HEMISPHERES

This is one of Rush's "Kimono" albums. Clearly, they were under pressure to come up with something that could meet the expectations set by Farewell to Kings. While "The Trees" and "La Villa Strangiato" are excellent (among Rush's best songs), the rest of the album suffers. As Neil Peart himself said about this album, looking back it was clear they were "reaching". This is most evident in the long epic "Cygnus X Book II Hemispheres". While I usually love long epic compositions, and I LOVED Cygnus X-1 on Farewell to Kings, I think Rush were tired and trying to hard when composing this follow-up. It probably could have been a decent 7-minute tune, but by stretching it out to 18 minutes they felt compelled to come back too often to the "I bring..." theme, which gets tiring after a while and is the least musical theme on the album. This, to me, is a good example of how long does not necessarily equate to musical. (And while "Circumstances" is fine and listenable it is nothing too special). With the test of time mainly only supporting Trees and Villa, which I admit are essential SONGS, I can't call the entire album "essential" or a "masterpiece", or even "excellent". I give this 7.6 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which is short of the threshold needed for 4 stars. So, for the album, 3 PA stars.