RENAISSANCE discography of albums and videos
Ordered by release date | Help Progarchives.com to complete the discography and add albums
RENAISSANCE Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
 1969 |  1970 |  1972 |  1973 |  1974 |
 1975 |  1977 |  1978 |  1979 |  1981 |
 1983 |  1995 |  1997 |  1997 |  2000 |
RENAISSANCE Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
 1976 |  1997 |  1997 |  1999 |  2000 |
 2001 |  2002 |  2002 |  2002 |  2006 |
 2008 |  2011 |
RENAISSANCE Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)
 2008 |  2010 |
RENAISSANCE Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
 1978 |  1980 |  1990 |  1990 |  1995 |
 1998 |  1998 |  2000 |  2002 |  2003 |
 2003 |
RENAISSANCE Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)
 1981 |  2010 |
RENAISSANCE Music Reviews
Showing last 10
Turn Of The Cards & Scheherazade And Other Stories - Live In Concert
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by moodyxadi
I thank Haslam and Dunford for bringing Renaissance back. Anyone who owns the albums covered in this concert will be delighted to watch it. But at the same time this show was a little bit depressing: shots of the audience show that only old farts like myself bother to go to a Renaissance gig. Apart from one or two young folks all we can see is bald heads, grey mustaches and overweight wives (well, this is an American audience so the weight is larger than in other parts of the globe).And the concert itself? Well, it's a delightful experience to see that Haslam's voice is still there after all these years. Dunford is there too with his acoustic guitar, doing what he always did in the good old days, that is, standing in the shadow on the stage (what is not a big concern in the past since the male leader of the gigs was the amazing Jon Camp). The band is technically competent and plays very well. Even if I have my issues with the sound of non-vintage keyboards in old prog this is not a trouble, at least here (differently as with Wakeman or ELP nowadays). So what prevents me of giving a 5 star-rate to this release?
Part of the answer is intrinsically subjective, part is more objective. As mentioned above I miss Camp. I don't know and don't care about the reasons that lead to their personal split but since the first "reunion" (with the terrible Tuscany and the - just ok - live release in Japan) his absence is surely felt. The bass was the lead instrument in this band apart the keys but the fellow still had a gorgeous voice (Kiev anyone?) and stage presence. So it was with frustration that I receive the news that he wasn't involved - again - in this reunion. He said in his site that there were conversations and the thing almost happened what makes me more depressed. Did I miss Tout? Absolutely, I love him and his style but his situation is different since it appears that since the incidents that lead to his quiting of the band in the early 80's he wasn't the same anymore. Sullivan? It would be ok too although the Renaissant album was a mistake from his part. So the essential piece would be Camp and his absence was deeply felt in my home.
So if someone (who?) asks me if he should buy this DVD my answer would be something like "only if you still owns the Scheherazed live DVD from the 70's and the bootleg from the Novella Tour on the BBC and can stand Camp's absence". If the person at least could understand what I mean he would prove himself a true Renaissance fan.
Final comment: love you guys but I don't think it's really necessary to release a new album specially if The mystic and the muse is a taste of the things to come. It' s derivative and almost self-parodical. Keep playing the old stuff alive and selling the shows and please, make your fans happy by bringing back Jon Camp. If Tout could be there too would be a joy but Camp is necessary for making the things brighter.
3 stars - good but very far from essential for the regular fan.
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by moodyxadi
I thank Haslam and Dunford for bringing Renaissance back. Anyone who owns the albums covered in this concert will be delighted to watch it. But at the same time this show was a little bit depressing: shots of the audience show that only old farts like myself bother to go to a Renaissance gig. Apart from one or two young folks all we can see is bald heads, grey mustaches and overweight wives (well, this is an American audience so the weight is larger than in other parts of the globe).And the concert itself? Well, it's a delightful experience to see that Haslam's voice is still there after all these years. Dunford is there too with his acoustic guitar, doing what he always did in the good old days, that is, standing in the shadow on the stage (what is not a big concern in the past since the male leader of the gigs was the amazing Jon Camp). The band is technically competent and plays very well. Even if I have my issues with the sound of non-vintage keyboards in old prog this is not a trouble, at least here (differently as with Wakeman or ELP nowadays). So what prevents me of giving a 5 star-rate to this release?Part of the answer is intrinsically subjective, part is more objective. As mentioned above I miss Camp. I don't know and don't care about the reasons that lead to their personal split but since the first "reunion" (with the terrible Tuscany and the - just ok - live release in Japan) his absence is surely felt. The bass was the lead instrument in this band apart the keys but the fellow still had a gorgeous voice (Kiev anyone?) and stage presence. So it was with frustration that I receive the news that he wasn't involved - again - in this reunion. He said in his site that there were conversations and the thing almost happened what makes me more depressed. Did I miss Tout? Absolutely, I love him and his style but his situation is different since it appears that since the incidents that lead to his quiting of the band in the early 80's he wasn't the same anymore. Sullivan? It would be ok too although the Renaissant album was a mistake from his part. So the essential piece would be Camp and his absence was deeply felt in my home.
So if someone (who?) asks me if he should buy this DVD my answer would be something like "only if you still owns the Scheherazed live DVD from the 70's and the bootleg from the Novella Tour on the BBC and can stand Camp's absence". If the person at least could understand what I mean he would prove himself a true Renaissance fan.
Final comment: love you guys but I don't think it's really necessary to release a new album specially if The mystic and the muse is a taste of the things to come. It' s derivative and almost self-parodical. Keep playing the old stuff alive and selling the shows and please, make your fans happy by bringing back Jon Camp. If Tout could be there too would be a joy but Camp is necessary for making the things brighter.
3 stars - good but very far from essential for the regular fan.
Send comments to moodyxadi
(BETA) | Report this review (#849311) | Posted Saturday, November 03, 2012, 07:54 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#849311) | Posted Saturday, November 03, 2012, 07:54 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Song of Scheherazade
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Ivan_Melgar_M
Special Collaborator Symphonic Prog Specialist
Since I heard about this DVD, been searching for it, asked my sister to buy it in USA, but she bought me the Sheherezade and other Stories (well a new copy of a perfect album is always welcome), at last and after a year got it and placed it on the Blu Ray player ready for a great show......What a disappointment.Of course I knew that the images were in black and white, but this wasn't a problem, I was sure that the band had invested effort in making a good DVD for their faithful fans, but I was wrong, this is probably the worst recorded DVD I ever bought. The images are poor, the sound is infamous, there are sections of Song of Sheherezade that are practically unlistenable, really a waste of money but what is worst, awaste of expectations from an avid fan ready to spend his hard earned bucks in a less than mediocre product.
