TURN OF THE CARDS

"Turn Of The Cards" is the fifth studio album of Renaissance and was released in 1974. This is another classic album of Renaissance, full of beautiful vocal parts, harmonies and classical music. It follows the same steps of its predecessor, but it's heavier, more dynamic and dark. But, the usual wonderful folky and symphonic music is here, as we can expect on all their albums. This was the last Renaissance's studio album to include excerpts from existing classical pieces.

After the two previous studio albums of Renaissance's second line up, finally the new band reached their stability. On "Ashes Are Burning", although Michael Dunford has contributed on acoustic guitar and much of the song writing, he wasn't yet credited as a full member of the band because he only joined the group prior to the release of that album. "Turn Of The Cards" is their first contribution to the group as an official member. So, the line up on this album is Annie Haslam (lead & backing vocals), Michael Dunford (backing vocals and acoustic guitars), John Tout (backing vocals and keyboards), Jon Camp (backing vocals and bass guitar) and Terry Sullivan (backing vocals, drums and percussion).

"Ashes Are Burning" has six tracks. All songs were written by Betty Thatcher and Michael Dunford except "Things I Don't Understand" written by Michael Dunford and Jim McCarty. The first track "Running Hard" is a great song to open the album. It's a brilliant piece of music with clear and strong classical musical influences that begins beautifully with a fantastic piano introduction. It has fine piano melodies, good drumming and is brilliantly sung by Annie Haslam. The second track "I Think Of You" is a very short and mellow ballad, nice and pleasant to listen to. However and despite be far from being a weak song and the Achilles' heel of the album, it isn't, in my opinion, at the same quality level of the most songs of the album. Although, I've nothing against traditional and romantic love songs, quite on the contrary I really like of them, but I think this song is to much conventional and soft for my taste and because of that it's my least favourite song on the album. The third track "Things I Don't Understand" is another great song on the album. The melody of the song is catchy, wonderful and very peaceful and once more is brilliantly sung by Annie Haslam, which is magnificently supported by an incredible and beautiful chorus. The song sounds very epic and the keyboard melodies of the song are magnificent and once more are fantastically performed by John Tout, which was, in my humble opinion, a brilliant pianist. The fourth track "Black Flame" is another great song on the album. It's a beautiful and very melodic ballad with a nice touch of medieval music. This time we have the perfect harmony between the acoustic guitar of Michael Dunford and the acoustic piano of John Tout, brilliantly performed too. Once more we have good choral work and beautiful vocals. The musical structure of the song is simple, but the final result is really very interesting and great. The fifth track "Cold Is Being" is the other short song on the album. The music was taken entirely from the beautiful "Adagio In G Minor" attributed to Tomaso Albinoni. I know that for some of you, this song represents the weakest point on the album and probably it never should be part of it. But, I can't agree with that point of view. Sincerely, I think this is a very interesting version of the original theme, very emotional, beautiful and magnificently sung. I even think this song, is better than "I Think Of You". The sixth and last track "Mother Russia" represents, for many of us including myself and for the band too, the highest point of the album. It's the great epic of the album. This is a massive classic and sophisticated piece that combines perfectly well the clear influences of the music of the classical Russian composers and the political vicissitudes of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian dissident against the regime in the USSR. It's, without any doubt, one of the most beautiful and magnificent pieces made by Renaissance. This song is really brilliant.

Conclusion: As "Prologue" and "Ashes Are Burning", "Turn Of The Cards" is also a great Renaissance's album. In a certain way, "Turn Of The Cards" is a kind of the second part of "Ashes Are Burning". In reality, there was little development from "Ashes Are Burning" to "Turn Of The Cards", and musically both albums are very close. For me, a darker version of Renaissance emerged on "Turn Of The Cards" and so, I think this album is the darker and heavier version of "Ashes Are Burning". When I reviewed "Prologue" and "Ashes Are Burning", I wrote that "Spare Some Love" from "Prologue" and "On The Frontier" from "Ashes Are Burning" are the weakest points of those albums. Sincerely, on "Turn Of The Cards" I can't see any weak points on this album, while it's true that "I Think Of You" and "Cold Is Being" aren't as good as the other four tracks, but, in my opinion, they're better than the other two tracks of those albums. Concluding, although not as good and bright as "Scheherazade And Other Stories", "Turn Of The Cards" is, in my humble opinion, a much more mature, uniform and balanced album than both previous studio albums, "Prologue" and "Ashes Are Burning". But, since it isn't a masterpiece I'm going to rate it with the same 4 stars of the other two.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Share this RENAISSANCE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to VianaProghead
• Report this review (#2248877)
• Buy RENAISSANCE music online with PA partners
• Show all RENAISSANCE MP3/Stream
• Go to RENAISSANCE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Turn of the Cards page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for RENAISSANCE related discussions