A Farewell to Kings



A Farewell to Kings is the fifth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 1, 1977 by Anthem Records in Canada and by Mercury Records in the United States. It was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and was mixed at Advision Studios in London. A Farewell to Kings would eventually become Rush's first US gold-selling album, receiving the certification within two months of its release, and was eventually certified platinum.

Critical reception
In the Q & Mojo 2005 Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came in sixth in a list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums." AllMusic's Greg Prato gave the album 3.5 stars (of 5), saying they "had improved their songwriting and strengthened their focus and musical approach." He took notice of the synthesizers that were creeping into the arrangements, "a direction the band would continue to pursue on future releases." Of Xanadu, he said "...remains an outstanding accomplishment all these years later" Conversely, Robert Christgau gave the record a D rating, calling Rush "the most obnoxious band currently making a killing on the zonked teen circuit." He compared them to bands such as "Angel. Or Kansas. Or a power-trio Uriah Heep, with vocals revved up an octave. Or two."

1997 remasters
A remaster was issued in 1997.
 * The tray has a picture of the star with man painting (mirroring the cover art of Retrospective I) with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from Rush through Permanent Waves are like this.
 * The remaster has all of the original vinyl packaging, including the back cover (all black with puppet strings) and inner sleeve photos of the band on stage. The star with man logo was reinstated after its absence on the original CD issue.

A Farewell to Kings was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette as part of the three-volume "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's albums recorded for Mercury. In addition to the standard audio CD, A Farewell to Kings was also included on an audio DVD in the Sector 2 set, remixed into 5.1 surround sound.

A Farewell to Kings was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion. The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less dynamic range compression than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.

In popular culture

 * In 2016, comedy rock band Ninja Sex Party released a cover version of "Madrigal" as part of their album Under the Covers.

Rush

 * Geddy Lee – vocals, bass and twelve-string guitar, Minimoog, bass pedal synthesizers
 * Alex Lifeson – electric and acoustic six- and twelve-string guitars, classical guitar, bass pedal synthesizers
 * Neil Peart – drums, orchestra bells, wind chimes, bell tree, vibraslap, triangle, tubular bells, temple blocks

Additional personnel

 * Terry Brown: spoken vocals on "Cygnus X-1"

Production

 * Arranged and produced by Rush and Terry Brown
 * Recorded at Rockfield Studios (Wales) during June 1977 by Terry Brown and Pat Moran
 * Mixed at Advision Studios (London) by Terry Brown, with assistance by Declan O'Doherty and Ken Thomas
 * Originally mastered by George Graves; Remastered by Bob Ludwig and Brian Lee at Gateway Mastering
 * Cover photography by Yosh Inouye
 * Art and graphic direction by Hugh Syme
 * Sleeve photograph by Roger Stowell, with liner photos by Fin Costello