Hemispheres is an odd record.
More odd than A Farewell to Kings, you might be asking? It's a valid question, so don't feel bad about it!
And yes, it is more odd than A Farewell to Kings!
First off, you've got that side-long track thing happening again. Side A continues from where "Cygnus X-1" left off, with our hero rocketing into a black hole on his ship Rocinante. It doesn't quite go in the direction you'd expect, as "Hemispheres" tells a fantasy-oriented story as opposed to the science-fiction flavor of "Cygnus X-1".
Side B closes with Rush's first instrumental. It's a literal "Powerhouse". Oh, I'm so clever...I can hardly stand it.
The two tracks left in the dust of these behemoths? An "underrated" classic (though I highly doubt that any Rush song is conventionally underrated) and another song with devious arpeggios.
Honestly, "The Trees" is not one of my favorite Rush songs. It kinda falls into that area with "Closer to the Heart" or "New World Man", although I don't think it was quite as popular. The song doesn't fully engage me, even after hundreds of listens, certainly not on the level that the other three do. But I recognize that there's a lot going on between the wordplay, the devious arpeggios, and the interludes that take the song into weird places.
"Circumstances" is more my speed, really. It's one of the short rockers that Rush was especially adept at writing in the 70's, much like...oh, I dunno, "Anthem" or "Bastille Day". Since this is one of their odder albums, "Circumstances" goes a bit wacky in the middle with a keyboard-driven interlude. I don't mind it, actually. The riffs work well with the drums; Peart hits his crash cymbals in such a way that it really emphasizes the heaviness in the chorus section. And Lee is not so much singing as shouting the couple of lines that are in French as well as the English ones. So it's heavy, it doesn't outstay its welcome, and it gets a little weird in the middle. Success!
"Hemispheres" is the most cohesive side-long track Rush has composed. I don't think we'll be seeing another one, honestly. So it's easy to say that it's the best one...depending on how you feel about "2112", of course. I love "2112", but in certain respects "Hemispheres" tops it.
As far as consistency and thematic unity are concerned, "Hemispheres" is far better. Just take a listen to the "Apollo" and "Dionysus" sections; they start off with the same riff and the only real difference is that the former has a guitar solo and the latter doesn't. The lyrics change to reflect the POV of the god in question. It's incredibly well done.
And of course, as soon as our hero on the Rocinante finds himself upon Mount Olympus, "to the city of Immortals", we get a nice little reminder of what the previous track musically.
The track concludes with an acoustic outro, where heart and mind are united "in a single perfect sphere". Lovely.
"La Villa Strangiato", to me, justifies purchasing the record. As a young guitarist, I made it my mission to be able to play the song from front to back.
Naturally, I failed miserably. To this day, I can't play the arpeggio just after the acoustic intro. My command of the solos is iffy, particularly the fast ripping of the first and pretty much the entirety of the second. And there's the riff that reintroduces the "verse" section of the song, which is really just the main riff transposed up a couple of frets. It involves pull-offs while fretting and switching strings; a beast of a part, I tell you.
Anyway, my failure aside, "La Villa Strangiato" is quite simply one of the best instrumental tracks I've heard. It is supremely technical, yet does not encroach into masturbation. It is melodic without being cheesy. It's long, but once it ends I feel like I want to hear it a couple more times, just to have those riffs and solos (oh, the fucking solos) bash me over the head more.
It's not just the guitar that makes "La Villa Strangiato" so impressive. As with most Rush songs, it's a full band effort. The musicianship on each instrument is practically peerless, and Lee is on keyboards in addition to bass.
Sadly, Hemispheres would signify the end of an era, despite coming in the midst of the band's "second chapter". They wouldn't record another album the same way, nor would the inherent complexity and weirdness be expressed as it was here. To my ears, it's to the band's detriment...but their musicianship and talent weren't to be denied, and this is far from their last great album.
***
Next time: Things get (slightly) simpler. And a little less weird.
