Hemispheres is the sixth studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released on October 24, 1978, by Anthem Records in Canada and Mercury Records elsewhere. After the commercial and critical success of A Farewell to Kings (1977), the band returned to Rockfield Studios in Wales to record the follow-up with long-time co-producer Terry Brown. The recording process was notoriously difficult, with the band spending several weeks writing and arranging the material in the studio—a departure from their usual practice of entering sessions with completed songs.
The album is considered a peak of the band's progressive rock period, characterised by complex time signatures and multi-part suites. The first side of the original vinyl is occupied by the 18-minute epic "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres", which concludes the story left as a cliff-hanger on A Farewell to Kings of a space explorer who is drawn into a black hole and is caught in a struggle between the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. These themes of duality are depicted on the cover artwork by Hugh Syme. Side two features the singles "Circumstances" and "The Trees", giving the band greater FM radio airplay, and concludes with the nearly ten-minute instrumental "La Villa Strangiato", which the band cited as their most technically challenging piece to record at the time.
Upon release, Hemispheres reached No. 14 on both the Canadian and UK charts and peaked at No. 47 on the US Billboard 200. It was certified silver in the UK and eventually achieved platinum status in both Canada and the United States. While contemporary critics were divided over the complexity of the long-form tracks, retrospective reviews have hailed the album as a definitive progressive rock masterpiece. The intense sessions for the album left the band exhausted and directly influenced their subsequent shift toward the more concise, radio-friendly arrangements found on their next album, Permanent Waves (1980).
Background and recording In May 1978, Rush finished touring A Farewell to Kings, which contributed to their breakthrough in the UK market, following a series of well-received shows and "Closer to the Heart", the lead single from the album, reaching No. 36 in the UK. Following a dedicated rest period, the band regrouped to produce a follow-up album and returned to Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales, to record as they had enjoyed making A Farewell to Kings at the facility. Bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee said recording in the United States did not appeal to the group, and since they were influenced by many English bands, recording in the UK was an attractive idea. In a departure from previous albums, the band entered the songwriting process without any preconceived ideas. They rented a farmhouse close to the studio for two weeks of intensive writing and rehearsals, during which the trio had concerns over the direction the new album was to take.
Hemispheres was recorded in June and July 1978, then the longest amount of time Rush had to record an album–in comparison, 1976's 2112 was recorded in five weeks and A Farewell to Kings in four. Rush were joined by long-time co-producer Terry Brown, also credited as co-arranger, and engineer Pat Moran. The conditions of the studio lacked the standard facilities, including a sofa. Lee described it as "really funky". In one incident, a latch that failed to shut the studio doors frustrated Lifeson who, in a fit, took it off, installed a hydraulic door opener and built a handle on it. The album was recorded in sections at a time with the three members playing simultaneously. Rush could only put down the music in their allocated slot at Rockfield due to the time required to arrange the tracks, so they booked Advision Studios in Fitzrovia, London, to record the vocals. They had enjoyed the experience of mixing A Farewell to Kings there, and wanted to return as it was where Yes had recorded their favourite albums. Upon entering Advision, however, Lee had only sung the lyrics in basic form as the songs were being written acoustically, and the group carried on thinking he could sing them confidently. "So we never really checked the keys that the songs were written in. And when I went to sing them, they were in such difficult keys for me to sing, that's why I'm singing so high." The process was frustrating for Lee, who had several blowouts during vocal takes and had to go for walks to calm down.
Once recording was complete, mixing was undertaken by Brown and assistant John Brand at Advision. After around two-and-a-half weeks, the pair had encountered problems and were unable to produce a satisfactory mix, which led to the decision to briefly return to Canada as the band had been away from home for several months. They returned to London in August, this time to Trident Studios in Soho, where a mix was finalised. The album cost an estimated CAN$100,000 to make, the most expensive Rush album at the time. In the three-month period of putting it together, the band had just one day off and took a six-week vacation once complete to recover. Lee looked back on the album in 2018, and said the band "greatly underestimated the level of overachievement that we were shooting for".
Songs Side one Side one is occupied by "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres", an 18-minute sequel to "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" on A Farewell to Kings which had ended on a cliffhanger. Book I concerns an unnamed space explorer who travels to Cygnus X-1, a black hole, in his space ship and is pulled into it. In Book II, his wandering soul emerges into Olympus, who witnesses the gods Apollo and Dionysus caught in the struggle between mind and heart, the two leading types of people: those who follow science and knowledge and build cities but with no emotional attachment, and those who live in forests but experience love. The clash leads to the world splintered into different hemispheres, and a silent scream from the explorer is heard by the two gods who reconsider and unite. They name the explorer Cygnus, the god of balance, and the world is restored with truth and love co-existing.
