The Renaissance Zone

rogerthat wrote: Saperlipopette! wrote: I'm listening to it right now - for the first time in over a decade. An album sort of written off by myself back when I first got it (purchased for a couple of dollars/euros as I've paid for all their LP's) as too straight forward/not complex/challenging enough or something like that. Thankfully I don't care about such things as "but is it prog?" anymore. Anyway much better than I remembered. The music is the same, but I have changed. Except for a few Ashes are Burning and Turn of the Cards spins I haven't spun any album of theirs for ages...  Actually I had to make some dinner and its about half an hour since I started writing this - so now I'm halfway into Novella - also magnificent (as everyone in the Renaissance Zone obviously knows).  That was a whole lot of nothing but glad to rediscover this band and enjoying them even more.  Ironically, because of their lack of progressivity, once you do like Renaissance's quintessential sound, it's hard not to like all their albums from Prologue to Song for All Seasons.  With some variations, they stuck stoutly to the formula of Annie's voice married to Tout's piano and lush orchestra.  And they only got better at executing this formula over the course of these albums.

A lack of progressiveness is quite the Achilles' heal of many classic prog groups. But as you say, it can also be comforting to know what type of sound and musical style you're in for. Groups like Renaissance kept themselves and, by proxy, their listeners in a certain comfort zone, IMHO, which does have its merits.

Edited by SteveG - February 27 2018 at 04:05

^ You're never an intrusion Tom!  I really like Azure D'or except for abandonment of the orchestra for cost reasons or whatever. Going towards shorter songs, like Genesis did on "And Then There Were Three", was necessary for the times. It's sad that the album was not revisited by fans after the group lost their recording contracts.

Edited by SteveG - February 27 2018 at 04:27

^^ Thanks !! The Jon Camp track Only Angels Have Wings is a bit ‘icky’ but the rest of the songs are really good. But then I love Camera Camera a lot !! And Time Line ain’t half bad either.

Edited by Tom Ozric - February 27 2018 at 04:33

Tom Ozric wrote: If I may intrude (he he) - what’s the general vibe regarding Azure d’or ?? There’s so much to love on this album, even if the songs are shorter. The chorus of Kalynda brings tears to my eyes, the melody is killer beautiful (doesn’t make sense, eh....?). Golden Key is another.

I don't like the album per se; something about the production makes it sound flat and they are kinda neither fully committed to their classic sound nor to a new direction. But I do love Kalynda as well as Forever Changing. The interlude ruins Golden Key for me but Annie's vocal delivery is out of the world. Flood at Lyons has also grown on me but again I think it turned out better live.

Tom Ozric wrote: I dug out myAnnie In Wonderland LP after many years of ignorance, and fell in love with much of it. Annie and Roy Wood were a great team !!

Yeah, do wish they could have made more albums. Every other songwriter she worked with - be it Raphael Rudd or Biglin or Rave Tesar - went in a new age direction (adult contemporary at times, ugh). I suspect this was mostly at Annie's instigation. But Wood could persuade her to experiment and brought out a joyful side to her singing which most corresponds to her stage presence, in contrast to the melancholy of Renaissance.

Indeed, the ever-eclectic RW. I think I was foolish to think that when I first spun the Wonderland album I was expecting something like Renaissance. The album got ‘buried in the back’ of the collection, ever to have seen the light of day until a year of 2 ago. I bought it sometime during the late-90’s. I’m glad I rediscovered it, with a more ‘mature’ pair of ears. Older, maybe, but not necessarily wiser......

Tom Ozric wrote: Indeed, the ever-eclectic RW. I think I was foolish to think that when I first spun the Wonderland album I was expecting something like Renaissance. The album got ‘buried in the back’ of the collection, ever to have seen the light of day until a year of 2 ago. I bought it sometime during the late-90’s. I’m glad I rediscovered it, with a more ‘mature’ pair of ears. Older, maybe, but not necessarily wiser......

Happened to me too. Left me cold initially. Then I happened to be introducing the magic of Annie Haslam to a musician friend and he was bowled over when I played If I Loved You and Rockalise for him. That made me look at the whole album in a different light.

I retiring for the day. Seems a bit of Renaissance listening is on the cards over the next few days !

Hi all, love when this thread gets revived.  re Azure D'Or, it took the worst aspects of ASFAS and magnified and multiplied them.  The album has such a synthetic sheen, and even the way the lyric sheet listed the precise make and model of the keyboards used was irksome.    

kenethlevine wrote: Hi all, love when this thread gets revived.  re Azure D'Or, it took the worst aspects of ASFAS and magnified and multiplied them.  The album has such a synthetic sheen, and even the way the lyric sheet listed the precise make and model of the keyboards used was irksome.     The only tracks that I enjoy are Jeckyll and Hyde, Golden Key, and especially Kalynda.  It was wonderful to hear Kalynda with the orchestra and I think you will all enjoy it on the DVD.  The choruse is divine and I would have loved it if it was repeated one more time. I thought Camera Camera was a big improvement, and I even prefer Time Line to this

I think as such their tracks turn out better live which shows something went wrong in the studio. I don't mean just the production, maybe they didn't perform it with as much energy in the studio cut for whatever reason. AZD lacks a good live album which may have rehabilitated its reputation. And I wonder if the whole AZD tour was fraught with misgivings about the direction among some members. In one radio interview, Annie said plainly that they were going commercial which Camp tried to couch in more favourable words. The trio of Annie, Camp and Dunford standing in the front with Tout and Sullivan labouring in the back was perhaps symbolic and a portent of things to come.