As soon as they acquired resident intellectual Neil Peart,
Rush had big conceptual ambitions. Yet, although sprawling conceptual epics
were the centerpieces of album such as Caress
of Steel, 2112, and A Farewell to Kings, their short songs
were still better than their long sci-fi and fantasy narratives. With their
final album to contain such an epic, Rush finally got it right. As far as I’m
concerned, Hemispheres is the first
Rush album on which the long songs unquestionably beat the short ones. If you
put me on the rack and stretched my body until I revealed the meaning of “Cygnus X-1 (Book II-Hemispheres)”, I’d
end up being pulled to pieces, but it is as dreamy, enveloping, and enthralling
a musical suite as Rush would ever conjure. So what if the lyrics are gibberish?
They sure beat the log-limbed metaphors of what may be the worst of Peart’s
early songs: “The Trees”. This ditty sports the message: “People bicker and
complain too much! Some of them even whine about wanting equal rights!”
Trenchant insights from a rich, white, Ayn Rand fan.
Rush is better in the short form with the hard-edged and
autobiographical “Circumstances”, which boasts a wicked-tricky spiraling riff
and some of Geddy Lee’s most hysterical wailing, but that too pales next to the
album’s grand finale. Considering Rush’s celebrated musicianship, it is
surprising that they did not record their first stand-alone instrumental until
their sixth album, but “La Villa Strangiato” is well worth the wait: nearly ten
minutes of Alex Lifeson’s flaming Spanish guitar, lurching melodies, wild bass flutters, and
best of all, a mighty riff based on Looney Tunes soundtracks.
As part of its recent Record Store Day roster, Universal
Music has reissued its rare 1978 picture disc edition of Hemispheres for a limited run of 5,000 units, which is great news
for everyone who likes to watch a naked guy standing on a brain spinning at 33
1/3 revolutions per minute. Picture discs tend to be a bit noisy, and this one
was pretty crackly right out of the sleeve and a bit of grinding sound is noticeable through headphones, but the mastering sounds really
good.
