Rush

A Farewell To Kings

Rush kicks off phase two in style

Review Score:

(10/10)
Canadian power trio Rush released their sixth album A Farewell to Kings in September of 1977. AFtK was their first album to go Gold and first to be recorded in England. I first heard this album in the summer of 1987 as an 11 year old on the radio and loved it at first listen and sent me to the record store looking for this album. This album had matured musicianship and Rush experimenting with synthesizers(with bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee using them more and more) even more than on 1976's classic 2112(which went Gold on the same day as Farewell and All the World's a Stage by the way). The album begins with the title cut which sounds like it is gonna be a folk song thanks to guitarist Alex Lifeson's classical guitar work but then BANG into a full hard rock with electric guitars, drummer Neil Peart's lyrics about politicians being hypocrites and bigots and Geddy's voice wailing away. Next is the first of two epics, the 11-minute Xanadu which is arguably one of Neil's best drum performances and Geddy starting the song at a lower octave in his singing then going to the high registers and Alex's guitar work just being excellent. The second half kicks off with Closer to the Heart, which was the first Rush track to get massive radio airplay, and some complained said the band sold out with this track but is a classic. Cinderella Man and Madrigal follow, both songs are great with Geddy writing lyrics for a change on the former and the latter a love song in disguise but beautiful. The album concludes with Cygnus X-1(Book One: The Voyage), which starts off as if you were going into a spaceship and each instrument coming to life and rocking out for five minutes before the first vocal part appears and Geddy's just wailing on here and Alex's guitar just was amazing. Just when you thought it would get soft, they come in full throttle for the finale with Geddy's screaming like he is being pulled through a black hole and Alex's closing, ringing guitar chords being a reminder that this story would continue on 1978's follow-up Hemispheres. This remaster buries the original CD released in the 80s. Bob Ludwig did a great job with the remastering and Mercury I commend for repackaging it just like the original album. A great disc and highly recommended!

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