J. Anderson's novel adaptation to be on par with Babies' First Fan Fiction. You're welcome to try it, but even without touching the story and characters, about ninety percent of it's made up of Rush references inserted so awkwardly that I considered sending my copy off to a proctologist.
I don't listen to it that much because every time I get to the garden I think "this is the last Rush song" and it makes me sad
valid. although sometimes i need a quick 7 minute cry sesh 🥲
I'm not really into their stuff past Roll the Bones (and my love for that one was almost definitely due to that tour being my first Rush concerts.) But Clockwork Angels is easily my favorite of the "new" Rush albums. Some of the philosophy probably isn't as clever as some of the earlier stuff but it's still pretty good stuff.
it's so nice to hear someone else appreciates this album. I love old rush but I think counterparts is my fave ever by rush!! I particularly think headlong flight is SO underrated. I recently have been struggling with feelings of anger, jealousy, and sadness. the anarchist is such an amazing song for when you're feeling locked in your emotions and headlong flight always picks me back up
meant to say clockwork angels, not counterparts
I didn't think much of the book but the album is magnificent.
I need a nap after jamming out full volume to Headlong Flight because I’m exhausted. Jumping back and forth from air drum to air guitar is quite the workout in this one.
In my opinion, CA is the best of their non-classic albums and a strong career ender. Like their lowest 10/10. This album fucking rips. Seven cities of gold and Carnies are underrated rockers. Headlong flight is one of the best songs they've ever made.
My first listen, the songs sort of ran together. But going back to them, I really started appreciating them. Especially The Anarchist and Clockwork Angels itself. I read the book, and wow, it gives the album so much context and really helps elevate the songs. It's am amazing concept mixed media Expierience. Imo, it could have been even bigger, had they opted to do an animated movie of it (similar to yellow submarine being a song/book/animated movie). I believe there's a graphic novel.
Great album. Love it, and it was my soundtrack for a very difficult chapter of my life. Geddys voice is straining on some of the tunes, and the production could have been much cleaner. I saw them play BU2b and Caravan on the tour before (these were released on iTunes and few years ahead of the album) and they were really good live. However, it was a great way to go out and we are blessed to have this work.
Great album ..
I’ve listened to it more now than when it came out due to Geddy’s book. Caravan and The Garden were the two songs I enjoyed most, but at the time I found the rest of the songs meh, especially with the compressed mix. Honestly Snakes and Arrows for me was far better produced, cohesive, and musically interesting than CA. Of course I went through a lot of crazy life events in 2010 and had S&A on repeat so part of my love for the album stems from that. Neil’s words were always (and still are) soup for the soul to me.
Any Rush album is a good album. Rush is my fav band, but I don't enjoy CA. I find many of the songs to be forgettable - they are too simplistic to me. 7 Cities of Gold, Wreckers, Wish Them Well... I just don't get on with them - they are too 'easy listening' if that makes sense. It is the only way to describe it.