Rush - A Farewell to Kings
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Free Music Notes for A Farewell to Kings
Free Music Review: LIFESON BECOMES A GUITAR GOD!
Hit: 5 Stars
A Farewell to Kings......Lifeson graduates! He moves from being the guitar great from Canada who did 2112 to the exclusive status of GUITAR GOD (joining Gilmour, Beck, and Page).My original exposure to this album was on 8-track. The title track opens with a classical piece which is very well done. Although Lifeson is not known for his acoustic prowess (Rush should have used the acoustic more), the song moves into a heavy riff which has Lee in perfect voice. The solo is earth shattering then immediately moves into a cut-time riff which USED to be their trademark.Xanadu shows the incredible talent of this Kid Lifeson. The intro is pure volume pedal. To young guitar players in the mid-70s, we had never heard anything like this before, or since. The song is brilliant. A reviewer stated in her review of the Odeon live version that Alex sure rocked back then. Yes he did! However, within 10 years, Lifeson would forget how to use the volume pedal, as well as the wah, and basically forget how to play guitar in general.Closer to the Heart is a bit to AM for me, maybe because radio has since worn it out (radio has a way of taking a good song and playing it into the ground...look at Sawyer and Limelight). But it gells nicely with this album. Madrigal is a soft ballad that is very well done. Many blast this song because it doesn't rock. Well, DUH! IT'S A BALLAD, MAN! Cinderella Man is probably the best song ever written by Lee. The band is absolutely tight. Cygnus closes out the album. Very strange song, LOADED with cut riffs and time-signature changes (if you like post Roll the Bones Rush with all its standard 4/4 time and melodic emptiness, then you probably won't like Cygnus). But clearly, Cygnus defines Rush as a powerhouse. All in all, a perfect album. Rush would continue its extraordinary art form for 2 more albums, culminating with the incredible Permanent Waves.Free Music Review: Rocinante...
Hit: 5 Stars
This was the first studio album by Rush I ever got, and I recently replaced it on CD. It's still awesome. Rush's music sounds as fresh today as it did back then. The complexity of their compositions and their musicianship are still breathtaking. This album, A Farewell to Kings, is one of their most underrated albums.
There are many great classic Rush tracks here, starting with two of their greatest epics, Xanadu and the blistering Cygnus X-1. Xanadu runs 11 minutes or so, and is never boring. I remember James Hetfield of Metallic saying that songs like Xanadu were a great inspiration for them, and made them want to write longer songs (many of Metallica's songs run between 7-8 minutes). It's still a great song, with great lyrics by Peart and superb musicianship. The song I like the most is the closer is Cygnus X-1. The lyrics are really good, but the music is immensely complex, and the shifting rhythms and beautiful, understated use of synthesizers works amazingly well. Peart's playing is especially good on this song. For those who say Peart is overrated (some actually do) should be forced to listen to Cygnus over and over again. The first third of the song is the best. Closer to the Heart is a great single, one of Rush's best short songs. The title song is also gorgeous, with a wonderful classical guitar introduction by Alex Lifeson. The intro is so delicate, with the glockenspiel (a rarely used percussion instrument that needs to find a home again in rock). Then when the song kicks in, it's quinessential Rush.
Many critics never got Rush. I remember Moving Pictures (another great Rush album) getting one star from Rolling Stone, while giving crap like The Who's It's Hard five stars (it's their worst album, though I've heard Endless Wire is worse). Their fans got them, and are still getting them. Rush rules.
Free Music Review: my favorite Rush album!