Initially, Lee had a different idea for the album's centerpiece track, but after some music had been written the group felt it right to continue the "Cygnus X-1" story. Peart started to outline the story and lyrics to Book II three weeks before the band left for Rockfield. The process was stressful for him, which took "hours of tearing my hair out", and was only half complete when they arrived at the studio. The sequel, like Book I, uses mythology and symbolism to depict a conflict between the gods Apollo and Dionysus, which is resolved when Cygnus intervenes, claiming a balance of heart and mind are what is needed for humans to live well. Peart introduced the gong and timpani to his percussion set for the first time; he hadn't thought of adding the instrument on previous albums but thought it was needed for Hemispheres.
Side two "Circumstances" is the first of two shorter tracks on Hemispheres. With the band having accustomed its audience to longer, more elaborate formats, this song is qualified by Lee as an experiment, an attempt to break away from the prog formula that would steer the band into new directions in later albums.
"The Trees" tells the story of an upheaval in a forest of oak and maple trees, where the maples think the oaks grow too large and take all the sunlight. The maples form a union in an effort to have the oaks cut down to a smaller size, but in the end all the trees are kept equal by cutting tools made by humans. Lee said the Welsh countryside set the overall tone for the song: "You're watching English television, walking in the Welsh countryside; there are sheep talking to you in the early morning when you're trying to sleep ... lyrics came first, and we wanted to construct a dynamic little tale as a soundtrack to those lyrics". Peart took inspiration from a cartoon he saw of trees "carrying on like fools", and wrote a lyric based around the idea of trees acting like people. He later described the song as a parable about Collectivism, an idea addressed by novelist Ayn Rand.
The nine-minute "La Villa Strangiato" (subtitled "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence") is the first instrumental that Rush recorded, and has 12 distinct sections. The piece is what Lifeson described as a "musical re-creation" of the various nightmares he had, particularly while he was on tour. It was the sole piece that developed from the two-week rehearsal period the group had prior to entering the studio. The band encountered great difficulty in recording it as they wanted it put down as a single live performance, rather than a more produced and edited piece. Lee said it took as many as 40 takes to produce one that they were satisfied with, and he and Peart pointed out that they spent more time recording "La Villa Strangiato" than their second album, Fly by Night. Peart recalled the group spent four days and nights playing it repeatedly, playing even when tired and with sore hands: "We were determined to get the whole thing perfect, but in the end I just couldn't do it, and we ended up putting it together from a few different takes." The segments "Monsters!" and "Monsters! (Reprise)" are taken from "Powerhouse", a 1937 jazz instrumental by Raymond Scott.
Artwork
The cover was designed by longtime Rush collaborator, graphic artist Hugh Syme. The front depicts a figure that resembles the one in the painting The Son of Man by surreal artist René Magritte who is standing on the left side of a human brain. He is looking in the direction of a nude man in a ballet pose who is standing on the right side. The overall image was Syme's own creation, but it developed from discussions with Peart about the left and right and the Apollonian and Dionysian parts of the brain, itself a theme covered in Peart's lyrics to "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres". The Magritte figure is Syme's longtime friend Bobby King, who was also the nude model for Rush's Starman logo on 2112 that Syme had also designed. The naked male is a dancer from the Toronto Ballet School. The brain was loaned to Syme from the Department of Anatomy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine for him to photograph and the final design was completed with a composite. The background was a combination of airbrush and paint. Syme started working on the design before he had heard any music on the album.
Release Prior to its release, Hemispheres aired in its entirety on Rick Ringer's radio show on CHUM-FM in Toronto, on October 5, 1978, with the band as studio guests. Its release in stores followed on October 24, and reached number 14 on the Canadian Albums Chart and UK Albums Chart, and number 47 on the US Billboard 200. For a short time, Hemispheres was released in Canada on red vinyl with a gatefold sleeve with a poster and as a limited edition picture disc.
The album had a strong impact upon release, and marked the first time Rush received widespread FM radio exposure helped by "Circumstances" and "The Trees" being shorter and radio friendly. The album reached Platinum in Canada and Gold in the US by mid-December 1978, and Silver in the UK. It proved to be a steady seller in the band's catalogue, reaching Platinum certification in the US in 1993 for selling one million copies, 15 years after its release.
Shortly after Hemispheres was released, Lee said the band intended to "break tradition" and avoid long, conceptual pieces on their next album.
Reception
Nevada State Journals Pat O'Driscoll, who had a prejudice against power trios and initially thought of Rush as another "uppity heavy metal band that mechanically ground out mindless drivel", had his expectations exceeded with Hemispheres.