HEMISPHERES

"Hemispheres" is the sixth studio album of Rush and that was released in 1978. The album continues the band's explorations of their musical style and sounds and marks the peak of what I consider to be Rush's golden musical age, the years between 1976 and 1981. "Hemispheres" represents the second studio album of the band that belongs to their second musical phase. It comprises also their fifth studio album "A Farewell To Kings" released in 1977, their seventh studio album "Permanent Waves" released in 1980 and their eighth studio album "Moving Pictures" released in 1981.

The album contains examples of Rush's adherence to the progressive rock standards including the use of epic, multi movement song structures, complex rhythms and time signatures and flexible guitar solos. This is easily Rush's finest work. Four songs, which each of them rock in their own special little way and where each individual member is at his instrumental peak. "Hemispheres" is one of those albums that embody everything great about its constituent genre.

The line up on the album is Geddy Lee (lead vocals, bass guitar, Oberheim polyphonic, Mini Moog and Moog Taurus bass pedals), Alex Lifeson (electric and acoustic guitars, classical guitar, guitar synthesizer and Moog Taurus pedals) and Neil Pearl (drums, orchestral bells, bell tree, timpani, gong, cowbells, temple blocks, wind chimes and crotales).

So, "Hemispheres" has four tracks. All lyrics were written by Neil Pearl and all music was written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson except "La Villa Strangiato" which was written by Lee, Lifeson and Pearl. The first track " Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres" is divided into six parts, "Prelude", "Apollo (Bringer Of Wisdom)", "Dionysus (Bringer Of Love)", "Armageddon (The Battle Of Heart And Mind)", "Cygnus (Bringer Of Balance)" and "The Sphere (A Kind Of Dream)". It kicks off the continuation of the "Cygnus X-1" story, the part one of which was the ending to their previous studio album "A Farewell To Kings". It combines the structure and themes of a Grecian tragedy with the elements of science fiction. "Hemispheres" continues the journey of the hero from the last album, wherein the science fiction tale describes his ships journey too and the subsequent destruction by a black hole in the Cygnus constellation. Now we pick up the tail, as a fantasy, where the hero arriving formless onto a land locked in an ancient civil war. One fiction is Apollo, representing logic, and while the other is Dionysus, representing love, and one of each forming in the great conflict a hemisphere, representing modern conventions on right and left hemispheres of our brain functions. Musically, the song is also amazing with about eighteen minutes. It's a truly wonderful epic song. It has multiple time signature changes, beautiful guitar solos and Geddy Lee gives one of his greatest vocal performances in his entire musical career. This is a very solid track with its mellowed out progressive rock innovative and magnificent. The second track "Circumstances" is the shortest song on the album and compared with the others three it's merely good, despite still is a great song too. At a first glance it's a straightforward rock song, but some of Lifeson's unusual rhythm guitar plating and some superb bass playing by Lee give to it something extra and really good. The third track "The Trees" is a great track musically and lyrically. The lyrics are about a disagreement between two types of trees in a forest. Contrary to the heavy opening of "Circumstances", "The Trees" starts off very gently with acoustic guitar and Lee singing over a nice bass line. The music starts building up in volume and the final result is a great Rush's song. The fourth and last track "La Villa Strangiato" is an instrumental track, the first by Rush, and represents probably the most complex composition by them. Like "Hemispheres", "La Villa Strangiato" achieves a brilliant balance of complexity and accessibility. The melodies are highly emotive while the endless array of changes in tempo, timbre and rhythm are totally dizzying, really. The final four minutes are especially staggering. "La Villa Strangiato" finishes the album with a flurry of drums and bass. For me, this is the best instrumental of Rush. With this track Rush close this album in a perfect and irresistible way, undoubtedly.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, "Hemispheres" became the last Rush's studio album with lengthy pieces of music. In the 2010 documentary film "Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage", the band members commented that the stress of recording "Hemispheres" was a major factor in their decision to start moving away from musical suites with long format in their song writing. The change in philosophy would manifest itself in the band's next studio album, the considerably more accessible "Permanent Waves". Honestly, I deeply regret that their decision. "Hemispheres" is an album that combines perfectly well the best elements of Rush in a perfect blend. I'm talking about the power rock that featured a lot on their previous studio albums and the use of synthesizers that would increase more and more in their later studio albums. On "Hemispheres", the power rock still adventurous and strong and synthesizers add to the album a little extra, while still used sparingly. All these things make of "Hemispheres" as one of the best studio progressive rock albums ever made.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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