"Games", the track released as an advance single in February 1981 was recorded at Record One (LA), featuring such stalwart LA session players as keyboardist Bill Payne, drummer Russ Kunkel, and electric guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel.

[7] Rock Away was released in March 1981 to mixed reviews: Jack Lloyd of the Philadelphia Inquirer opined "Miss Snow departs sharply from her long-standing pattern with this one...And the results are generally pleasing.

The harder-hitting songs are balanced by ballads that come close to Vintage Snow: 'Something Good' and 'I Believe in You' [the latter an inspirational Bob Dylan number].

"[11] Critiquing Rock Away for Newhouse News service, George Kanzler would write: "[Snow's] talent [has] found its best expression in ballads and soft rockers, songs with space for Snow to stretch out her amazingly supple and expressive voice [which] has the ability...to get to the heart of a song and to pull those heart strings in herself and in the listener":"Snow is not a very good rock singer, and her continued attempts at the genre are a profligate waste of prodigious natural and developed talent.

"[12] Similarly Steve Libowitz of the Bridgewater Courier-News opined: "[Snow's] initial foray into" "a more rocking style" - the 1978 album Against the Grain - "[did] not [do] well artistically or commercially.

[26] Also Snow had to abruptly drop promoting Rock Away in June 1981 after suffering a vocal injury, a concert date in Denver incurring a burst capillary due to the altitude, with Snow's recuperation necessitating the cancelation of 28 scheduled concert gigs along with another promo.