A FAREWELL TO KINGS

Not one of their best (not that they've had that many "good" albums to begin with). The production still doesn't do the band justice, and Geddy's voice is still way up there in that tree in the backyard. Horribly so, as a matter of fact, especially since this music is pretty damn complex and interesting on its own. Then his voice comes in and starts wailing like Yoko Ono all over everything. If you happen to locate a fully instrumental version of this LP, pick it up and give me a call on the radiograph, but as it stands, the only song that doesn't make me want to rip Geddy's larynx out with my bare hands and... oh heck, is it larynx? Or pharynx? If you decide, "Closer To The Heart" is a nice song. "Xanadu" is also a winner -- very complicated and cool. The rest is fairly iffy, mostly because of the singin'. As Grand Funk probably should have said, "Bad singin', good playin'!"