Rush - A Farewell To Kings (1977)

Rush is back and musically, they're as awesome as ever!  Or rather, MORE awesome than ever....in many ways.  Although not so much in others, unfortunately.

The first thing that jumped out at me about this album is the complexities in the arrangements have improved greatly.  There's a good mix up of grooves, time signature changes, epic tracks and radio friendly ones as well.  Oh... and one really soft love ballad.  The lyrics didn't really stand out to me as much as the last few albums.  In fact, I think I may have burned myself out a bit by being so ambitious as to only spend 1 week with each album.  As such, I've actually taken 3 weeks to fully immerse myself and really get a feel for this album.

The further I delve into this journey of rushification, the more intense the albums become, despite the fact that the more recent albums have fewer 'tracks', the songs get longer.  The arrangements get more complex and the subject matter of the albums becomes less and less relatable and more rooted in fantasy and literature.

I've been listening to A Farewell To Kings for weeks now and while I've pretty much memorized every nuance of the album, I feel no real personal connection to this particular Rush album(and I really tried!).  The arrangements and instrumentation are quite outstanding and I wouldn't have a hope in hell of being able to play along to this album accurately on any instrument (and I'm pretty good at Guitar, Drums and Bass).  But highly technical instrumentation will only get you so far.  I would have to say that as far as songwriting goes, this is the weakest album I have heard from Rush, thus far...

That being said, all the songs on this album are, indeed, quite technically amazing. 'Closer to the heart' is one of Rush's more recognizable tunes and is easily the best song on the album.  It's catchy, up beat rhythm, and the fact that it isn't switching between 7/4 and 6/8 time signatures makes it great for the radio.  Cygnus X-1 is also one of the best Rush epics I've heard so far in the journey.  At the very least it's the best epic on the album. I didn't much care for Xanadu, although the keyboard part towards the end is catchy, but also so high pitched it makes the back of my head feel like it's going to explode in both joy and pain.

This album has taught me a lesson:  amazing musicianship will get you in the door, but you gotta keep up the songwriting skills or you run the risk of growing stale.  I've also decided that as the technicality of Rush's album seems to be progressing, I will be taking 3 weeks to fully listen to and appreciate each album.  This is a journey towards rushification and I just don't want to burn myself out.  I have 15 more albums to get through after all.

I give A Farewell To Kings a recommendation of 5/10 as it just didn't hold my attention as well as previous albums, while the amazing musicianship is there, some element in the songwriting just seems to have been lost.  Here's hoping the next album makes up for it.

Notably, this is Rush's first album recorded outside Canada.  The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales in June of 1977 and was produced by Rush and Terry Brown.

Up next in the Rush catalogue is 1978's Hemispheres.  I'm really hoping I like it better than this album, but I'm very excited as 'La Villa Stangioto' is on it and I've heard nothing but mind blowingly good things about that track.  See you in a few weeks!  Stay Rushified kids!