ASHES ARE BURNING

Ashes are burning showed the new line-up of Renaissance in the best condition. Again, the improvement against their previous Prologue album is obvious. It would have been called the masterpiece if only there hadn't been two songs - Let it grow and On the frontier. The rest of album is simply marvelous. Great musicianship together with unique and the best female voice ever, made Renaissance one of the greatest groups of all time. The title song and the first one are highly praised by the fans and critics, but for me, the song At the harbour is the best. This hidden gem consiscts from nice piano parts that are bypassed by acoustic guitar and one of the best performances of Annie Haslam. The equal mood was only once gained in song Cold is being (Turn of the cards album). Essential album.