Please, believe me, I'm not talking about the music, I know each and every song of the band and all are delightful, I'm a fan of RENAISSANCE and there will always be a place in my CD players for songs as Carpet of the Sun, Mother Russia, Ocean Gypsy and of course for their magnificent epic, but this DVD is a disrespect for the fans who waited decades to receive this terrible video.
If a band is not ready to invest in cleaning or remixing old tapes and offer at least a decent DVD, please don't kill our expectations with this kind of subpar releases. Remember that some of us due to our age or nationality were never able to see the band with the amazing Annie Haslam, the mental image we had made about the RENAISSANCE shows is ruined forever and we feel deceived.
5 stars for the selection of tracks, but 0 for the recording, so it's 2 stars in average.
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Ivan_Melgar_M
Special Collaborator Symphonic Prog Specialist
Since I heard about this DVD, been searching for it, asked my sister to buy it in USA, but she bought me the Sheherezade and other Stories (well a new copy of a perfect album is always welcome), at last and after a year got it and placed it on the Blu Ray player ready for a great show......What a disappointment.Of course I knew that the images were in black and white, but this wasn't a problem, I was sure that the band had invested effort in making a good DVD for their faithful fans, but I was wrong, this is probably the worst recorded DVD I ever bought. The images are poor, the sound is infamous, there are sections of Song of Sheherezade that are practically unlistenable, really a waste of money but what is worst, awaste of expectations from an avid fan ready to spend his hard earned bucks in a less than mediocre product.Please, believe me, I'm not talking about the music, I know each and every song of the band and all are delightful, I'm a fan of RENAISSANCE and there will always be a place in my CD players for songs as Carpet of the Sun, Mother Russia, Ocean Gypsy and of course for their magnificent epic, but this DVD is a disrespect for the fans who waited decades to receive this terrible video.
If a band is not ready to invest in cleaning or remixing old tapes and offer at least a decent DVD, please don't kill our expectations with this kind of subpar releases. Remember that some of us due to our age or nationality were never able to see the band with the amazing Annie Haslam, the mental image we had made about the RENAISSANCE shows is ruined forever and we feel deceived.
5 stars for the selection of tracks, but 0 for the recording, so it's 2 stars in average.
Send comments to Ivan_Melgar_M (BETA) | Report this review (#829754) | Posted Friday, September 28, 2012, 00:40 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#829754) | Posted Friday, September 28, 2012, 00:40 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Time-Line
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Tom Ozric
Prog Reviewer
Righty-Oh !! The 80's weren't the best time for Progressive bands (duh) - but what I'm going to say is that this album is worth 2.7 stars with my perception because what I can still hear on this Pop oriented affair is an acceptable dose of complexity, especially regarding Jon Camp's admirable bass playing, certain arrangements of various tunes, and Annie Haslam's vocals maintaining a degree of 'Majik'. I'm just playing my LP now as it has been quite some time since I have given it an airing. Sure there are some clunkers like the bouncy 'Richard the IX', complete with lame wa-wa-waooo backing vocals. Spare me. Album opener, 'Flight', gets things off to a great start - Annie in fine form, music arranged with tricky time-sigs and a sort of 'big' and impressive vibe. It has to be noted that folks like Ian Mosley (Marillion) and Nick Magnus (Steve Hackett's band at the time) helped out here on drums and keyboards. Of course, fault shouldn't be directed at the quality of the playing, more so the nature of the songwriting, being commercially motivated and a far cry from the level of such epics as 'Mother Russia' or even 'Day of the Dreamer'. At least on the cover photo they looked 'cooler' than on the previous Camera-Camera release (Camp looking as if he dropped ten years off his age, Annie has ditched her 'Annie' pendant and donned a denim jacket, Michael Dunford almost sports a slight smirk.....). A song like 'Electric Avenue' starts out well with some incredible bass-licks but morphs into an uber-cool new-wave song. Things like 'The Entertainer', 'Distant Horizons' and 'Auto-Tech' do show some glints of the good old days. Overall, I may be more forgiving with this album than most, but ultimately it's not essential. I'll tick the 3 star box at the risk of receiving a stack of hate-mail........
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Tom Ozric
Prog Reviewer
Righty-Oh !! The 80's weren't the best time for Progressive bands (duh) - but what I'm going to say is that this album is worth 2.7 stars with my perception because what I can still hear on this Pop oriented affair is an acceptable dose of complexity, especially regarding Jon Camp's admirable bass playing, certain arrangements of various tunes, and Annie Haslam's vocals maintaining a degree of 'Majik'. I'm just playing my LP now as it has been quite some time since I have given it an airing. Sure there are some clunkers like the bouncy 'Richard the IX', complete with lame wa-wa-waooo backing vocals. Spare me. Album opener, 'Flight', gets things off to a great start - Annie in fine form, music arranged with tricky time-sigs and a sort of 'big' and impressive vibe. It has to be noted that folks like Ian Mosley (Marillion) and Nick Magnus (Steve Hackett's band at the time) helped out here on drums and keyboards. Of course, fault shouldn't be directed at the quality of the playing, more so the nature of the songwriting, being commercially motivated and a far cry from the level of such epics as 'Mother Russia' or even 'Day of the Dreamer'. At least on the cover photo they looked 'cooler' than on the previous Camera-Camera release (Camp looking as if he dropped ten years off his age, Annie has ditched her 'Annie' pendant and donned a denim jacket, Michael Dunford almost sports a slight smirk.....). A song like 'Electric Avenue' starts out well with some incredible bass-licks but morphs into an uber-cool new-wave song. Things like 'The Entertainer', 'Distant Horizons' and 'Auto-Tech' do show some glints of the good old days. Overall, I may be more forgiving with this album than most, but ultimately it's not essential. I'll tick the 3 star box at the risk of receiving a stack of hate-mail........
