Rush

A Farewell To Kings

To taste my bitter triumph. As a mad immortal man.

Review Score:

(10/10)
Of all the albums I have heard or listened to over the years this may well be my favorite of all time. This is the kind of album you can listen to a thousand times (and believe me I have) and still find something new in the music or lyrics that somehow escaped you the time before. Setting the mood and contrast for the entire album, the first and title track begins with an acoustic guitar and background of singing birds that eventually soar into stark and grim warnings of where current societal paths may lead.

We turned our gaze from the castles in the distance.
Eyes cast down on the path of least resistance.

The second track, Xanadu, is quite simply, a masterpiece, and tells the tale of a man who regrettably gets his wish of immortality.

A thousand years have come and gone
But time has past me by,
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view.

Waiting for the world to end
Weary of the night.
Praying for the light.
Prison of the lost - Xanadu.

As with most of RUSH's work, Neil Peart's lyrics are powerful, but never more articulate and profound than here. The overriding theme of the album involves implementation of the heart into decision making. The last song on the album, Cygnus X-1 tells the tale of a space traveler who sails his ship into a black hole only to emerge in their subsequent album "Hemispheres" as a god arbiter of the heart vs. the mind, where reason makes it's argument.

Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars.
The people where contented
And the gods watched from afar.

But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared.
Bringing wolves and cold starvation
And the hearts of men despaired....

What makes these two albums work is the fact that they are not poetry set to music, nor are they music accompanied by poetry. The two are as one and fit together seamlessly. The emotion of the two rise and fall and fit together perfectly as one.

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