UPDATE - 3/27@12:47PM: I forgot to mention this before, but Neil also basically confirms in the essay that the album cover is indeed the Leela board.
I posted this UK press release for Snakes & Arrows in an update to this post yesterday but failed to notice that the release also included a link to a pdf of a Neil Peart essay; I'm assuming the one that Neil mentioned in his last website update. He talks about the recording of the album and all the inspiration behind the music and lyrics. He offers this interesting explanation behind the two short instrumentals Hope and Malignant Narcissism:
... In a single, inspired performance, Alex recorded his eclectic and poignant solo guitar piece, "Hope," which also has qualities of spirituality, and raw sophistication. He chose the title from the line in "Faithless," "I still cling to hope," and like that song, "Hope" is a kind of secular prayer.
Toward the end of the sessions, Geddy was playing with a fretless bass between vocal takes, just riffing aimlessly, and Booujze [Nick R.] was getting excited. He started recording some of those figures over the vocal mic, and fired us up with the idea of putting them together to create a short, quirky instrumental. This inspired the thirteenth track, for luck, "Malignant Narcissism" (an apt title for an instrumental with bass and drum solos, it came from Team America: World Police). For everyday use, that mouthful was soon abbreviated to "MalNar" (cue robot voice, "We are from the planet Malnar"). I had left a little four-piece drumset in the studio for Booujze to play around on, and I ended up recording "Malignant Narcissism" on that. Just for fun. ...
It's well worth the read. Thanks to the aptly named reader AnotherPairOfEyes for spotting this for us.
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[Snakes & Arrows to debut new DVD Album format!?]
[Snakes & Arrows review]
[Snakes & Arrows track times, 3 instrumentals]
[THREE instrumentals on Snakes and Arrows?]
[Far Cry promo image ... longer clip coming? 45-second clip!]
[Official Snakes & Arrows sales sheet verifies cover art, track list]
[Snakes and Arrows cover art revealed]
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