Send comments to Tom Ozric (BETA) | Report this review (#819717) | Posted Thursday, September 13, 2012, 02:10 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#819717) | Posted Thursday, September 13, 2012, 02:10 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Scheherazade And Other Stories
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by The Jester
Maybe the best Rennaissance album, and one of the best in Prog-Rock in my opinion. Side 1 contains 3 songs only, but they are all top class! My favourite here is 'Trip to the fair'. Side 2 contains the 24-minute long epic 'The song of Scheherazade'. The story from '1001 nights' 'dressed' with very beautiful melodies, and Annie's angelic voice of course... Many were comparing this album with 'Turn of the cards'. My second most beloved album from Renaissance. But that one has one small problem. Does not contain 'Scherazade'! :P (Although it contains 'Cold is being', another amazing song. Which is Albinoni's 'adagio' actually, but with lyrics). I don't want to write more, because many before me have already have writen great reviews. I will put 4.5 stars on this one... :) (If anyone wants pls visit: gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr. I'm doing big efforts to set up a friendly blog mostly about Rock music, and a few other stuff as well. I would love to have readers like you!) Thank you. :)
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by The Jester
Maybe the best Rennaissance album, and one of the best in Prog-Rock in my opinion. Side 1 contains 3 songs only, but they are all top class! My favourite here is 'Trip to the fair'. Side 2 contains the 24-minute long epic 'The song of Scheherazade'. The story from '1001 nights' 'dressed' with very beautiful melodies, and Annie's angelic voice of course... Many were comparing this album with 'Turn of the cards'. My second most beloved album from Renaissance. But that one has one small problem. Does not contain 'Scherazade'! :P (Although it contains 'Cold is being', another amazing song. Which is Albinoni's 'adagio' actually, but with lyrics). I don't want to write more, because many before me have already have writen great reviews. I will put 4.5 stars on this one... :) (If anyone wants pls visit: gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr. I'm doing big efforts to set up a friendly blog mostly about Rock music, and a few other stuff as well. I would love to have readers like you!) Thank you. :)
Send comments to The Jester (BETA) | Report this review (#803883) | Posted Monday, August 13, 2012, 10:27 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#803883) | Posted Monday, August 13, 2012, 10:27 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Song of Scheherazade
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by moodyxadi
THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL ITEM FOR RENAISSANCE DIE-HARD FANS.This said I consider this dvd with mixed feelings. It's lovely to see Tout and Camp shining in the greatest period of this band (the 76 section) and still rocking hard (pun intended) in their farewell album Azure D'Or tour. On the other hand the audio quality is not that great. I have no great problems with the B/W video but only with its mediocre quality. In the second concert the cameras seemed to be in the worst places in the theatre.
I don't know why the BBC 77 live gig (which I own as a VOIO) was not released along with this footage. Its colorful and the set list is different what would agregate valour to the final product. CAMEL's footage releases are far better, just for comparing Renaissance with another prog band from those golden years with limited mass appeal but with a strong following.
...But I like Renaissance most which explains why I have spent 30 dollars with this release, I suppose. It's specially thrilling to see Camp as the great star he was on the stage. His playing is superb and his vocals brilliant when mixed with Haslam's. It's a shame that he was made solely responsible for the direction the band took in the 80's and consequentely forgotten in the reunions. Tuscany was a spent force without him and the live album disappointing. He was one of the greatest bass players of rock classic era, period.
The other high point for me is John Tout's performance. He is maybe the most overlooked member of the band even when the keys are the leading instrument on Renaissance's sound. He had an extremely good taste and I never accepted the fact that after his early 80's breakdown he dig into obscurity. I don't know where you are Mr. Tout but know that you have a big fan here in this forgotten place of the world!
The rest of the team is good as always. It's interesting to see the maestro Dunford sitting quietly in the corner of the stage playing his acoustic guitar as if alone in a dark room. It's not so good to see him in a more "energetic" performance in the 79 show, though.
This DVD made me feel so happy - even with their technical defficiencies - that I imediately ordered the new Dunford/Haslam concert recording just for the sake of nostalgia. But beware - this is just for the initiated. The casual fan and the videophile nerds out there will hate it. That's the reason of my 3 stars rating even if my heart is screaming 5. Those were really the days...
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by moodyxadi
THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL ITEM FOR RENAISSANCE DIE-HARD FANS.This said I consider this dvd with mixed feelings. It's lovely to see Tout and Camp shining in the greatest period of this band (the 76 section) and still rocking hard (pun intended) in their farewell album Azure D'Or tour. On the other hand the audio quality is not that great. I have no great problems with the B/W video but only with its mediocre quality. In the second concert the cameras seemed to be in the worst places in the theatre.I don't know why the BBC 77 live gig (which I own as a VOIO) was not released along with this footage. Its colorful and the set list is different what would agregate valour to the final product. CAMEL's footage releases are far better, just for comparing Renaissance with another prog band from those golden years with limited mass appeal but with a strong following.
...But I like Renaissance most which explains why I have spent 30 dollars with this release, I suppose. It's specially thrilling to see Camp as the great star he was on the stage. His playing is superb and his vocals brilliant when mixed with Haslam's. It's a shame that he was made solely responsible for the direction the band took in the 80's and consequentely forgotten in the reunions. Tuscany was a spent force without him and the live album disappointing. He was one of the greatest bass players of rock classic era, period.
The other high point for me is John Tout's performance. He is maybe the most overlooked member of the band even when the keys are the leading instrument on Renaissance's sound. He had an extremely good taste and I never accepted the fact that after his early 80's breakdown he dig into obscurity. I don't know where you are Mr. Tout but know that you have a big fan here in this forgotten place of the world!
The rest of the team is good as always. It's interesting to see the maestro Dunford sitting quietly in the corner of the stage playing his acoustic guitar as if alone in a dark room. It's not so good to see him in a more "energetic" performance in the 79 show, though.
This DVD made me feel so happy - even with their technical defficiencies - that I imediately ordered the new Dunford/Haslam concert recording just for the sake of nostalgia. But beware - this is just for the initiated. The casual fan and the videophile nerds out there will hate it. That's the reason of my 3 stars rating even if my heart is screaming 5. Those were really the days...
Send comments to moodyxadi (BETA) | Report this review (#765758) | Posted Wednesday, June 06, 2012, 19:58 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#765758) | Posted Wednesday, June 06, 2012, 19:58 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Live at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Part 2
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JazzRock/Fusion Teams
I would have been happier with this, the second half of the original show broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour, if they had just left it alone. The concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was something special, in the symphonic arrangements as well as the band's enthusiastic performances.As stated above, the first five tracks are wonderful. It is a concert of Renaissance at it's stylistic and creative peak. The symphony orchestra adds much to the power of the music, and was used better than most of the concerts where a prog band is backed by a true orchestra. And the songs are great. The only problem to me is a slightly questionable bass solo in the half hour long Ashes Are Burning. But that's a slight problem.
