A FAREWELL TO KINGS

Despite the limited expectations of the Mercury head officers, ''2112'' was actually Rush'es first commercial success, leading to a grand tour and the trio's first live album in September 1976 under the title ''All the world's a stage'', captured during a three-night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto.While King Crimson had disbanded and Yes and Genesis were starting to throw in their compositions more accesible beats, Rush were still exploring the intricate structures of progressive music and for their next album ''A farewell to the kings'' they sinked more into this direction.Recorded at Rockfield Studios in South Wales and mixed at the Advision Studios in London, the album came out in September 1977.

What a great opening kick by the trio with the self-titled track, starting with Lifeson's lovely classical guitar string charmness and slowly building an electric explosion of hard-oriented Prog Rock with unexpected breaks and a little dose of keyboards.''Xanadu'' is a complete classic of Rush'es repertoire.A mix of Space Rock and Hard Rock with poweful rhythm guitars and solid bass and drumming, flavored constantly by the sound of spacious synths and twisting around laid-back and more driving guitar themes.''Closer to the heart'' takes us back to the band's early stages, introducing a melodic and tight Hard Rock with both soft and more angular sections, while ''Cinderella man'' is basically an Art Rock piece with an intense lyricism, still counting the spacious linex of synthesizers, but always showered by Lifeson's impressive acoustic and electric switches on guitars.''Madrigal'' is surprisingly close to GENESIS' short pieces from early-70's, lyrical, ballad-esque and harmonic music with mellow electric guitars and soft keyboards.''Cygnus X-1'' is the absolute pinnacle of the album, 10 minutes of cosmic Hard Rock, pretty much defined by Rush themselves, with a distorted spoken intro by producer Terry Brown and Part's bells opening the way for a very complex, monstrous Space Hard Rock, featuring some of the best guitar work by Lifeson and Part's flawless drumming in an epic proportion, supported by Lee's floating synth splashing, dramatic and powerful Hard Prog at its best, no doubt.

Rush matured with each and every release.Elements like the irritating, high-pitched vocals, the cosmic synthesizers and the hard rockin' guitars seem so unrelated, but these guys meld them in an awesome way.Among the best offerings of the year, at a time when Prog Rock was in a decline.Highly recommended.