Hemispheres (Rush album)



Hemispheres is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1978. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and mixed at Trident Studios in London. It was the last of two albums they would record in the United Kingdom before returning to their homes in Canada.

Overview
Following themes going back to Rush's third album, Caress of Steel, on Hemispheres lyricist Neil Peart continued to utilize fantasy and science fiction motifs. Similar to their 1976 release, 2112, the title track on Hemispheres takes up the entire first side of the album, and is a suite of songs telling a story - in this case, a continuation of the story begun in "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" on the band's previous album A Farewell to Kings. The second side consists of two conventional tracks, "Circumstances" and "The Trees," and the band's first standalone instrumental, "La Villa Strangiato." According to drummer Neil Peart, they spent more time recording "La Villa Strangiato" than they did recording the entire Fly by Night album.

The album contains examples of Rush's adherence to progressive rock standards including the use of fantasy lyrics, multi-movement song structures, and complex rhythms and time signatures. In the 2010 documentary film Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, the band members comment that the stress of recording Hemispheres was a major factor in their decision to start moving away from suites and long-form pieces in their songwriting. That change in philosophy would manifest itself in the band's next album, the considerably more accessible Permanent Waves. The band's seventh album would mark their commercial success, paving the way for the multi-platinum Moving Pictures.

For a short period of time, the album was available in Canada also as a red vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve with poster (catalogue number SANR-1-1015), and as a limited edition picture disc (catalogue number SRP-1300).

Critical reception
In a poll held by Rolling Stone titled "Readers' Poll: Your Favorite Prog Rock Albums of All Time," Hemispheres was ranked at #8.

Commercial performance
Although Hemispheres received good reviews and became Rush's fourth consecutive gold album in the United States, it proved to be a weaker seller than many of the group's other albums. It peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard 200, becoming the last Rush studio album to fail to make the Billboard Top 10 until 1987's Hold Your Fire.

Hemispheres would not reach US platinum status until December 1993, over 15 years after its initial release.

1997 remaster
A remaster was issued in 1997.
 * The tray has a picture of the star with man painting (mirroring the cover art of Retrospective I) with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from Rush through Permanent Waves are like this.
 * The remastered CD has all of the original album cover art, including the back cover and poster of the band which was missing on the original CD issue. When the poster is folded closed, the outside shows "Rush Hemispheres" text printed in red and yellow on a black background. Most copies have this insert placed behind the front cover in the CD case, but apparently some copies have this insert toward the front.

Hemispheres was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette for the "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. Hemispheres is included in the Sector 2 set.

Hemispheres was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion. The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less dynamic range compression than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.

Track listing
All lyrics written by Neil Peart; all music written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, except "La Villa Strangiato" written by Lee, Lifeson and Peart. The segments titled "Monsters!" and "Monsters! (Reprise)" in "La Villa Strangiato" are adapted from the composition "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott.

Rush

 * Geddy Lee – vocals, bass guitar, Oberheim polyphonic, Minimoog, Moog Taurus pedals
 * Alex Lifeson – electric and acoustic guitars, classical guitar, guitar synthesizer, Moog Taurus pedals
 * Neil Peart – drums, orchestra bells, bell tree, timpani, gong, cowbells, temple blocks, wind chimes, crotales

Production

 * Arranged and Produced by Rush and Terry Brown
 * Music recorded at Rockfield Studios (Wales), June–July 1978 by Pat Moran
 * Vocals recorded at Advision Studios, London, by Declan O' Doherty
 * Mixed at Trident Studios in Soho by Terry Brown; assisted by John Brand
 * Original album Mastered by Ray Staff
 * Remastered By Bob Ludwig
 * Hugh Syme – art direction and graphics
 * Bob King – art direction
 * Yosh Inouye – cover photography
 * Fin Costello – band and poster photograph

Charts
Album – Billboard (North America)