The first CD of this concert is 62 minutes long. Without the "bonus" material this one would have been about the same. It was someone's idea to tack on a fair, but typical performance of Prologue from a 1979 concert (I have to dig out my cassette of a later King Biscuit concert to see if it was from that one), and an unreleased song, You. Now this song was recorded in 1982, after John Tout and Terrence Sullivan had left the band. It actually is better than anything on the two albums recorded after the pair left the group. But it still has that eighties synth pop junk that marred those albums.
But still, if you skip the last track, it's a great album.
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JazzRock/Fusion Teams
I would have been happier with this, the second half of the original show broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour, if they had just left it alone. The concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was something special, in the symphonic arrangements as well as the band's enthusiastic performances.As stated above, the first five tracks are wonderful. It is a concert of Renaissance at it's stylistic and creative peak. The symphony orchestra adds much to the power of the music, and was used better than most of the concerts where a prog band is backed by a true orchestra. And the songs are great. The only problem to me is a slightly questionable bass solo in the half hour long Ashes Are Burning. But that's a slight problem.The first CD of this concert is 62 minutes long. Without the "bonus" material this one would have been about the same. It was someone's idea to tack on a fair, but typical performance of Prologue from a 1979 concert (I have to dig out my cassette of a later King Biscuit concert to see if it was from that one), and an unreleased song, You. Now this song was recorded in 1982, after John Tout and Terrence Sullivan had left the band. It actually is better than anything on the two albums recorded after the pair left the group. But it still has that eighties synth pop junk that marred those albums.
But still, if you skip the last track, it's a great album.
Send comments to Evolver (BETA) | Report this review (#750977) | Posted Tuesday, May 08, 2012, 17:06 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#750977) | Posted Tuesday, May 08, 2012, 17:06 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Live at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Part 1
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JazzRock/Fusion Teams
I remember those old days. A bunch of friends gathered in a smoke filled room, listening to a fantastic band on The King Biscuit Flower Hour. Often, one of us would be taping the radio broadcast, so we could all listen to it over and over. And the artists that they featured.... King Crimson, ELP, Yes, Gentle Giant, even Frank Zappa.This CD features the first half of the better of the two Renaissance concerts I heard on The Biscuit back then (the other was from the "Song For All Seasons" tour). The concert featured a full orchestra, and unlike many orchestrated concerts back then, the arrangements actually enhanced the music.
Prologue, featuring only the orchestra, and serving as a prelude to Renaissance's appearance is the only dip in the show. The orchestration is good, but we want to hear the prog band.
The rest of the album is superb. Renaissance was known for stretching out the live versions of the songs with fine keyboard and bass work, and this recording is indicative of that. the orchestra and taping for the broadcast limited the group a bit, but it seems to make the songs more concise. And this was a very spirited performance, a very good document of the band at it's peak.
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JazzRock/Fusion Teams
I remember those old days. A bunch of friends gathered in a smoke filled room, listening to a fantastic band on The King Biscuit Flower Hour. Often, one of us would be taping the radio broadcast, so we could all listen to it over and over. And the artists that they featured.... King Crimson, ELP, Yes, Gentle Giant, even Frank Zappa.This CD features the first half of the better of the two Renaissance concerts I heard on The Biscuit back then (the other was from the "Song For All Seasons" tour). The concert featured a full orchestra, and unlike many orchestrated concerts back then, the arrangements actually enhanced the music.Prologue, featuring only the orchestra, and serving as a prelude to Renaissance's appearance is the only dip in the show. The orchestration is good, but we want to hear the prog band.
The rest of the album is superb. Renaissance was known for stretching out the live versions of the songs with fine keyboard and bass work, and this recording is indicative of that. the orchestra and taping for the broadcast limited the group a bit, but it seems to make the songs more concise. And this was a very spirited performance, a very good document of the band at it's peak.
Send comments to Evolver (BETA) | Report this review (#747389) | Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012, 17:44 EST
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(BETA) | Report this review (#747389) | Posted Tuesday, May 01, 2012, 17:44 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Renaissance
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Einsetumadur
Prog Reviewer
13/15P.: Ex-Yardbirds Relf, McCarty and Samwell-Smith, augmented by Relf's sister, future Strawbs keyboarder John Hawken and virtuoso bass player Louis Cennamo team up for an incredibly innovative record which melts classical music, psychedelic rock, R&B and a slight pinch of jazz to an unexpectedly punchy opus which might be to progressive rock what The Who's My Generation is to hard rock.Often in bands the wheel of change turns pretty steadily - be it King Crimson, Yes or (to some extent also) Deep Purple. And in other bands it additionally even turns 360 degrees around in some mere months: examples are Manfred Mann whose band line-up changed two times in two years, or Renaissance. So, if you know this band from Northern Lights or Scheharazade, and if you happen to put this kind of symphonic rock into the depths of your record shelf in favor of more exciting sounds, give Renaissance's debut album a try. Speaking for myself I appreciate big parts of Renaissance's mid-70s stuff quite a lot (the astounding live version of Ashes Are Burning, for instance, or the beautiful Ocean Gypsy), but since I've known the 1969 debut album it has been my favorite one by this group.
In a way, this album could be described as 'classic rock': you'll get to hear original compositions with embedded adaptations of classical pieces of music featuring the upright piano as the lead instrument, you'll find Elizabethan-like vocal harmonies (male+female) and tracks consisting of many parts. Yes, this is what Turn of the Cards sounds like, too. But this debut album, being recorded in 1969, offers much more rock elements, such as distinct hints at psychedelic rock (Innocence), folk (Wanderer), jazz (Kings and Queens) and.. er, avantgarde (Bullet). This sounds quite all right, but I want to rate this album objectively and so I have to admit that the fascination about classical music sometimes sounds like a child which has found a new toy; at first it uses the toy whenever it can in a pretty standard way, and at the earliest after some time it really experiments with it creatively. Not all, but some of the classical interludes appear somewhere in between the songs and are simply there. I don't mean the jaw-dropping classical composition techniques in the album opener, but rather the middle parts of songs 2 and 3. Of course, this album was recorded in the summer of '69 when progressive rock was still developing, and there's plenty of really well-conceived experiments here, but I could live without some of the classical piano solos here. Still I must admit that the more I listen to these interludes, as I do while writing this review, I find less and less points of criticism, but more and more details which make these interludes more than just average quotations.
