Hemisphere

[tas7]

Hems is great, essential even, but it doesn't hold a candle to MP, PeW, AFTK or 2112. The side-long epic is overly repetitive and actually a bit too busy for its own good (and after AFTK had so much atmosphere, hard to imagine), Circumstances is decent but really nothing special, and while I love the Trees and La Villa, they're both negatively affected by my least favorite thing about the album: the production.

 

2112 had heavy guitars that sounded heavier than anything released before 1976 by any band not named Black Sabbath, and even Sabbath's heavy wasn't usually has high speed and intense. Sure, the production on 2112 might not be absolutely stunning all the time, but it got at least one thing magnificently right, and that was the heaviness.

 

AFTK on the other hand, opted for a beautiful, heavily detailed, atmospheric production, which allowed Xanadu, Cygnus, AFTK, and CTTH a really mystical and magical quality that complemented the fantasy and sci-fi themes present like a perfect fitting glove on a hand. However, it didn't wash away the heaviness in the process. Cygnus contains probably Rush's heaviest recorded section of music ever until maybe Vapor Trails. The intensity of the metal, surrounded by the beauty of the atmospherics, created an album which spans the whole range of sonics and dynamics possible for the band at the time, and it's breathtaking.

 

Then there was Hems. From what I've read on the album's recording process, the band found themselves pressed pretty hard for time towards the end of the sessions, and once accidentally made a production mistake which took nearly all of the bite out of the guitars and weight out of the bass and drums. Terry Brown worked some of his studio wizardry here in order to save the album, and while I would say save the album he did (Hems is Reign In Blood compared to Roll The Bones), I could tell from the first time I listened to it this didn't have the same satisfying crunch of 2112 nor the organic, but powerful, layering of AFTK. Hems sounds to my ears, and especially during the side long suite, like the product of rushed production from a high quality producer, which is what it is in truth. Terry is easily among my favorite producers, but the band were focusing so much on the music that the best he could do was present each instrument in polished glass clarity and make sure nothing sounded too jarring. As a result, I easily find my mind wandering when I listen to it. The guitars distort, but they don't punch. The drums are clear, but sound small. The bass work is impressive and totally audible, but I hear it in my ears and don't feel it in my gut. The production job is clinically clean, even Ged's shrieks have lost enough edge to get boring for me (it didn't help that he still sang almost exclusively in the stratosphere, though you could hear much of his youthful energy was already maturing and lowering his voice). I love the bits of synth work as well, but they feel tacked on and limited rather than integral and exlporatory as they did on AFTK. Sure, the climax of Hems is precedent by a section which rests almost entirely on a washy bed of synthesizers, and it sounds mysterious and is one of the parts of the song I find most interesting, but where are the synths in the rest of the piece. Xanadu may have limited synth use to certain sections, but it was recurring, and when the synth was present is was codependent on the guitars and drums going on during its part. In Hems, there is a mostly electric guitar song, which is overly repetitive, a small acoustic ballad at the end, and a small nearly all synth interlude in the middle. The sections don't work together, they just pick up where the last one left off and go in their own, unrelated direction. Circumstances and The Trees manage the idea of the synth interlude much better, especially The Trees where the synth interlude plays into the guitar instrumental that follows it, but still these songs are less concerned with incorporating synth into the bands sound (as AFTK did and following albums would do) than showing off that they could insert synth sections. So, impressive, different, cool, but not as much so as if the'd managed to incorporate the synth into the actual song part of the song. La Villa is the only track on the album to do this, which is part of why I love it, along with it jus being an incredible composition, but again the clinical production constantly leaves me wishing this or that sound was louder, or fuller, or just more dynamic.

 

Listening to Hems is for me sometimes similar to listening to Toto (whom I don't hate but do dislike this about them). I can hear that, yeah they're great, but so what? I don't feel it as much as I hear it, and that's not what I listen to music for.

 

Sorry to be controversial. Remember everything is just my opinion and not meant to sway your own.

Totally disagree with this, I find 2112's B side has dated, most of the songs are easy to play, Lessons is not much different from Discovery. Whilst I like AFTK's it is disjointed, I actually thought that if the record company didn't like CoS, they surely must have wondered about this. Hemispheres has a beautiful spatial sound to it, those Lifeson arpeggios are beautiful and hark back to Hackett in early Genesis material. The intro to Cygnus is superior to the intro to 2112 in sound and musicianship, agree they just get away with it becoming repetitive in the early sections.

[RUSHHEAD666]

Hems is great, essential even, but it doesn't hold a candle to MP, PeW, AFTK or 2112. The side-long epic is overly repetitive and actually a bit too busy for its own good (and after AFTK had so much atmosphere, hard to imagine), Circumstances is decent but really nothing special, and while I love the Trees and La Villa, they're both negatively affected by my least favorite thing about the album: the production.

 

2112 had heavy guitars that sounded heavier than anything released before 1976 by any band not named Black Sabbath, and even Sabbath's heavy wasn't usually has high speed and intense. Sure, the production on 2112 might not be absolutely stunning all the time, but it got at least one thing magnificently right, and that was the heaviness.

