A Farewell to Kings is the fifth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on Anthem Records on August 29, 1977. The album reached No. 11 in Canada and marked a growth in the band’s international fanbase, becoming their first Top 40 album in the US and the UK. After reaching a critical and commercial peak with 2112 and touring the album, Rush decided to record the follow-up outside Toronto for the first time and settled in Rockfield Studios in Wales after their debut European tour.

The title track starts things off with an acoustic interlude by Alex Lifeson before Geddy Lee’s keys is added and then segues into the full band and lyrically is about dealing with hypocrisy, and finding your own way by looking within yourself. And then there is the grand 11:05 minute Xanadu – beginning with a five-minute-long  instrumental  section before transitioning to a narrative written by Neil Peart, which in turn was inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan. In Peart’s lyrics, the narrator describes searching for a place called “Xanadu” that will grant him immortality. After succeeding in this quest, a thousand years pass, and the narrator is left “waiting for the world to end”, describing himself as “a mad immortal man”.

One of my favourite songs of Rush from the first time I heard it back in the late 1990s is Closer To The Heart. It was released in November 1977 as the lead single off the album It was the first Rush song to feature a non-member as a songwriter in Peter Talbot a friend of Neil Peart’s. It was Rush’s first hit single in the United Kingdom, reaching number 36 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1978. It also peaked at number 45 in Canada and number 76 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and has been a live favourite in the US, Canada, the UK & Brazil. Cinderella Man is a song based on one of Lee’s favourite films, the 1936 romantic comedy drama Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and the themes that it portrays.

The short 2:35 minute Madrigal is up next; a rare love song and ballad. The album closes with “Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage”, a science-fiction song that tells the story of an unnamed explorer who travels to the centre of Cygnus X-1, a real black hole, in a spaceship named the Rocinante, believing there may be something beyond it. Upon approaching the centre the protagonist loses control of the ship and is drawn into it by the pull of gravity, its body destroyed. This song was inspired by an article on black holes that Peart had read. Lee thought the science-fiction genre presented limitless musical ideas which inspired the band to “use all your goofy, weird sounds because that’s what’s happening out in space.” The song has a part II which came out in the next album.

A Farewell to Kings received a generally positive reception from critics. Rush supported the album with their most extensive tour at the time, headlining major venues across North America and Europe for over 140 dates. A 40th anniversary remastered edition with bonus tracks and a 5.1 surround sound mix was released in 2017.