Time was when I could have gone on about this record at hideous length. Admittedly that time was thirty years ago. Hemispheres is one of the oldest records in my collection, bought (like David Gilmour) second-hand from Giles Croft late in 1979. It was also my first Rush album, a few weeks before A Farewell to Kings.
Along with Kings, it was my favourite of theirs. So I was surprised that it wasn't until the second listen that I could anticipate every little bass run and every drum fill.
Hemispheres and Kings are Rush at their most proggy (ugly word for an ugly condition), and were the only ones they recorded outside Canada, at Rockfield Studios in Wales. My grandparents had a cottage just down the road from those studios, in Maypole, and my gran was on good terms with Robbie Blunt, who lived in the same hamlet, at the time he was playing with Robert Plant at Rockfield. Or so she claimed. She's never mentioned the Canadian weirdos, though.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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