NOVELLA

I bought this lp some days ago and now I realize I got the american cover, but it's also nice. This is Renaissance's seventh album and it was recorded 1976 and sold next year. The group consisted that year of the same people like on amazing "Scheherazade". What makes Renaissance interesting it that they didn't play the same music as other prog bands. They had no electric guitars and the music is very classical, it's a very distinct mixture of classical and popular music. Annie Haslam's voice reminds me of Maddy Prior's (of Steeleye Span) and of Turid Lundqvist (the swedish singer/songwriter in the 70s) and it's beautiful. It's perhaps little too much nice. I think this music lacks an edge.

I think the first and the last song is those most worth listen to. "Touching once(is so hard to keep) is the best with harmonic vocals(and dramatic) and after the singing the group surprises us with warbling and later an orchestra. "Can you her me call your name" is also very special, I like when they go from louder to quieter moments and the little crazy and fast intro. "Midas man" has an interesting text about a man with taste for gold. It contains nice acoustic guitar. "The captive heart" is a beloved love song with harmonies in the refrain.

As I mentioned before this is very nice music and perhaps it will grow for me and I will explore its inner beauty but now it's too sweat and unsharp. But this music is special. It's not folk prog even if the lyrics and vocals sound like that and it's not ordinary symphonic prog rock. A more precise definition could be progressive symphonic folk rock (with a wide definition of rock). I would be most content with the rating "good but not essential" but with the addition "closer to four than two".