Renaissance Album By Album (& now including Illusion Album By Album Thread) *

Love Is All

Aside from a odd tone from Keith it's probably the weakest track on here. It goes nowhere and isn't very good to begin with. Thankfully it's short enough to not get too annoying.

Incorrect artwork but, hey. It's not like I'm uploading

 

Too early for this I know, but which song is this used in?

 

Running Hard

John Tout gets it perfect too, honestly.

 

That first Illusion album is pretty wonderful all the way through. Interesting that it's stylistically pretty close to '70s Renaissance, and that it ends with a fairly long, jammy tune called "Candles Are Burning"-- always wondered if that was some kind of backhanded salute.

 

It was intended to be Renaissance coming back.

But then everyone involved realized the Renaissance which formed proper in 1973 was still a thing and they still were active, used Illusion.

Can't blame Renaissance mark 2 for making it that far, guys... you did make it happen!

 

There is an outtake called Statues that is way better than this tune but I guess they wanted more Keith vocals on the album. Statues (feat. Renaissance)

 

Mr Pine



This one stands out for more or less being done by half being no one from any other Renaissance lineup - and, it's Michael Dunford's first time with the band.

With that said, it's one of the best tracks. It sounds like a proper Renaissance tune, maybe with some unusually proggy stuff from John. The lyricsm and feel are what you'd expect from this era of the band, and honestly if not for the lead vocal you'd probably never guess that it's the odd one out here.

 

Id be curious to know the recording dates for this album; they have some tunes with the whole band, one without Hawken and one with this weird hybrid.

 

The original band recorded four tracks (Love Goes On, Golden Thread, Love Is All and Face of Yesterday) before it began to distintegrate when Louis Cennamo quit to join Colosseum and Relf and McCarty decided to retire from touring and take a more back seat writing/producing role. This was around Spring of 1970.

John Hawken got the job of putting together a new line-up and recruited two of his old mates from The Nashville Teens (Michael Dunford and Terry Crowe) plus Neil Korner on bass and Terry Slade on drums. This line-up played live briefly through Summer 1970 and only lasted long enough to record one track for the album - Mr Pine, which is significant as it's the only song that features both members of the original band (Hawken and Jane Relf) and the later Annie Haslam fronted band (Dunford). That line-up disintegrated after a few weeks when Jane Relf left and Binky Cullom was brought in as her replacement. However, Hawken wasn't happy with Cullom (not sure if this was a musical or personal thing) and left himself shortly after. With the band under contract to deliver the album which was still unfinished, the original band minus Hawken got back together to record Past Orbits of Dust to complete it, with Don Shinn guesting on keyboards. Worth noting here that Shinn was a brilliant player who Keith Emerson has named as a major influence. He and Tony Kaye used to regularly check him out in the London clubs and Kaye almost certainly got his trademark one arm in the air and one on the keyboard (that wound up the other members of Yes so much) from him.

After that John Tout was brought in to replace Hawken, towards the end of 1970. Although they didn't record they did film the German TV show which was previously posted here. Cullom quit at the end of 1970 and left he music business (she later married drummer Terry Slade). Relf and McCarty auditioned for a new vocalist in January 1971 and brought in Annie Haslam, who initially shared vocals with Terry Crowe. This was Relf's last involvement with the band although McCarty would stay on for another couple of years as a songwriter.

When Miles Copeland took over their management later in 1971 he instigated a major shake-up with only Haslam, Tout and Dunford being retained (Dunford dropping to a songwriting role). Mick Parsons was brought in on guitar and there was a number of bass players including John Wetton before Jon Camp arrived. Ginger Dixon originally replaced Terry Slade on drums but was replaced by Terry Sullivan. Parsons was killed in a car crash and replaced by Rob Hendry, which brings up to the line-up that would reccord Prologue.

 

Face of Yesterday



This was rerecorded on the 1977 album Illusion - Out of the Mist, however it's worth covering this due to it's differences in production. Here there's much more accenting with electric guitar, male backing vocals and it's simply rougher in the production sense. The later version replaced the guitar accenting with real strings and the bass is way less upfront. Either way, this is probably my favorite Mark 1 song period. It's deadly simple, but it's everything I want out of a Renaissance recording that isn't epic - a pure no nonsense pop song with some fantastic vocals, and while the latter Renaissance did this a lot, I still think the soulful voice Jane has kind of elevates this one over something like Let it Grow, the record just swoops over you.

 

@Godbluff

His post above is really insightful for those unfamiliar with how their are two different bands with the same name, definitely read that if you only know the second lineup.