Hit: 5 Stars
I love this album, it is unbelievable. While many people choose, "2112", "Hemispheres",and "Moving Pictures", as their favorites, (as I think those were good albums also), this is the one that stands above the rest in my book. This album probably dosen't get as much recognition by the critics, I don't understand why, but what the hell do they know, the fans know the real deal. This album starts off with the title track, which starts off with classical guitar, then turns into a rocker. "Xanadu", is my second favorite epic by this talented band, as it is 11-minutes long and beautiful. I'm quite sure everyone knows "Closer To The Heart". "Cinderella Man", is also great with acoustic and electric guitar parts. "Madrigal", is soft and beautiful. "Cygnus X-1", oh my god!. This is my absolute favorite on the album. At first, I hated it, but then it totally grew on me. Now it is my #1 favorite Rush epic. The others are good, but to me Rush didn't surpass what they accomplished on this truly dark, heavy and insane epic. This is truly a hard song to play as I've only learned to play some of it.(the ending of the 1st movement in something of a 9/4 time, I think. Any guitarists out there like myself, try the Eb minor, C minor barre chords based in A, to F# barre chord based in E. Play it and see if it sounds familiar to you.) Sorry for rambling but an album like this is worth it. By the way my favorite part of the epic is the 3rd movement as it starts off in what I believe is something of an 11/8, and the key of E is repeated into submisson.
Alright I'm done with my rambling, I'm sorry if I bored anyone, but this album is truly amazing and shame on the idiots who didin't give this album the justice it deserves.
Definitely, my favorite Rush album!
Thanks
Free Music Review: Is this my favorite album?
Hit: 5 Stars
In another review of Rush's "2112" album, I remarked that it was the best album ever. This album gives me pause when I say that, however.
While it provided the band with my least favorite Rush song (thanks to too many repetitions of so-called-metal radio stations) and one of their biggest hits, it also is chock with all manner of other incredible songs.
Three songs- A Farewell to Kings, Xanadu, and Cygnus X-1 provide enough musical epic-ness to soothe the hardcore Sci-Fi/Fantasy beast within anyone. Odd time signatures and the vastness of the subject matter coupled with the way the music supports the lyrics make this album hard to beat in the Rush lexicon.
Still, if you are one to buy an album for only one song (which would be a misread in this case) Cygnus X-1 is undoubtedly the best treatment of a song about space as is possible in my mind.
While I like "I, Mother Earth"'s "One More Astronaut", that song is more about the astronaut, and Cygnus X-1 is about the ship, it's captain, and the space it moves through. Simply astounding. What is also amazing is that they can do this song live without a hitch with the odd time signature at the beginning. I am not yet a musician, so maybe it's easy musically to figure that out- but still after 15+ years of listening to this song- I still am blown away by it.
On another note, anyone who has ever read the "Space Lord" comic book by John Byrne, should listen to this song or vice versa.
Anyway, it's a perpetual toss-up for me between 2112 (which is not as accessible as this album), A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Grace Under Pressure (for different reasons) and Moving Pictures, as far as favorites go.
Free Music Review: Momma's safe for a bit
Hit: 5 Stars
You might remember me from such reviews as "2112" and, well, to tell you the truth, that's about all I've had me the time to listen to so far. But hang loose, I'm a-gonna get to all them there Rush albums. Well, sir, here we are at the '77 offering, name of "A Farewell to Kings." Now where "2112" had me dancing a jig right off, I was just plain disgusted with this one for what seemed a coon's age, but what turned out to be just a few days, truth be told. Yessirree, Bob, this here's an album that ain't entirely unlike athlete's foot in how it takes some time to grow on you.Know what? Turns out the second tune that I made a mention of in that last review of mine ain't got a thing on God's green earth to do with that skating picture of Olivia Newton-John's. Nope, it's all about some fellow scouting out some kind of supercharged milk or whatnot that ends up making him live on for a whole lot longer than he can quite stand. You see, Neil Beard (he's the fellow what writes the poems for the band) proceeds to tell about the consequences of our somewhat thick hero's somewhat dim choice to go ahead and swallow that there juice he was looking around for in the first five minutes of the song.
There's another longish song what tells a story on this album, too. It's got a whole lot to do with space and telescopes and I ain't got a whole lot of patience with stuff like that, so I'm not gonna be a whole lot of help with that one. Let's just say Neil Beard's got some guy flying his spaceship into a black hole only to come out on the next album.
Music's top notch, of course. Only two types of folks in this world: those that like "Closer to the Heart" and those that don't. Well me, I ain't for sure.