 | Jonnn (0)
02/06/2008 | This album is pretty Epic, all the songs are pretty long. Lyrics are well thought out though, and most of the songs tell a story, which is always fun I think im the only person that likes closer to the heart.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | ILikePie (49)
01/26/2008 |  A Farewell to Kings is considered by many (and this statement has much support amongst hardcore Rush fans) to be the pinnacle and peak of Rush's career, and they might just have a point.
The album is centred around the two 'epics' (usually each seventies album has one, if that), and we are really in for a treat here. First (the second track) we have 'Xanadu', a very sweet yet guitar-heavy twelve-minuter (no Olivia Newton-John this time, folks) song, on which Neil Peart's words coming out of Geddy Lee's mouth hit their best so far (with the possible exception of Temples of Syrinx). The beauty and general melt-in-your-mouth delicate quality of Xanadu is counter-balanced by the raw, bizarre and nerdy Cygnus X-1, the story of divine in-fighting, intergalactic travel and titanic battles. The relative simplicity of the opening riffs (the solo perhaps the exception to this) is part of the brilliance of this song. For this reason, Cygnus is one of my favourite Rush songs of all time.
The rest of the album is built around these two epics. The title track and opener is a relatively standard Rush song (perhaps picking up where Bastille Day left off), except that it is adorned with an excellent acoustic intro. The two-minute warble that is Madrigal is fortunately overshadowed by the rest of the album, and I, for one, frequently forget about it. Cinderella Man is an often underappreciated and bittersweet song, with that brilliant power to grow on you the more you listen to it. And then, finally, we have the gem on the crown, which is so easily and widely hated (I was guilty of that myself until A Show of Hands convinced me otherwise), the brilliant Closer to the Heart, the opening lyrics of which (contributed by a friend of Neil Peart's - Peter Talbot), you can listen to time and time again without them ageing even slightly.
So, with such a strong lineup and so few flaws, how can I give this less than five stars?
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