Kings And Queens begins with a short high-speed bass guitar/piano invention. Yes, invention in the Bach-ian sense of the word. It does remind me of his baroque work, although it is surely too homophonic to be called a fugue. But still there are fine counterpoints played by the bass guitar, and the unisono playing of the two instruments is absolutely impressive, too: an unexpectedly upbeat introduction. After 40 seconds or so the mood switches to one minute of weird phrygian-mode noodling on F# and G major which sounds like the early Soft Machine, albeit without the brass and wind instruments: the four instrumentalists ad-lib freely on John Hawken's thick piano carpet (yes, he only plays the piano and some occasional harpsichord on this album, so don't expect symphonic Mellotron, Moog or Hammond organ walls as on the Strawbs albums on which he played). After this intransigent prelude things get slightly better digestible. Now there's a steady 4/4 rhythm (with McCarty's nearly R&B-esque stomping accents on the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th eights, cool!) with groovy maracas in the left channel and a slightly eccentric piano solo by John Hawken based on this phrygian scale again, but with some jazz chords thrown in between. At about 2:30 the vocals enter, at this place only Keith Relf's and Jim McCarty's male vocals, and the vocal melodies intensify this tense phrygian sound which reminds some of medieval church chorales and others of oriental music. The chorus is remarkable in two ways: at first it has clear pop credentials, a nice melody in the vein of the Moody Blues (think Ride My See-Saw), and secondly it allows a clever upward modulation to A and A# major which I never noticed before I played the song on the guitar the first time. This modulation explains why the tension increases in this song: it's the same uplifting effect as in modern pop hits when the chorus is sung one or two notes higher in the very end, or when the orchestra sounds rise in The Beatles' A Day In The Life. The next stanza, this time three notes higher, also includes choral backing vocals, but instead of shifting in the piece even more, the vocals part ends at 4:23 and is succeeded by an absolutely progressive instrumental work-out. The bass guitar starts "a cappella", or rather solo playing a slow arpeggiated 3/4 waltz line which the band takes up some time later, this time counterpointed by Jane Relf. A fairly wild piano solo leads us back into the vocal part and then into a lengthier mellow guitar solo which is successful due to its underlying understatement. After 10 minutes the finale of the piece is introduced by free drum rhythms and an eccentric polyphonic vocal coda. A tour de force, as one could call it.
Enough food for the brain - the three shorter pieces are rather food for the soul with really decent melodies, but just a wee bit marred by the instrumental parts which sometimes are too little related with the song itself. Innocence has a vocal part to die for, and it's one of the pieces in which the instrumental part is placed before the bridge. The chorus part is a strangely fractured 8/8 metre with an obscure minor-second chord sequence (||:Bb-A:||), a solo bass which trembles rapidly somewhere in the uppermost frets, and fairly psychedelic wah-wah piano chords - something which you don't get to hear that often. The stanza part is jazzier and more upbeat, but it doesn't abandon the wah-wah piano, which somehow is able to disestablish all borders between stanza and chorus; listen to the tune and you'll see what I mean. Jane Relf's reverberated operatic backing vocals are really moody, and curiously Keith Relf sounds quite a lot like Madcap Laughs-era Syd Barrett at 1:38. After 2 ½ minutes the instrumental part begins, and regarding that precise jazzy rhythm and that strange piano sound the melange doesn't entirely differ from the Caravan sound of the early 1970s. Afterwards John Hawken shows off with a variation of Beethoven's Sonate No.14 (Moonlight Sonata), which - unlike Vanilla Fudge's version - isn't rearranged at all, apart from a mainly forgettable supplemental bass part. But, something which isn't really obvious, he doesn't quote the sonata, but rather variates it. It's similar, but the substance is altered more remarkably than one might guess. A short pause, and the band go on with a 15 seconds short hard-rocking bridge after which then the vocal part is reprised. The concept sounds less off-key than it is, and my gut feeling is less critical than my mind about both the strange bridge and the Beethoven, er, 'inspiration', simply because it in total is quite monolithic.
Island has its focus on loveliness. Jane Relf takes over the lead vocals on this song which, after a sparkling piano intro, is closest to later Renaissance ballads à la Ocean Gypsy in all terms, apart from earthy sound. Some parts of the stanzas are simple, for instance the Barclay-James Harvest's-Hymn-like opening Esus4 chord, but the melodies - in most verses of the song doubled by a male singer one octave lower - are already of the Dunford/Haslam caliber: uncoerced and uncongested pieces of pastoral beauty. Louis Cennamo is pretty restrained here as John Hawken takes the role as the 'counterpointer'. The instrumental part is a serial connection of fragments from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. The negative aspect, comparing this with the Moonlight Sonata part in Innocence: more longer quotations and more sudden fragments without nice bridging passages. But the positive aspect: more band interaction. And that's inventive band interaction with rapid bass runs, swinging drums and vocal melodies which surely weren't part of the original Beethoven composition. Since there are not many felicitous rock adaptations of the Pathetique, again it is difficult for me to run that part down. The only thing which annoys me is that Herr Beethoven isn't credited anywhere; I don't like that.
Wanderer, for a change, begins with the instrumental part and ends on the song part of it; it benefits quite a lot from Hawken's in-your-face sound achieved by double-tracking the cembalo and piano. The instrumental part is too jazzy in its main motif to be yet another classic quotation and the way how the band moves to and fro from more of these fast J.S.Bach-Invention-ish scales to medieval harpsichord fanfares - without that polyphonic stuff - and back to constructions not unlike Bach's Brandenburger Concerto does make an impression on me. Evil-minded people might suggest that the vocal part is only accompanied by the cembalo because the guitarist could not play it on the guitar. Yes, the harpsichord sounds as midrange-biased as a harshly recorded 12-string guitar, and yes, Keith Relf is neither pretty active as a guitarist on this album nor an outstanding guitarist, but the solo in Kings and Queen is too tasteful for a sub-par guitarist to compose and play. Anyway... The minor-key vocal part sounds like an ancient British madrigal because the percussion section is reduced to the tambourine and due to the dark cembalo, plus a very special detail. At the end of the verses Jim McCarty adds some fairly quiet, but effective strokes on the bell of the crash cymbal. It's not a lot, but the piece would be less haunting without it.
