r/rush

Hey Rush listeners

I've never really listened to anything by Rush besides YYZ or Tom Sawyer, and those are mostly just listen to the drums (i'm a drummer). I decided to listen to Hemispheres because the album art seemed intriguing, and I saw that it had a 18-minute monolith of an opener, so I knew I had to give it a spin.

To be honest, I always thought Rush were leaning more towards like heavy metal or prog metal, like that they sounded grittier and heavier than they actually do, and just assumed that Moving Pictures was basically their "mainstream" album (like Invisible Touch or 90125), but listening to Hemispheres, it seems they have a bit more of a distinct, slightly heavier but still very 70s prog-like. I like it.

I really digged this album. The opener, Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres, was fucking fantastic. But I wouldn't say it's a top 5 prog rock epic. It was good; I really loved that keyboard/synth section towards the middle-end part, it sounded fucking awesome. I actually really digged the shorter tracks, Circumstances and The Trees, especially the latter. It was really groovy and I fucked heavy with the lyrics.

La Villa Strangiato... my god. That fucking guitar solo. It's seriously incredible. I'd actually never heard it up until this point, but Alex Lifeson is a fucking insane guitarist. Živojinović, that Bastard. Niel Peart is a literal god behind that drum kit. He's top 3 drummers of all time, for sure. Lee's bass was also superb on this album.

I guess my only complaint is Geddy's vocals. I don't know I'm not a huge fan of them and to be honest, he sounds like a frog squeezing his nose. He does have some impressive moments vocally, but generally the timbre of his voice doesn't sound that good to me. But it's respectable, it's not so bad that I want to turn it off (like Talk Talk).

Overall, a fantastic album. I think I'd give it like an 8.5/10. Turns out that Hemispheres was a fantastic record and an awesome gateway to classic Rush music for me. The musicianship on display here is absolutely phenomenal, especially my guy Neil Peart’s god-level drumming and Alex Lifeson’s brilliant guitar solo on La Villa Strangiato. Even if Geddy Lee’s "frog squeezing through a nostril hole" singing style isn’t quite for me (I've heard the dude talk and he does not talk like this), this doesn’t detract from how excellent the rest of the band is here.

I did play Lakeside Park backwards and Satan appeared. Now mind you, it was the cute and humorous cartoon Satan from South Park. But still. Made me wonder if Tipper Gore and her PMS er PMRC organization were right about rock music. Don’t tell the evangelicals and cult members about this. They may try to shut down the 50-Something Tour dates in the US. Whether or not this song is played (forwards or backwards) We cannot let that happen. We’ve come to far…

Why wasn't this released on BRD? Think it ever will be?

https://reddit.com/link/1tj01wk/video/ns8qf8404d2h1/player

Fingers crossed.

For the Rush tour, is anyone else dressing up or considering wearing a costume?

If I had a friend who was interested, I’d dress up as a red fire hydrant while my friend dresses up as a Dalmatian.

I got nosebleeds, but I am still very happy. Hoping Anika nails it. Afterwards, I might book another show closer to the stage. Yes, closer to the stage. I said closer to the stage! Tell me how you feel about going to the first show.