HEMISPHERES

I almost feel this is the reverse 2112 in the sense that the second side of shorter songs is far superior than the epic. Rush's ventures into progressive rock have really helped their 4-minute rock song writing as ''The Trees'' and ''Circumstances'' have enough punch to knock the listener out, yet develop well in their short lengths. And ''La Villa Strangiato'' has to be one of their most ambitious acheivements; a lengthy instrumental that goes through a few twists and turns, yet keeps itself in check compositionally. It is not a solo showcasing excepting a few parts here and there.

The problem herein lies the beefy ''Cygnus X-1 Book II'' thingy. The ''Prelude'' section is another one on the album where the music is spectacular, but beyond that, not much happens. The development of the epic is poorer than that of ''2112''. In ''2112'', themes from the ''Overture'' are reused later in the epic, but are done in a way that makes the theme sound fresh. Here, most of the music is copy-paste from the ''Prelude'' with little deviation, other than boring synth stuff and ''Cygnus X-1 Book I'' leftovers. The Greek mythology lyrics sound pretty cliche. We still have the classic Rush sound here though, at that's what matters the most for prog fans.