Now back to the 'heady' part again. Bullet is megalomaniac, without a question. But where else can you hear a grubby fusion of R&B, jazz, tribal stomping, Rachmaninov-ish piano madness and psychedelic vocal parts? The harmonic frame of Bullet is pretty simple and there's a lot of soloing around, but it never becomes boring. The timpani-driven intro with a dissonant unisono piano/bass line leads into the strange vocal part via a slapped bass fanfare. From one second to another the classical influences are vanished and we are totally in the districts of Relf's and McCarty's former band, the Yardbirds: bluesy piano, a shuffling R&B rhythm and some nice riffs - but on the top Relf or McCarty sing something like black mambo bamboo business under red sunlight while the backing vocals command hey lady sodom ramana until a distorted blues harp solo takes over ... when I first listened to that stuff consciously I really asked myself what the hell was going on there. I mean, the vocals are distorted, too. It might be because my CD version is pretty old, but it rather sounds like the singer is in total frenzy. Around 5:00 Rachmaninov slowly metamorphoses into Bartok with a pretty free-form drum backing and arhythmic piano clusters. Next, Cennamo plays a three minute unaccompanied bass solo, and he simply plays the bass guitar as if it was a mandolin: the rapid tremolo and the full chords he plays all the way through create tension quite similar to Soft Machine's Facelift intro. Quite like a boss, in a way. Although he plays some little baroque piano pieces on the bass guitar, the attitude is as anarchic as many of the better jazz recordings are. And at the place where you'd expect the next piano vamp or a big explosion the band carefully deconstruct the tension in a three minute vocal part with creepy falsetto tones played through loads of reverb devices with increasingly loud tape hiss. Kudos to Mr.Samwell-Smith, the ex-Yardbird who produced the band. Right now, as I am writing this, I ask myself: what could I criticize about this track? Frankly, I don't quite know. Maybe the bass solo could have been a tad shorter, after all it's more than three minutes long, but the self-assurance of the band is infectious: those who can play and who know a frame can also afford doing this stuff and forcing the listener to stay through the whole track. They were pretty successful in this case.
While writing this review I had to relativise my objections to the classical parts quite a lot, which moves this album quite close to the 5 star territory. There are just so many unexpectedly successful experiments, beautiful melodies, mind-blowing arrangements and this punky rawness which most of the classically influenced rock albums don't have (except for The Nice, of course). Regarding the year when this stuff was recorded this is an accomplishment which needs to be acknowledged adequately. Still, a really strong 4 star rating feels better this time, I don't quite know why. Remember that it might as well be 5 stars and get the album, favorably the expanded reissue - it's historically relevant and damn entertaining. Highly recommendable!
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Einsetumadur
Prog Reviewer
13/15P.: Ex-Yardbirds Relf, McCarty and Samwell-Smith, augmented by Relf's sister, future Strawbs keyboarder John Hawken and virtuoso bass player Louis Cennamo team up for an incredibly innovative record which melts classical music, psychedelic rock, R&B and a slight pinch of jazz to an unexpectedly punchy opus which might be to progressive rock what The Who's My Generation is to hard rock.Often in bands the wheel of change turns pretty steadily - be it King Crimson, Yes or (to some extent also) Deep Purple. And in other bands it additionally even turns 360 degrees around in some mere months: examples are Manfred Mann whose band line-up changed two times in two years, or Renaissance. So, if you know this band from Northern Lights or Scheharazade, and if you happen to put this kind of symphonic rock into the depths of your record shelf in favor of more exciting sounds, give Renaissance's debut album a try. Speaking for myself I appreciate big parts of Renaissance's mid-70s stuff quite a lot (the astounding live version of Ashes Are Burning, for instance, or the beautiful Ocean Gypsy), but since I've known the 1969 debut album it has been my favorite one by this group.In a way, this album could be described as 'classic rock': you'll get to hear original compositions with embedded adaptations of classical pieces of music featuring the upright piano as the lead instrument, you'll find Elizabethan-like vocal harmonies (male+female) and tracks consisting of many parts. Yes, this is what Turn of the Cards sounds like, too. But this debut album, being recorded in 1969, offers much more rock elements, such as distinct hints at psychedelic rock (Innocence), folk (Wanderer), jazz (Kings and Queens) and.. er, avantgarde (Bullet). This sounds quite all right, but I want to rate this album objectively and so I have to admit that the fascination about classical music sometimes sounds like a child which has found a new toy; at first it uses the toy whenever it can in a pretty standard way, and at the earliest after some time it really experiments with it creatively. Not all, but some of the classical interludes appear somewhere in between the songs and are simply there. I don't mean the jaw-dropping classical composition techniques in the album opener, but rather the middle parts of songs 2 and 3. Of course, this album was recorded in the summer of '69 when progressive rock was still developing, and there's plenty of really well-conceived experiments here, but I could live without some of the classical piano solos here. Still I must admit that the more I listen to these interludes, as I do while writing this review, I find less and less points of criticism, but more and more details which make these interludes more than just average quotations.
Kings And Queens begins with a short high-speed bass guitar/piano invention. Yes, invention in the Bach-ian sense of the word. It does remind me of his baroque work, although it is surely too homophonic to be called a fugue. But still there are fine counterpoints played by the bass guitar, and the unisono playing of the two instruments is absolutely impressive, too: an unexpectedly upbeat introduction. After 40 seconds or so the mood switches to one minute of weird phrygian-mode noodling on F# and G major which sounds like the early Soft Machine, albeit without the brass and wind instruments: the four instrumentalists ad-lib freely on John Hawken's thick piano carpet (yes, he only plays the piano and some occasional harpsichord on this album, so don't expect symphonic Mellotron, Moog or Hammond organ walls as on the Strawbs albums on which he played). After this intransigent prelude things get slightly better digestible. Now there's a steady 4/4 rhythm (with McCarty's nearly R&B-esque stomping accents on the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th eights, cool!) with groovy maracas in the left channel and a slightly eccentric piano solo by John Hawken based on this phrygian scale again, but with some jazz chords thrown in between. At about 2:30 the vocals enter, at this place only Keith Relf's and Jim McCarty's male vocals, and the vocal melodies intensify this tense phrygian sound which reminds some of medieval church chorales and others of oriental music. The chorus is remarkable in two ways: at first it has clear pop credentials, a nice melody in the vein of the Moody Blues (think Ride My See-Saw), and secondly it allows a clever upward modulation to A and A# major which I never noticed before I played the song on the guitar the first time. This modulation explains why the tension increases in this song: it's the same uplifting effect as in modern pop hits when the chorus is sung one or two notes higher in the very end, or when the orchestra sounds rise in The Beatles' A Day In The Life. The next stanza, this time three notes higher, also includes choral backing vocals, but instead of shifting in the piece even more, the vocals part ends at 4:23 and is succeeded by an absolutely progressive instrumental work-out. The bass guitar starts "a cappella", or rather solo playing a slow arpeggiated 3/4 waltz line which the band takes up some time later, this time counterpointed by Jane Relf. A fairly wild piano solo leads us back into the vocal part and then into a lengthier mellow guitar solo which is successful due to its underlying understatement. After 10 minutes the finale of the piece is introduced by free drum rhythms and an eccentric polyphonic vocal coda. A tour de force, as one could call it.
