A FAREWELL TO KINGS

Rush at their peak . This album , every young Torontonian knew how much of a classic it was right from the moment we bought and could not wait for the band to get recognized around the world . Expectations were so high after the great 2112, and did Rush ever answer those fantastically .

Xanadu is my fave track from Rush but I think it is also the case of many other. This is another track were Rush excells in passing emotions in their music. Every time I listened to this , I saw Kubilaï Kkan running with his mongol tribes through the Steppes - Grandiose. Cygnus X-1 is the best attempt at making science-fiction on record as you feel so lost after the spaceship got sucked in by the black hole . We could not wait until the next album to discover what happened next. Closer To The Heart soon became a concert favorite and Cindarella man is yet another typical Rush song. Madrigal is another Geddy Lee tune (if memory serves me well and is slightly weaker).

With superb tracks like Xanadu and La Villa Strangiato in the following Hemispheres , it is now clear that Rush had come of age and write great epics worthy of some of the original early 70's English giants.