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Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories CD (album) cover

SCHEHERAZADE AND OTHER STORIES

Renaissance

 

Symphonic Prog

4.32 | 1403 ratings

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colorofmoney91
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Scheherazade and Other Stories is the most epic album in the Renaissance catalog, and has always had a darker impression on me. As always with Renaissance, the music here is utterly beautiful and masterly crafted with all folky and classical elements intact and in full frontal mode.

Right away, "Trip to the Fair", starts out the album in an interesting way. A very dark sounding introduction played on the lower register of a piano eventually gives way to a music box type melody that plays starkly behind Annie Haslams terrific voice. Thumping bass serves as an introduction to a much unexpected post-bop jazz passage with a solo on xylophone and piano both.

"Vultures Fly High" is an energetic rocker that still maintains the Renaissance sound and is built upon a fantastic vocal melody. Short, but sweet.

"Ocean Gypsy" is a classic in the Renaissance catalog, and is a very dark and beautiful tune full of folky elements. This song always gave me the impression of floating on a boat in the ocean in the morning when the fog is still rising off of the water. This track progressively gets more epic without deviating much from the initial theme and the structure definitely sounds like something of a pseudo-church-choir song.

The epic title track runs at around 23 minutes in length, and is too epic for me to venture into a detailed explanation, but is very beautiful and flows flawlessly through each of the individual passages. It manages to sound like a rock symphony without being cheesy.

Anyone interested in folky symphonic prog should definitely check out this amazing album.

colorofmoney91 | 4/5 |

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