 

Well, you did it! I was steadfastly holding out until the Annie Haslam-era began, and I only sporadically listened to some of the early tracks provided. So far nothing had moved me, but this one track, "Face Of Yesterday" has gotten me off my butt and ordering a copy of ILLUSION. Amazing track, even if it's the only thing I like on the album.

 

Thanks for that interesting insight

 

There are 3 albums by Illusion. Out Of The Mist, Illusion and Enchanted Caress.

There are two Renaissance albums featuring Jane Relf, Renaissance and Illusion.

Face Of Yesterday is on both the Out Of The Mist album by Illusion and on the Illusion album by Renaissance (at bit confusing). Another great song on the Renaissance debut album is Island:

 

Please read back a bit. We've covered the debut.

 

I much prefer the original take and in general the early incarnation(s) of the band to their later edition, i.e. Illusion. In the early Renaissance there had been a rough dark edge to their music, while Illusion offered "only" a very charming folk-pop/rock, close to the direction Annie Haslam's version of Renaissance were aiming for around that time (especially on Song for All Seasons), albeit with better results IMO.

 

I don't really see that on Out of the Mist, that album feels more like they were just doing where they were always doing. Isadora can't really be compared to any given Annie era track.

 

My original Novella has some odd spots of something on it, had no idea there were recent reissues, good to know and good time to look into their other albums.

 

Isadora is such a beautiful track. I really love both of the Illusion albums...

 

Illusion's vocal, piano playing style and old-school guitarist formed a strong link to the past indeed, however the arrangements, songwriting and overall pop sensibilities were much closer to what Renaissance 2.0 did on Song for All Seasons to these ears. And "Isadora" would fit better on that album than on the first two by Renaissance 1.o IMO.

 

For me too this is by far the best track by Renaissance mk1. Jane Relfs vocal control is extraordinary..I love Annie Haslam's voice but listening to this makes me wonder how Jane might have sounded singing some of the later classics such as Ashes Are Burning or the end section of Things I Don't Understand (which coincidentally was Jim McCarteys last songwriting contrbution to the band and a damn fine one too - but I'll chime in on that at the appropriate time)

I really like the Illusion version too...

R E

 

For me too this is by far the best track by Renaissance mk1. Jane Relfs vocal control is extraordinary..I love Annie Haslam's voice but listening to this makes me wonder how Jane might have sounded singing some of the later classics such as Ashes Are Burning or the end section of Things I Don't Understand (which coincidentally was Jim McCarteys last songwriting contrbution to the band and a damn fine one too - but I'll chime in on that at the appropriate time)

I really like the Illusion version too...

R E

 

Past Orbits of Dust

I have to admit, I haven't heard this one in probably 5 years now - while that doesn't seem like "that" long put in perspective my interest in Renaissance started in late 2013 and I'm in my early 20s.

With that said, from my recollection this one did nothing for me, or at least it felt that way at the time. I'm gonna need to give this one multiple plays before I can seriously comment on it's quality. In the meantime, might as well get the discussion moving regardless.

 

Might as well move on now - feel free to comment on any of the earlier stuff if you're late.

Renaissance - Prologue




I couldn't find good pictures of the inner gatefold, here's my own.



Have been under the impression that Prologue wasn't that well known other than it's lead track. The rest of the album seems to be a bit obscure to some, but I might be really wrong about that. I think it's a very good psych/baroque pop album and the band sounds way more like a proper rock group than they did before. This wouldn't last very long but all of the songs on Prologue are fine to amazing - with Rajah Khan in particular being a super overlooked psych epic.

Side one
1. "Prologue" Michael Dunford 5:39
2. "Kiev" Jim McCarty, Betty Thatcher 7:38
3. "Sounds of the Sea" Dunford, Thatcher 7:07

Side two
4. "Spare Some Love" Dunford, Thatcher 5:11
5. "Bound for Infinity" McCarty, Thatcher 4:23
6. "Rajah Khan" Dunford 11:31

• Annie Haslam - lead vocals (all except track 2), backing vocals, percussion
• Rob Hendry - electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, chimes, backing vocals
• John Tout - acoustic and electric keyboards, backing vocals, arrangements
• Jon Camp (listed as "John Camp") - electric bass guitar, lead vocals (track 2), backing vocals, tampoura, arrangements (uncredited)
• Terence Sullivan - drums, percussion

• Michael Dunford - arrangements
• Francis Monkman - VCS3 synth solo on RK