Rush are legendary. Some would stop here, others would add legendarily uncool. Received wisdom has it that Rush fans are immature man-children playing air guitar and drums while their virtuoso heroes play pompous solos. The comedy "I love you, man" illustrated that opinion pretty well. Women supposedly hate them. Rock critics certainly do, never more so than when "Farewell to Kings" came out in 1977 - year 1 of the punk revolution. Which were the 7 deadly sins according to punks? Long hair? check! Long songs? check! Power trios? Guitar solos? check! Big-ole synthesizers? check! Concept records? Sci-fi lyrics? double check!! As history has taught us revolutionaries make the worst tyrants, so it took a long time for rock writers to free themselves from the punk orthodoxy and view bands like Rush without prejudice. At that point of their career, they were at their proggiest stage, having moved away from the simpler hard rock of their early records, but not yet embracing radio-friendly new wave as they would do later. "A Farewell To Kings" opens the album with some gentle classical guitar of the kind that can even mellow down a punk. Until, of course, Geddy Lee invades with his shrieking high voice - one of those that you either love or hate and most people usually hate. Regardless of the vocals, the song does evolve into a tremendous hard rocker, which later gives way to the 11-minute "Xanadu", an epic with many time changes and impressive playing, employing a number of additional instruments (synths, various bells and chimes etc). "Closer to the Heart" is relatively short and simple, a psychedelic rocker starting off as a ballad, that reminds me somewhat of The Who. A natural choice for the lead single and one of Rush's most popular songs. Second single "Cinderella Man" pales in comparison, although I quite like the bass lines in it. "Madrigal" is a short and pretty ballad that functions as an interlude to "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" - a 10-minute space rock epic recounting the tale of an explorer's spaceship getting sucked into a black hole. Those anxious to learn the astronaut's fate had to wait for Rush's next album which contained the sequel "Cygnus X-1 Book II:Hemispheres". Jeezus, they were asking for it with those hilariously pretentious and pompous titles - not to mention the idea of splitting songs between records! Musically "Cygnus X-1 Book I" is a complex composition split in 4 movements, featuring some nice Zeppelin-ish riffs and great drumming. Geddy Lee reaches some impossibly high notes, but otherwise it's a bit all over the place and not that memorable. Dedicated Rush fans and progheads are nevertheless going to like it, as it showcases the band's most typical qualities, both good and bad. In any case, as a whole it's a pretty good album and worth having. I've had an extensive 2CD Rush compilation for years and thought I had them figured, but it wasn't until I started getting their individual albums and listening to them as a whole that I really got it.
**** for A Farewell to Kings, Xanadu, Closer to the Heart
*** for Cinderella Man, Madrigal, Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage
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