A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS

I don't claim to know a huge amount about Renaissance but I bought this album having heard the hit single Northern Lights. I thought this was a gorgeous song and kind of regard it as a template for "if a prog band is going to do pop, then this is how to do it". The album itself I loved on first hearing. As has been mentioned, the sound is often quite similar to mid-period Genesis (e.g. A Trick Of The Tail), no doubt aided by the fact that the producer was David Hentschel. Of course Genesis never played with a full orchestra. The two best tracks are the epics The Day Of The Dreamer and the sublime title track. But even the shorter tracks are very nice and include some lush keyboard sounds, gentle 6 and 12 string guitars and pleasant orchestration. Of course in Annie Haslam they had the best female voice there could possibly be in rock music. There is unfortunately one dud track here - She Is Love. But I can forgive them for that because the rest of the album is superb. Highly recommended.