OUT OF THE MIST / ILLUSION

What a great treat for Illusion´s fans! Their two 70´s albums in one CD! While a lot of people discuss which one is better than the other, you´ll get them both and see that they are very close to each other and equally good. The cover is a little misleading since it represents the Out Of the Mist album exactly (you can turn it back and have the second LP cover instead. So, pay atention to this detail when looking for this two in one release.

The sound is good although I still think it is not a remastered edition of them. But it is far better than the battered vinyl copies that I still have. I especially loved those vocals fo Jane Relf and Jim McCarty and John Hawken´s lush, elegant keyboards. The booklet is ok, with some nice photos and a brief story of the band written by Jim McCarty himself. The covers are well represented, but no lyrics are included (nor bonus tracks).

Those two LPs together show that Illusion was more than a dilluted version of the symphonic Renaissance we grew up loving (in fact they were the first Renaissance incarnation, after Keith Relf and Jim McCarty left The Yardbirds in the late 60´s). They were quite good and had a strong potential to become very big. Unfortunatly they arrived too late on the scene to have a chance (punk and disco were taking over at the time). But they left two great works for the prog fans of all time. Illusion´s music is melodic, beautiful and does not sound dated 30 years after. Highly recommended