 

AFTK on the other hand, opted for a beautiful, heavily detailed, atmospheric production, which allowed Xanadu, Cygnus, AFTK, and CTTH a really mystical and magical quality that complemented the fantasy and sci-fi themes present like a perfect fitting glove on a hand. However, it didn't wash away the heaviness in the process. Cygnus contains probably Rush's heaviest recorded section of music ever until maybe Vapor Trails. The intensity of the metal, surrounded by the beauty of the atmospherics, created an album which spans the whole range of sonics and dynamics possible for the band at the time, and it's breathtaking.

 

Then there was Hems. From what I've read on the album's recording process, the band found themselves pressed pretty hard for time towards the end of the sessions, and once accidentally made a production mistake which took nearly all of the bite out of the guitars and weight out of the bass and drums. Terry Brown worked some of his studio wizardry here in order to save the album, and while I would say save the album he did (Hems is Reign In Blood compared to Roll The Bones), I could tell from the first time I listened to it this didn't have the same satisfying crunch of 2112 nor the organic, but powerful, layering of AFTK. Hems sounds to my ears, and especially during the side long suite, like the product of rushed production from a high quality producer, which is what it is in truth. Terry is easily among my favorite producers, but the band were focusing so much on the music that the best he could do was present each instrument in polished glass clarity and make sure nothing sounded too jarring. As a result, I easily find my mind wandering when I listen to it. The guitars distort, but they don't punch. The drums are clear, but sound small. The bass work is impressive and totally audible, but I hear it in my ears and don't feel it in my gut. The production job is clinically clean, even Ged's shrieks have lost enough edge to get boring for me (it didn't help that he still sang almost exclusively in the stratosphere, though you could hear much of his youthful energy was already maturing and lowering his voice). I love the bits of synth work as well, but they feel tacked on and limited rather than integral and exlporatory as they did on AFTK. Sure, the climax of Hems is precedent by a section which rests almost entirely on a washy bed of synthesizers, and it sounds mysterious and is one of the parts of the song I find most interesting, but where are the synths in the rest of the piece. Xanadu may have limited synth use to certain sections, but it was recurring, and when the synth was present is was codependent on the guitars and drums going on during its part. In Hems, there is a mostly electric guitar song, which is overly repetitive, a small acoustic ballad at the end, and a small nearly all synth interlude in the middle. The sections don't work together, they just pick up where the last one left off and go in their own, unrelated direction. Circumstances and The Trees manage the idea of the synth interlude much better, especially The Trees where the synth interlude plays into the guitar instrumental that follows it, but still these songs are less concerned with incorporating synth into the bands sound (as AFTK did and following albums would do) than showing off that they could insert synth sections. So, impressive, different, cool, but not as much so as if the'd managed to incorporate the synth into the actual song part of the song. La Villa is the only track on the album to do this, which is part of why I love it, along with it jus being an incredible composition, but again the clinical production constantly leaves me wishing this or that sound was louder, or fuller, or just more dynamic.

 

Listening to Hems is for me sometimes similar to listening to Toto (whom I don't hate but do dislike this about them). I can hear that, yeah they're great, but so what? I don't feel it as much as I hear it, and that's not what I listen to music for.

 

Sorry to be controversial. Remember everything is just my opinion and not meant to sway your own.

Totally disagree with this, I find 2112's B side has dated, most of the songs are easy to play, Lessons is not much different from Discovery. Whilst I like AFTK's it is disjointed, I actually thought that if the record company didn't like CoS, they surely must have wondered about this. Hemispheres has a beautiful spatial sound to it, those Lifeson arpeggios are beautiful and hark back to Hackett in early Genesis material. The intro to Cygnus is superior to the intro to 2112 in sound and musicianship, agree they just get away with it becoming repetitive in the early sections.

 

tas7!

 

Everyone has an opinion but yep, you get it.

 

COS blows away 2112, AFWTK, PerWave, Moving Pop Pics!!!!

 

HEMISPHERES IS THE GREATEST ALBUM ON MOTHER EARTH!

[snowdogged]

Sooooooooo...................... now that you have in lightened me ,what is everyone’s opinion of Hemispheres versus caress of steel. Which is the better rush album?

I;'d choose CoS: Bastille Day, The Necromancer and Fountain of Lamneth are great songs. Side 1 of Hemispheres is too repetitive for me and does not flow well. It has it's moments but not something that I listen to often The Trees and La villa are great and Circumstances is pretty good but CoS takes it for me in the end.

[Segue Myles]

Sooooooooo...................... now that you have in lightened me ,what is everyone’s opinion of Hemispheres versus caress of steel. Which is the better rush album?

Hemispheres, and they're not even in the same galaxy.

I'll take either side of CoS over side A of Hemispheres. Hemi's side B is the best side of the four, though.

 

You are an angel my friend!

 

 

No coincidence that "goose" rhymes with "Juice"...

 

 

I LOVE THIS SONG