HEMISPHERES: 40TH ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDITION
RUSH WAS on a roll. After the celebrated Canadian trio had finally broken through the FM ether with 1976’s dystopian statement piece 2112, they took the next evolutionary sonic turn with 1977’s expansively majestic A Farewell to Kings. The following year, Rush rotated the screws once again by taking their proto-prog metal to the headiest of limits on 1978’s Hemispheres, their final mind-altering statement of the Me-So-Introspective Decade before shedding their muso-skins yet again with 1980’s forward-thinking Permanent Waves.
And just like has been properly feted in a quite extensive 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition box set. Two CDs and three 180-gram LPs share both the remastered original album and 10 additional of-era live tracks, while one Blu-ray contains a masterful 24-bit/96kHz 5.1 mix by longtime Rush production compatriot Richard Chycki plus four period videoclips, the latter quartet in stereo at 24/48. A deep-dive essay focusing on the album’s technical minutiae from Grammy-winning Professor of Music Rob Bowman is included in a hardbound book along with other collectibles—all ensuring this deluxe edition is yet another fine example of UMe knowing how to make expensive box sets worth every penny.
