NOVELLA

This "novel" by Renaissance starts with some notes wich could have been an intro of a gothic rock song. And so I asked myself if Renaissance could have been an inspiration for what later became known as rock/metal; the metal scene whereby female vocalists are the cornerstone of the genre.

The song "Can You Hear Me" is a song in the same atmospheric sound as Scheherazade: an orchestral sound. Not just the first song, but the album as a whole is a lot like the second side of Scheherazade. I should call it symphonic pop and I really would've liked this record more if it had some dissonance in it. It's a bit too symphonic in my opinion. It all sounds nice with the pianoparts, the humming and the sometimes bombastic orchestral parts. It has some innerbeauty, but some songs like Midas Man lives on just that, while it has litle to offer on other aspects and remains just pop.

A moment I thought off disposing this record, but I must admit it's just too good for that. It will never be my favourit Renaissance record. I think the best song on it is "The Sisters" because of it's subtlety combined with good songwriting and the spanish guitar solo - which is only heard on this track - is doing a good job here.

Three stars...