«A Farewell to Kings» is the fifth album by Canadian band Rush and it came out on 29 August 1977 through Anthem. It is the first record the band made outside Toronto.
“`Country: Canada
Genre: Progressive Rock
For fans of: Yes, Genesis, King Crimson
The lineup is Geddy Lee on vocals and bass, Alex Lifeson on guitar and Neil Peart on drums. The producer is Terry Brown, with the recordings made at Rockfield Studios in Wales, a location he suggested himself.
The band wanted to work in England, since they were fans of British music, and the isolation of Wales helped them work without distractions. The album was written in three weeks.
The record uses more synthesizers and finds every member playing more instruments, with tracks that run from the eleven minutes of «Xanadu» to the short «Closer to the Heart».
The highlights are the title track «A Farewell to Kings», «Xanadu», «Closer to the Heart» and «Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage», which ends open and continues on the next album «Hemispheres».
The album reached No. 11 on the Canadian chart and was the first Rush record to enter the UK top 40. «Closer to the Heart» came out as the first single and reached No. 36 in the UK.
The band backed the album with the biggest tour of its career up to that point, with more than 140 shows in North America and Europe. In 2017 an anniversary edition for the 40 years arrived with bonus tracks.
The record showed the band moving from the hard prog sound of «2112» to a richer, multi-layered style that would be completed on the next two albums.
See also: Rush: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson introduced the Neil Peart documentary.
