The Renaissance Zone

I enjoyed Island. She certainly filled in well for Jane, and you could see
where the sound originated and evolved between the 2 versions of the group.
The last few minutes
involved the orchestra alone which was interesting.
Her backstory, which at this point we have already heard,
was fun to hear from her because I felt
transported to how she must have when auditioning
For an internationally known band

I think you will enjoy it. She kept
saying how this is the way it’s supposed to
be, I guess meaning Renaissance playing with an orchestra.
She also credited Rave Tesar with not only being
Responsible for keeping Renaissance going with her
But also getting the orchestra together.

It was a commercial failure but they had poor promotion
and poor luck. I actually thought Running Away from you was a fun song
that could have been a hit.   The only song
I really didn’t like was Jigsaw as I didn’t like
Annie’s shrieking on it.

I never thought much of the 80s KC I heard
But then I suppose you can’t argue with their success.
They also had a bigger fan base to begin with.

I loved 80s KC because they executed the new wave sound well. I think Renaissance tried too hard to be frivolous to get that next Northern Lights. Thatcher kind of alluded to the change in Bonjour Swansong.

Oh, I for one am absolutely not judging the album by its sales (wouldn't be a Ren fan if I was ). Just that what I mentioned above didn't work for me. And I am not saying they made too many Northern Lights like songs (I too like Bonjour Swansong). But they tried too hard to write pop hits to get their next Northern Lights, i.e. next top 10 hit and that didn't work out well. Actually both Allmusic and George Starting gave good reviews for Camera Camera as also Steve G but it's just not for me.

rogerthat wrote: Oh, I for one am absolutely not judging the album by its sales (wouldn't be a Ren fan if I was ). Just that what I mentioned above didn't work for me. And I am not saying they made too many Northern Lights like songs (I too like Bonjour Swansong). But they tried too hard to write pop hits to get their next Northern Lights, i.e. next top 10 hit and that didn't work out well. Actually both Allmusic and George Starting gave good reviews for Camera Camera as also Steve G but it's just not for me.

I thought that Jekyll and Hyde from Azure D'or, while not a great song, was interesting because the band did not ape Northern Lights. Ok, J&H is not a prog song either, but at  least it sounded different. 

rogerthat wrote: iluvmarillion wrote: rogerthat wrote: Oh, I for one am absolutely not judging the album by its sales (wouldn't be a Ren fan if I was ). Just that what I mentioned above didn't work for me. And I am not saying they made too many Northern Lights like songs (I too like Bonjour Swansong). But they tried too hard to write pop hits to get their next Northern Lights, i.e. next top 10 hit and that didn't work out well. Actually both Allmusic and George Starting gave good reviews for Camera Camera as also Steve G but it's just not for me. Actually, listen to Northern Lights on its own, I think its a pretty ordinary song. Now I understand it was a hit but being a hit doesn't make it a good song, if you consider bands like One Direction having hits every day of the week. But listening to Northern Lights in the context of the other songs on "Song For All Seasons" it's a perfect fit for the other songs on the album. So I think Renaissance lost sight of the fact they were an "albums" band rather than a "singles" band and maybe spent too much time trying to replicate the success of Northern Lights, rather than just trying to make great albums. I think Northern Lights is a good song and is significantly different from the regular Ren songwriting. But in essence, I agree that post SFAS they stopped writing albums as they were trying to score another hit single.

It was really do or die at that late date for Renaissance.  Although it met with new success in the UK, it seemed that this was almost entirely on the basis of the single, so the name recognition wasn't achieved.  In the US, I don't think they gained a lot of new fans - if they had, it probably would have been on the back of Northern Lights, which flopped as a single stateside.  the allmusic guide gave it 4 or 4.5 stars and said it was as ill timed as any record could have been, and pulled in a few too many directions.  Interestingly, they flagged "She is Love" as one of 2 or 3 recommended tracks.  Did they listen to it????  

SteveG wrote: Perhaps they confused the track listing and thought that She Is Love was actually Northern Lights. At least I hope so.