Enough food for the brain - the three shorter pieces are rather food for the soul with really decent melodies, but just a wee bit marred by the instrumental parts which sometimes are too little related with the song itself. Innocence has a vocal part to die for, and it's one of the pieces in which the instrumental part is placed before the bridge. The chorus part is a strangely fractured 8/8 metre with an obscure minor-second chord sequence (||:Bb-A:||), a solo bass which trembles rapidly somewhere in the uppermost frets, and fairly psychedelic wah-wah piano chords - something which you don't get to hear that often. The stanza part is jazzier and more upbeat, but it doesn't abandon the wah-wah piano, which somehow is able to disestablish all borders between stanza and chorus; listen to the tune and you'll see what I mean. Jane Relf's reverberated operatic backing vocals are really moody, and curiously Keith Relf sounds quite a lot like Madcap Laughs-era Syd Barrett at 1:38. After 2 ½ minutes the instrumental part begins, and regarding that precise jazzy rhythm and that strange piano sound the melange doesn't entirely differ from the Caravan sound of the early 1970s. Afterwards John Hawken shows off with a variation of Beethoven's Sonate No.14 (Moonlight Sonata), which - unlike Vanilla Fudge's version - isn't rearranged at all, apart from a mainly forgettable supplemental bass part. But, something which isn't really obvious, he doesn't quote the sonata, but rather variates it. It's similar, but the substance is altered more remarkably than one might guess. A short pause, and the band go on with a 15 seconds short hard-rocking bridge after which then the vocal part is reprised. The concept sounds less off-key than it is, and my gut feeling is less critical than my mind about both the strange bridge and the Beethoven, er, 'inspiration', simply because it in total is quite monolithic.
Island has its focus on loveliness. Jane Relf takes over the lead vocals on this song which, after a sparkling piano intro, is closest to later Renaissance ballads à la Ocean Gypsy in all terms, apart from earthy sound. Some parts of the stanzas are simple, for instance the Barclay-James Harvest's-Hymn-like opening Esus4 chord, but the melodies - in most verses of the song doubled by a male singer one octave lower - are already of the Dunford/Haslam caliber: uncoerced and uncongested pieces of pastoral beauty. Louis Cennamo is pretty restrained here as John Hawken takes the role as the 'counterpointer'. The instrumental part is a serial connection of fragments from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. The negative aspect, comparing this with the Moonlight Sonata part in Innocence: more longer quotations and more sudden fragments without nice bridging passages. But the positive aspect: more band interaction. And that's inventive band interaction with rapid bass runs, swinging drums and vocal melodies which surely weren't part of the original Beethoven composition. Since there are not many felicitous rock adaptations of the Pathetique, again it is difficult for me to run that part down. The only thing which annoys me is that Herr Beethoven isn't credited anywhere; I don't like that.
Wanderer, for a change, begins with the instrumental part and ends on the song part of it; it benefits quite a lot from Hawken's in-your-face sound achieved by double-tracking the cembalo and piano. The instrumental part is too jazzy in its main motif to be yet another classic quotation and the way how the band moves to and fro from more of these fast J.S.Bach-Invention-ish scales to medieval harpsichord fanfares - without that polyphonic stuff - and back to constructions not unlike Bach's Brandenburger Concerto does make an impression on me. Evil-minded people might suggest that the vocal part is only accompanied by the cembalo because the guitarist could not play it on the guitar. Yes, the harpsichord sounds as midrange-biased as a harshly recorded 12-string guitar, and yes, Keith Relf is neither pretty active as a guitarist on this album nor an outstanding guitarist, but the solo in Kings and Queen is too tasteful for a sub-par guitarist to compose and play. Anyway... The minor-key vocal part sounds like an ancient British madrigal because the percussion section is reduced to the tambourine and due to the dark cembalo, plus a very special detail. At the end of the verses Jim McCarty adds some fairly quiet, but effective strokes on the bell of the crash cymbal. It's not a lot, but the piece would be less haunting without it.
Now back to the 'heady' part again. Bullet is megalomaniac, without a question. But where else can you hear a grubby fusion of R&B, jazz, tribal stomping, Rachmaninov-ish piano madness and psychedelic vocal parts? The harmonic frame of Bullet is pretty simple and there's a lot of soloing around, but it never becomes boring. The timpani-driven intro with a dissonant unisono piano/bass line leads into the strange vocal part via a slapped bass fanfare. From one second to another the classical influences are vanished and we are totally in the districts of Relf's and McCarty's former band, the Yardbirds: bluesy piano, a shuffling R&B rhythm and some nice riffs - but on the top Relf or McCarty sing something like black mambo bamboo business under red sunlight while the backing vocals command hey lady sodom ramana until a distorted blues harp solo takes over ... when I first listened to that stuff consciously I really asked myself what the hell was going on there. I mean, the vocals are distorted, too. It might be because my CD version is pretty old, but it rather sounds like the singer is in total frenzy. Around 5:00 Rachmaninov slowly metamorphoses into Bartok with a pretty free-form drum backing and arhythmic piano clusters. Next, Cennamo plays a three minute unaccompanied bass solo, and he simply plays the bass guitar as if it was a mandolin: the rapid tremolo and the full chords he plays all the way through create tension quite similar to Soft Machine's Facelift intro. Quite like a boss, in a way. Although he plays some little baroque piano pieces on the bass guitar, the attitude is as anarchic as many of the better jazz recordings are. And at the place where you'd expect the next piano vamp or a big explosion the band carefully deconstruct the tension in a three minute vocal part with creepy falsetto tones played through loads of reverb devices with increasingly loud tape hiss. Kudos to Mr.Samwell-Smith, the ex-Yardbird who produced the band. Right now, as I am writing this, I ask myself: what could I criticize about this track? Frankly, I don't quite know. Maybe the bass solo could have been a tad shorter, after all it's more than three minutes long, but the self-assurance of the band is infectious: those who can play and who know a frame can also afford doing this stuff and forcing the listener to stay through the whole track. They were pretty successful in this case.
