Released: 1978
Tracks: Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres (Prelude/Apollo/Dionysus/Armageddon/Cygnus/The Sphere); Circumstances; The Trees; La Villa Strangiato
Best track: La Villa Strangiato
Tracks to skip: The Sphere section of Hemispheres & Circumstances
Oppression! I love that line. This album continued Rush’s flirtation with Yes and 70’s prog rock in general. Once again there are some things that aren’t that great and some things that ARE great. The things that aren’t are the last section of the first track & Circumstances. Well, the lyrics also aren’t that great on this album either. I think the lyrics to the title track are stupid. Musically it’s great, but lyrically they’re not the best Peart’s ever done. Hemispheres (ignoring all that ‘Cygnus X-1 Book II’ crap) is the last and best of Rush’s side-long songs. They wrote a good one on Caress of Steel, a boring one on 2112 and on this they get it mostly right. Musically, it’s right on; excellent stuff. Lyrically, like I said, it’s really stupid. The lyrics to the Cygnus section are especially dumb. Give them point for trying, but it’s far from a lyrical success. Unlike 2112 all the music sections flow wonderfully and it really sounds like a 17-minute song. The other main problem with the title track is the last section ‘The Sphere’. It has nothing to do with the rest of the song and it seriously useless. There is no flow and the only reason it exists is for the rest of Peart’s dumb lyrics. At about the 17-minute mark, I just hit the skip button twice so that I can hear The Trees.
Why skip Circumstances too? It’s another dumb song. It’s better than the dumb songs on Farewell to Kings, but it’s still dumb. It’s boring. OK, so yeah, Geddy does sing a slight bit in French, but otherwise it’s useless. The middle section is a very fruity rip-off of about 10 different Yes songs. The guitar solo is decent enough, but not enough to keep me from passing it over. So, finally we come to the REALLY good part of the album. Trees is an excellent song with the only good lyrics on this thing. All-around, it’s great. I absolutely love the middle section of this one. They manage to cram a lot into the 4:46 worth of music here. The album ends with La Villa Strangiato, the best track here. In the liner notes the guys jokingly refer to this as ‘an exercise in self-indulgence’. Yes, it’s a joke, making fun of all the music critic idiots of the day who blanketly refer to all prog rock as ‘self indulgent’. To me, self indulgence is creating music that’s aimed at making money as opposed to making the best MUSIC you can make. Regardless, this is a jamming song and one that never lets up. Even in the obligatory chilled out middle section, you’re still not really able to catch your breath. Lee and Peart are great all over this thing, but this track is really all about Alex Lifeson. His guitar playing on this is damn excellent.
As an album, Hemispheres is not as good as Farewell to Kings. I think as songs both Xanadu and Cygnus X-1 are better than the ones on here. That’s not taking away anything from Trees or La Villa Strangiato as both are excellent too. Lyrically most of this album is a let down, musically it isn’t. The bad songs on Farewell to Kings are much worse than the bad ones on here, but the good songs are better. Hemispheres is far from a ‘disappointment’ though. I listen to it just as much as I do Farewell; I just think it’s slightly less good. Still, an essential Rush album though.
Rating: 91
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