A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS

Two of the songs on this album are in the symphonic style that made this band great, and famous. The Day Of The Dreamer fits in with the heavy symphonic epics of the groups previous albums. The title track A Song For All Seasons ranks up there with the best of the Renaissance tracks. It's superbly orchestrated, and is as powerful a song as we've heard from Haslam, Dunford and the band.

But this was 1978. Small minded and greedy record company executives were herding their successful stables into the pen of pop music, where mundane recordings could be force fed to the masses, who had been convinced by the self proclaimed music experts that punk and disco had substance.

Renaissance bent to the pressure, and the remaining half of the album is made up of songs that begin the transition of their style from symphonic prog to bland AOR.

There is still some substance here. the orchestra adds some depth and complexity, but not really enough to disguise the drastic dumbing down of the arrangements. And the success of the single Northern Lights (a track that reminds me a bit of Yes' Wonderous Stories from the previous year), helped convince the group that this new direction was the correct course.

Where did that lead them?

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