HEMISPHERES

'Hemispheres' continues RUSH's mid-career dalliance with progressive rock. Like its two predecessors, this album is frustratingly uneven, though in the reverse to '2112': here, the side-long epic is overly repetitive and rather poor, while the side of shorter songs is excellent, with the closing instrumental 'La Villa Strangiato' reminding us what RUSH can be when they get it right.

In my view there's an excellent 5-star album's worth of material to be culled from '2112', 'AFTK' and this album. There are too many low spots for any RUSH album to receive the ultimate accolade, but they do deserve a listen and warrant a place among prog's greats, albeit at a second-tier level. If that sounds patronising to RUSH fans I apologise, but I feel that only the absence of viable alternatives in the late 70s propelled this band to the attention of lovers of progressive music.