ILLUSION

A strange album is this. In fact original Renaissance returned to the studio for their 2nd album but ... Not brought to an end. Or rather, they chose the band even though it must be said that material of this band was used by 2nd Renaissance. The band, in fact, disbanded during the recording sessions of this album but the second Renaissance born only after this album. Michael Dunford penned and playing (with a passage line-up) "Mr. Pine" and this is the debut of 2nd Renaissance, also if it is not correct.

The album start with "Love Goes On", penned by Relf, a strange combination of Folk, POP and Beat that is not memorable. Vice versa "Golden Thread", penned by McCarty and Relf, is a great song that have all the ingredients of 2nd Renaissance (piano and chorus in primis) but that have also all the ingredients of 1st Renaissance. More complex of 2nd Renaissance songs "Golden Thread" is aged extremely well and it is one of my Renaissance favorite songs! "Love Is All" is a song penned by McCarty and Thatcher (that is a poetess). This song is a pure symphonic POP a la Procol Harum but more POP that Prog. Probably a sort of POP in Classic Rock field. Good piano and vocal part by Keith Relf, with good chorus with Jane Relf and McCarty. "Mr. Pine" is the debut of Dunford with Renaissance and is a song played by Korner, Dunford, Slade and Crowe with the help of originasl member (certainly Jane Relf and John Hawken) and present an intro and an outro with harpsichord and chorus that is pure English Folk. The rest of the song is a honest Rock with Prog treatment that is not proper 100% 2nd Renaissance but also not is 100% first Renaissance. Not memorable if not for intro and outro "Mr. Pine" is at the same time one of the more important songs for Renaissance. "Face Of Yesterday" is a McCarty penned song and it is a good song for Jane Relf's good voice (also if it is good more for style that for other). This song is another strange mix of Folk and Symphonic music that will be the basis of the success of the 2nd Renaissance. The final result is a good ballad that please me too much! "Past Orbis Of Dust" is the 2nd song by McCarty and Tatcher, in this case co-written with Relf and it is long circa 14 mins and half. This song is a strange mix between Clark-Hutchinson and T. Rex but 100% Renaissance because with great Folk arrangements. So the psychedelc part of this mix is only on paper, in the sense that is only in the melody of the song and in vocal parts. In this song is present (at electric piano) Don Shin. Another good song.

But the final conderation is this: "Illusion" is only the last album (also if not totally correct) of 1st Renaissance and present the debut of Dunford. Now, is "Illusion" a good album? Yes. But "Illusion" affected by many internal tensions that penalize the power and the magic of the songs. Not bad as final result, "Illusion" is an album that has to be judged more for historical merits and for other things.