Through the years there have been many, many great female singers, with powerful, angelic voices, Barbra Streisand, Grace Slick, Nancy Nevins (Sweetwater), Celene Dion, Enya, and some of my current favorites, Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Floor Jansen (After Forever), Vibeke Stene (Tristania) and Loreena McKennitt to name a few. However, to my mind, none have ever topped Annie Haslam when she was with Renaissance. Haslam's voice had a magical quality and a smoothness that few others had. Though she had no formal training, her voice, seemed to me, to be the most perfectly pure and the the most purely pretty voice of all. Perhaps it is good that no one messed around with her voice, when you are on top, any change is downhill. But I digress too much, let's get to Renaissance and their beautiful music.
RENAISSANCE
"Running hard towards what used to be Losing ground in changes sliding endlessly Reaching out for mirrors hidden in the web Painting lines upon your face inside instead"
I'm sure many of you are familiar with them but for those of you that know little of Renaissance, let me edify you. The Phenomenon of Renaissance was originally started by ex Yardbirds, Keith Relf and sister Diane. Renaissance created a unique niche in the 70s with their exhilarating, passionate brand of progressive, neo-classical rock with historical, folk tendencies that preceded and is somewhat akin to New Age music. Although it is somewhat common today for many European and some American bands to borrow classical melodies even symphonies to be blended with rock or heavy metal, Renaissance was the first band that I can remember doing that and none, in my opinion, have done it any better. Annie Haslam is the pre-eminent vocalist of her time, with a five octave range and a compelling emotional ability to reach the listeners, she is the most important cog in the Renaissance juggernaut. But this melding of talented artists was a symbiosis, evidenced by the fact that Haslam's solo career has floundered. the members of Renaissance seemed to feed off each other and were not as good separately. The Michael Dunford-Betty Thatcher writing team intermittently produced enough strong material to keep Renaissance fans happy, and the production, while recording for Capitol, was top notch.
TURN OF THE CARDS
"Changing moods and stranger feelings In my dealings with the world Faces that I've seen before am I sure Or has my brain turned
Thinking about things I don't understand Thinking about things I don't understand"R
It's hard to believe this album is almost thirty years old, so I guess many of you reading this weren't even born yet. That doesn't mean the music is dated though, this music is like traditional architecture it gets better with age. In fact Renaissance are constantly getting new and younger fans.
With Turn of the Cards, the Annie Haslam fronted version of Renaissance changed its technique slightly and as a result Renaissance really hit its apex. After keyboard dominated albums Prologue and Ashes are Burning the band went with a more orchestral sound and their next two albums, Turn of the Cards and Scherazade excelled and became two of the greatest albums of the 70s "progressive rock" movement.
SUMMATION
For me, with Turn of the Cards, Renaisance was at their apogee. The preceding and succeeding albums were also very good and worth consideration but this album was their pinnacle. ENAISSANCE Turn Of The Cards music reviews and MP3 Review from progarchives.com
Songs / Tracks Listing
1. Running Hard (Dunford / Thatcher) (9:37)
2. I think of You (Dunford / Thatcher) (3:07)
3. Things I Don't Undertand (Dunford / McCarty) (9:29)
4. Black Flame (Dunford / Thatcher) (6:23)
5. Cold Is Being (Dunford / Thatcher) (3:00)
6. Mother Russia (Dunford / Thatcher) (9:18)
Total Time: 40:54Line-up / Musicians- Jon Camp / bass, vocals
- Michael Dunford / acoustic guitar, vocals
- Annie Haslam / lead vocals
- Terrence Sullivan / drums, percussion, backing vocals
- John Tout / keyboards
No comments:
Post a Comment