While writing this review I had to relativise my objections to the classical parts quite a lot, which moves this album quite close to the 5 star territory. There are just so many unexpectedly successful experiments, beautiful melodies, mind-blowing arrangements and this punky rawness which most of the classically influenced rock albums don't have (except for The Nice, of course). Regarding the year when this stuff was recorded this is an accomplishment which needs to be acknowledged adequately. Still, a really strong 4 star rating feels better this time, I don't quite know why. Remember that it might as well be 5 stars and get the album, favorably the expanded reissue - it's historically relevant and damn entertaining. Highly recommendable!
Send comments to Einsetumadur (BETA) | Report this review (#746476) | Posted Sunday, April 29, 2012, 16:07 EST
Review Permalink | Submit a review for this album
(BETA) | Report this review (#746476) | Posted Sunday, April 29, 2012, 16:07 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Scheherazade And Other Stories
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Mellotron Storm
Prog Reviewer
This is considered by most Prog fans to be a classic. Considering as i write this review it sits at number 60 on our all-time top album's listi guess that goes without saying. I've tried a couple of other records by this band including the live album from the tour of "Scheherazade And Other Stories" and was left unimpressed. It's the marriage of progressive Rock and Classical music that just doesn't appeal to me. Now having said that i can see why this is so loved, and i actually enjoyed the first half of this album."Trip To The Fair" is the perfect song to show-case Annie's vocals. She sounds so clear as she carefully pronounces each word. This is my favourite song on here. It's actually somewhat jazzy for a while after 6 1/2 minutes. "The Vultures Fly High" is an uptempo track with vocals. I like it. "Ocean Gypsy" has strings to start as the vocals join in. This is quite beautiful at times. I like the bass 4 minutes in. "Song Of Scheherazade" is the closing side long suite and my least favourite. It's just too orchestral although if you like this style i'm sure you'd love how it twists and turns as the story is told out.
Just not my style of music really, but i certainly enjoyed a lot of the album.
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Mellotron Storm
Prog Reviewer
This is considered by most Prog fans to be a classic. Considering as i write this review it sits at number 60 on our all-time top album's listi guess that goes without saying. I've tried a couple of other records by this band including the live album from the tour of "Scheherazade And Other Stories" and was left unimpressed. It's the marriage of progressive Rock and Classical music that just doesn't appeal to me. Now having said that i can see why this is so loved, and i actually enjoyed the first half of this album."Trip To The Fair" is the perfect song to show-case Annie's vocals. She sounds so clear as she carefully pronounces each word. This is my favourite song on here. It's actually somewhat jazzy for a while after 6 1/2 minutes. "The Vultures Fly High" is an uptempo track with vocals. I like it. "Ocean Gypsy" has strings to start as the vocals join in. This is quite beautiful at times. I like the bass 4 minutes in. "Song Of Scheherazade" is the closing side long suite and my least favourite. It's just too orchestral although if you like this style i'm sure you'd love how it twists and turns as the story is told out.Just not my style of music really, but i certainly enjoyed a lot of the album.
Send comments to Mellotron Storm (BETA) | Report this review (#745725) | Posted Saturday, April 28, 2012, 11:49 EST
Review Permalink | Submit a review for this album
(BETA) | Report this review (#745725) | Posted Saturday, April 28, 2012, 11:49 ESTReview Permalink | Submit a review for this album
Tuscany
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JazzRock/Fusion Teams
I had high hopes for this supposed comeback album, almost two decades since the last true Renaissance album. Sure, Michael Dunford and Annie Haslam each released albums and toured as "Renaissance", but without the other members, it was not the same.Here, Dunford and Haslam are back together, along with drummer Terence Sullivan from the classic lineup. Keyboardist John Tout, who's departure really destroyed the band's sound in the eighties, was available in a limited fashion, and appears on three tracks. The inferior Mickey Simmons plays on the rest of the tracks, and sounds completely generic and unoriginal. Bassist John Camp, whose sound was integral to the classic symphonic albums, sadly, does not appear. Alex Caird plays bass on most of the songs, with Roy Wood on the rest, and neither shines.
The songs, while having Haslam's fine voice, sound to me like a band that just can't capture the magic they once had. There are slight glimmers of attempts at grandiose symphonic rock, but the inspiration just isn't there. Like recent Peter Gabriel albums, Renaissance substituted innovation and inspiration with moodiness and imitation of ethnic music.
Slightly better that the eighties albums, but only just. 2.5 stars. Rounded up I guess.
Renaissance Symphonic Prog
Review by Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JazzRock/Fusion Teams
I had high hopes for this supposed comeback album, almost two decades since the last true Renaissance album. Sure, Michael Dunford and Annie Haslam each released albums and toured as "Renaissance", but without the other members, it was not the same.Here, Dunford and Haslam are back together, along with drummer Terence Sullivan from the classic lineup. Keyboardist John Tout, who's departure really destroyed the band's sound in the eighties, was available in a limited fashion, and appears on three tracks. The inferior Mickey Simmons plays on the rest of the tracks, and sounds completely generic and unoriginal. Bassist John Camp, whose sound was integral to the classic symphonic albums, sadly, does not appear. Alex Caird plays bass on most of the songs, with Roy Wood on the rest, and neither shines.The songs, while having Haslam's fine voice, sound to me like a band that just can't capture the magic they once had. There are slight glimmers of attempts at grandiose symphonic rock, but the inspiration just isn't there. Like recent Peter Gabriel albums, Renaissance substituted innovation and inspiration with moodiness and imitation of ethnic music.
Slightly better that the eighties albums, but only just. 2.5 stars. Rounded up I guess.
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