A Farewell to Kings - Rush (CD 1997)

(Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Album Overview" section. The section titled "Detailed Track Discussion" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and they do not constitute the essence of this review. Lastly and most importantly, this review is not necessarily written by the point of view of a Rush fan.)

Introduction

Ah, here's the problem with Rush: They want to be great musical artists, except they don't have an artists' inspiration. They concentrate hard on the artistic aspect of their music and never even coming close to achieving it. Furthermore, they totally neglect their melodies, which makes this album their most dull and lifeless release thus far.

Track Listing

Best song: "Closer to the Heart"

A Farewell to Kings B
Xanadu C-
Closer to the Heart B+
Cinderella Man C+
Madrigal D+
Cygnus X-1 (Book One) D

Overall Score: 2/5 (strong!)

Review Body

This album is a big 'ole flop, but there is good news. I'll get to that in a moment. First, let's talk about the bad news.

Boy, this album SURE is boring! If I were to give this album a rating out of five for boringness, this would get a five! Unfortunately, in our world, boringness is a bit of a burden. The No. 1 reason this album is boring is unquestionably due to the lack of spirit and lack of melodies. If I can take you back to the group's eponymous debut album, good riffs, catchy melodies and high spirit ran so rampant that it warranted getting up on my swivel chair and playing air guitar most gleefully with it. Now that Rush is fully immersed in prog-rock, they don't have any of that unbridled enthusiasm anymore ... just a lot of goofy sci-fi rambling.

Of course, if you enjoy goofy sci-fi rambling, then Rush is probably the band for you. I don't necessarily mind such lyrics and musicality as long as the album isn't BORING. That's just what this all is. Boring. Boring. Boring.

Now for the good news. Rush got much better at structuring songs and creating ambient atmospheres. The intro to "Xanadu" is very well done and tons more complex than the intro to "2112" on their previous studio album. Also, the songs themselves are much more well structured than their previous albums. The sub-sections in the over-extended prog rock songs ("Xanadu" and "Cygnus X-1") flow rather well into each other. However, who cares about the sections, when they're BORING?

Sorry, but I'll have to give this Rush album a thumbs down. But I do appreciate the fact that this band is trying out new things and expanding on their craft instead of simply repeating the commercial success of 2112. Just don't forget about the melodies next time!!

Apologies to Rush fans. I know this is another one of the group's more well-regarded albums that I basically panned.

Individual Track Reviews

Rush isn't necessarily off to a bad start with "A Farewell to Kings." It starts with some acoustic strumming with a Medieval flavor. Some electric guitar chords pipe up and Geddy Lee starts doing his helium-singing and the guitar crunches are heavy. The melody is OK but it would have been a better song if they were stronger. All in all, it's an OK song though wholly uninspiring. It's also two minutes too long.

"Xanadu" starts out all atmospheric-like with a quiet "oooooooooooh" in the background, some echoey electric guitar notes, bird sounds, a tinkling thing, and an occasional pounding of the woodblocks. Well, Rush did figure out how to do this sort of thing better than their previous albums! So you'll have to give them credit of trying to improve their craft instead of simply stagnating after their commercial success in 2112. But I really don't think their hard rock has improved much. I can't think of a less catchy riff than they have here! It's not painful at all listening through this, but it sure is pointless! It seems like the purpose of prog rock is to tell an epic story through the music, but Rush thinks that's supposed to end with the lyrics. No! You're supposed to tell the story through the music, too! Geddy Lee finally starts singing at about the 5 minute and 15 second mark, and the song actually gets worse... This could have been much better. Their attempts to combine mystic folk music with hard rock falls flat on its face in shame! ... They could have at least had an electric guitar solo in here, or are they too "serious" for that now?

"Closer to the Heart" is less than three minutes long! That's a good idea, I think. Who needs all these 11+ minute long songs, anyway? This song continues to be a vast wasteland as far as melody is concerned. The song is structured OK though. There is some good transition between the slower folky parts, and the harder rocking parts.

"Cinderella Man" is 4 minutes and 30 seconds! Cool! ... But again, the problem with the song is the lack of hooks. You must have a catchy melody if you are going to write a song like this. Seriously. It's not a bad song at all. In fact, I think this is another one of their better structured songs, which was a bit improvement from their previous albums. But it's just bland! It's a hard rock/folk song that's difficult to pay attention to. That said, I do fully appreciate that electric guitar solo at the end.

"Madrigal" wants to be an uplifting folk song, but it's as uplifting as a red brick!! The acoustic guitar strumming is OK but the melody, again, doesn't have much to it. It's highly simplified. Not that there's anything wrong with writing simple, but it's important not to forget to write the *music* too.

The beginning of the 10-minute "Cygnus X-1 (Book One) has many sound effects, and again this shows that Rush got a lot better at the goofy, ambient beginnings from 2112. This reminds me of the video game Myst I used to play all those years ago! Then, Rush starts up again with their trademark, awkward choppy chords. They basically keep on doing that nonsense for three minutes. And then, Geddy starts singing. Those jumbled-up guitars at the 5 minute mark are incredibly awkward! What were they thinking? ... Wow, this song is messed up. It's one big heck of a mess! It pretends to be an epic song, but there's nothing compelling about this whatsoever. This seems like more of a collection of noises than a song. Come on, you guys can do better than this for sure! This song is incredibly difficult to listen to.

Concluding remarks

These guys figure out the sound effects and how to structure a song better than they have in the past, but they sure forgot how to be *musical*