Renaissance Days
Mark Champion | San Antonio, TX United States | 07/02/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Comprising what can only be termed a return to form, this popped up a couple of years ago pretty much unheralded. Too bad, because any fan of Renaissance will appreciate its hearkening back to the band's heyday as well as the return of Annie Haslam after a brief detour with Stephanie Adlington on the not-bad-at-all THE OTHER WOMAN. True, synths play a prominent role in the instrumentation department, but the orchestra is back as is the grand piano. It sounds like the band never left, and as if CAMERA CAMERA and TIME LINE never happened (this time it's Haslam, Michael Dunford, Terry Sullivan and Mickey Simmonds, with contributions from Roy Wood and former full-timer John Tout). And yes, the smarm factor is, as always, present (In The Sunshine is the most egregious here, and Dolphins Prayer is exactly what the title implies). But at least one song, the beautifully plaintive Pearls Of Wisdom, is easily worthy of any of the best the band ever did, if not better. If you've ever had a place for Renaissance, here's one more."
Mellow, but not memorable
Kapper | New York | 01/15/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"On the surface this CD sounds similar to the Renaissance of the 1970's, which is most welcome compared to how they left us in the 80's, but I find few songs that stick in my head even after several listenings.
It sounds similar to how a best of Renaissance CD would have sounded if they had compiled all their weaker songs from their 70's albums.
On the plus side, Annie's vocals still shine. The problem is I kept on expecting her to suddenly start singing Celene Dion's "My heart will go on" or something like that. It's easy to like this CD, but hard to love it."
Sounds similar but falls short of haunting
Joseph Beel | E. Norriton, PA | 06/03/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I missed any mention that they were getting together and making a new album. I am a big fan 30+ years. I even liked some of Annie's solo work. With these great orchestrations it just seems to miss the mark. Not sure why, its not haunting no songs stick in your head that you want to listen to over and over. Maybe over produced or they were striving TOO hard to sound like they did. Oh well, glad I bought if even though it will end up in my collection only to be shown to friends who didn't know about it.
Thanks"