{"id":335040,"date":"2026-10-10T22:17:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T22:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoustics.com\/music\/rush-a-farewell-to-kings-mofi-one-step-vinyl-review\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T22:31:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T22:31:02","slug":"rush-a-farewell-to-kings-mofi-one-step-vinyl-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoustics.com\/music\/rush-a-farewell-to-kings-mofi-one-step-vinyl-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush A Farewell to Kings MoFi One-Step Vinyl Review: Is $125 Worth the Honeydew and Milk of Paradise?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Rush opened their Fifty Something<\/em> tour<\/a> on June 7, 2026, with \u201cXanadu,\u201d it was an emotional reminder of what had been missing from the stage since Neil Peart’s death in 2020. Six days later, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson performed the album’s title track for the first time in 47 years. Even by Rush standards, that’s a rather long intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Anika Nilles behind the drums, these ambitious compositions are getting another chance to shine. That makes Mobile Fidelity’s new UltraDisc One-Step edition of A Farewell to Kings<\/em> particularly timely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the third installment in our examination of Mobile Fidelity’s Rush reissue series, following my reviews of the 1974 debut<\/a> and Fly By Night<\/a><\/em>. Both $59.99 editions delivered meaningful sonic improvements, but A Farewell to Kings<\/em> presents a different challenge. It was a more sophisticated recording to begin with, and MoFi is asking more than twice as much for its premium vinyl treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n

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2112<\/em> Changed Everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The chronology is important. Rush released their self-titled debut in 1974, followed by Fly By Night<\/em>, Caress of Steel <\/em>in 1975, and 2112<\/a><\/em> in April 1976. The live double album All the World’s a Stage<\/em> arrived later that year, followed by the band’s fifth studio album, A Farewell to Kings<\/em>, in September 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caress of Steel<\/em> had been a commercial disappointment, and the supporting Down the Tubes Tour suggested that spending most of an album singing about necromancers and mythical fountains was not necessarily the quickest route to financial security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury wanted something more accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rush responded with 2112<\/em>, opening the album with a twenty-minute science-fiction epic. Because nothing reassures nervous record executives quite like refusing to follow their advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gamble worked. 2112<\/em> became the band’s commercial breakthrough and gave Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart the freedom to pursue their own musical direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They took that freedom straight to Rockfield Studios in Wales, where they recorded A Farewell to Kings<\/em> with producer Terry Brown in 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result was a more expansive album, with additional synthesizers, acoustic guitars, percussion instruments, and two compositions that were never going to make life easy for Toronto radio programmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q107 had only launched in May 1977, while CHUM-FM had been playing progressive rock since 1968. The latter was certainly more adventurous, but I doubt either station’s advertising department was thrilled by the prospect of squeezing the full 11 minutes of \u201cXanadu\u201d between Harry Rosen and Harvey’s commercials and another reminder that Molson Canadian was available at your local Beer Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCloser to the Heart,\u201d at just under three minutes, was considerably easier to accommodate. Fortunately, Rush weren’t building their career around radio programmers’ bathroom schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was This Rush’s First Concept Album?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No. Caress of Steel<\/em> had already introduced extended conceptual narratives, and 2112<\/em> devoted an entire side to a connected science-fiction story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Farewell to Kings<\/em> isn’t a complete concept album either. Its six songs explore power, ambition, morality, immortality, and science fiction, but they don’t tell one continuous story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cXanadu\u201d draws inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s \u201cKubla Khan,\u201d while \u201cCinderella Man\u201d takes its premise from Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town<\/em>. The closing \u201cCygnus X-1: Book One: The Voyage\u201d sends its protagonist into a black hole, with the story continuing on 1978’s Hemispheres<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only Rush could end an album with a cliffhanger involving astrophysics and expect an audience to return for the next installment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The achievement here wasn’t inventing the concept album. It was demonstrating that three musicians could combine elaborate progressive rock with more accessible songwriting without losing their identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Musicians, a Lot More Instruments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Musically,\u00a0A Farewell to Kings<\/em>\u00a0marked a significant expansion of Rush’s sound. Geddy Lee added a Minimoog synthesizer, bass pedals, and 12-string guitar to his already demanding bass and vocal duties. Alex Lifeson broadened his arsenal of six- and 12-string electric and acoustic guitars, added classical guitar, and also used bass pedals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heavier, guitar-driven sound of 2112<\/em> hadn’t disappeared, but the arrangements were becoming more layered, atmospheric, and sophisticated. \u201cXanadu\u201d was the clearest example, moving from a delicate, almost hypnotic introduction into some of the most powerful music the trio ever recorded. Apparently, playing three instruments simultaneously wasn’t sufficiently challenging for Geddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neil Peart wasn’t exactly traveling light either. His expanding percussion setup included orchestra bells, tubular bells, temple blocks, wind chimes, a bell tree, and a vibra-slap. Working with producer Terry Brown at Rockfield Studios in Wales, the band also experimented with natural acoustics and outdoor recordings, including the actual birds heard on \u201cA Farewell to Kings\u201d and \u201cXanadu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference was more than additional instrumentation. Rush were learning how to use space, texture, and quieter passages to make their heavier moments considerably more dramatic. They were still a power trio, but one increasingly determined to sound like six musicians without having to split the royalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why Is Mobile Fidelity Charging $125?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first two Rush releases in this series cost $59.99 each. A Farewell to Kings<\/em> jumps to $125 because Mobile Fidelity is using its more elaborate UltraDisc One-Step manufacturing process, limiting production to 5,000 numbered copies, and supplying deluxe packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conventional vinyl manufacturing involves multiple plating stages to create the stampers used to press records. MoFi’s One-Step process eliminates the intermediate mother and stamper-generation stages, using a metal part derived directly from the lacquer as the stamper. The approach requires more lacquers for larger production runs and is intended to reduce potential losses introduced during plating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether those differences justify the additional $65.01 is another question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mastering process also deserves attention. Krieg Wunderlich used an analog tape source transferred through DSD 256 before the signal passed through an analog console to the cutting lathe. MoFi identifies the tape boxes as carrying both \u201cmaster\u201d and \u201csafety copy\u201d markings, which leaves the exact tape generation uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So no, this isn’t an all-analog pressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone still recovering from the Great MoFi Digital Scandal might want to sit down. Personally, after hearing what the company accomplished with the first two Rush albums, I’m considerably more interested in the finished record than another argument over the presence of DSD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At $125, however, the improvement had better be audible without requiring a forensic laboratory and a support group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mobile Fidelity A Farewell to Kings<\/em> One Step Specifications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n