TUSCANY

I had high hopes for this supposed comeback album, almost two decades since the last true Renaissance album. Sure, Michael Dunford and Annie Haslam each released albums and toured as "Renaissance", but without the other members, it was not the same.

Here, Dunford and Haslam are back together, along with drummer Terence Sullivan from the classic lineup. Keyboardist John Tout, who's departure really destroyed the band's sound in the eighties, was available in a limited fashion, and appears on three tracks. The inferior Mickey Simmons plays on the rest of the tracks, and sounds completely generic and unoriginal. Bassist John Camp, whose sound was integral to the classic symphonic albums, sadly, does not appear. Alex Caird plays bass on most of the songs, with Roy Wood on the rest, and neither shines.

The songs, while having Haslam's fine voice, sound to me like a band that just can't capture the magic they once had. There are slight glimmers of attempts at grandiose symphonic rock, but the inspiration just isn't there. Like recent Peter Gabriel albums, Renaissance substituted innovation and inspiration with moodiness and imitation of ethnic music.

Slightly better that the eighties albums, but only just. 2.5 stars. Rounded up I guess.