Renaissance: Scheherazade and Other Stories. |
Post Reply |
Author | |
SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20503 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Posted: September 04 2018 at 04:07 |
Next up: Scheherazade and Other Stories. The title track is the group's magnum opus that never sounds too magnum or overblown to me, just perfect. And of course it's got the marvelous Trip to the Fair and Ocean Gypsy.
Edited by SteveG - September 04 2018 at 06:24 |
|
rogerthat
Prog Reviewer Joined: September 03 2006 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 9869 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Whilst I never found the epic overblown, I also didn't find it THAT interesting vis a vis a Supper's Ready or CTTE or Echoes. And those are among the few 20 minuters I like. I usually like prog in the 7 to 15 min length rather than the epics, so that's just me. And also, with it being an epic, there's too much music in Scheherazade and not enough of vocals. On the other hand, I love all the other three tracks, from the delightful Trip to the fair to the melancholic but soothing Ocean Gypsy to the slightly defiant Vultures Fly High. This is really where the band and Annie in particular really come into their own for me. Not the previous two albums were lacking per se but from Scheherazade onwards, I sense a step up in the band's confidence and it stayed that way for the next two as well. Which is probably why most of the band members, barring Sullivan who names Ashes as his favourite album, pick this phase (Sch-Novella-SFAS) as their favourite.
|
|
kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team Joined: December 06 2006 Location: New England Status: Offline Points: 8854 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
I'm with rogerthat on this one. I'm all in on the first 8 mins or so of the epic but it seems to drag after that. On the other hand, everything on the other side is top drawer, the best being "Trip to the Fair", with "The Vultures Fly High" sounding surprisingly natural considering it is as close to a rocker they got during their mid period
|
|
SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20503 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
^ I love all the music in the title track from the Fanfare to the Fugue to the Festival Preparations!
Edited by SteveG - September 04 2018 at 13:15 |
|
kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team Joined: December 06 2006 Location: New England Status: Offline Points: 8854 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
|
dr wu23
Forum Senior Member Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20468 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Trip To The Fair and Ocean Gypsy over the title track.
|
|
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
|
Squonk19
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 03 2015 Location: Darlington, UK Status: Offline Points: 4706 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
|
“Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.”
|
|
Dellinger
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: June 18 2009 Location: Mexico Status: Offline Points: 12608 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
I do love the title track... for the first 12 min... once that vocal section ends (and actually the song seems to end there), I do loose interest in the rest... it's just that instrumental, orchestral sections mostly without the band, it doesn't work for me. The final section, where the band comes back, is great once again, but the momentum was already lost. There's a few other epic songs that seem to suffer a similar fate for me, having just about half of it being really great, but feeling over-long or not cohesive enough.
|
|
lazland
Prog Reviewer Joined: October 28 2008 Location: Wales Status: Offline Points: 13249 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
I love every single second of an incredible piece of music and vision.
|
|
Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org
|
|
Boojieboy
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 02 2016 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 576 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
They had better and more interesting songs. Just because it took up a whole side doesn't necessarily make it superior to other songs. And parts of it are moody and bland, waiting for the orchestra to do something.
Their next studio album - Novella - is much better, and probably their best overall album. I like the lengthy "Can You Hear Me?", which is a nice epic. "Midas Man" is cool too. Much advanced over the Scheherazade stuff. Plus, electric guitars start reemerging back into the music. Other long tasty songs include "Can You Understand" and the title track from "Ashes Are Burning", "Running Hard" and "Trip to the Fair" from "Turn of the Cards", and the title track to "Song For All Seasons".
Edited by Boojieboy - September 14 2018 at 15:52 |
|
micky
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 02 2005 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 46828 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
yeah... I thought Ashes are Burning was the strongest album start to finish...
but Trip to the Fair has since become my single favorite Renaissance song and the song long title track is pure symphonic bliss.. only rivaled in that extremely overrated and misunderstood prog niche by Focus's Hamburger concerto... but for the album as a whole...Ashes are Burning easily... for I sort of turn out on Schedherzade after the first song and until the 2nd side...
|
|
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
|
|
Boojieboy
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 02 2016 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 576 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Micky - That image icon looks like a classic Austin, TX musician who's name escapes me at the moment.
|
|
micky
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 02 2005 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 46828 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
|
hell yeah man.... Doug Sahm... one of the few musical idols I truly have...
|
|
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
|
|
Boojieboy
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 02 2016 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 576 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Cool! I'm not familiar with his music - yet - but know about a lot of other Texas musicians and bands.
I've participated in my share of TX-based music, including the following prog bands: Nightwheel Vatican Commandos Shirk Wideminder Maybe someday I'll post some of that obscure stuff on YouTube.
Edited by Boojieboy - September 14 2018 at 16:05 |
|
micky
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 02 2005 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 46828 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
way cool. Do check him out he was one of the fathers.. perhaps THE father of Tex-Mex.. I do love that stuff. I'm left cost born and raised, east born grown and educated, but my favorite years were spent llving in OK and TX soaking up the women, beer and music scene there.
Edited by micky - September 14 2018 at 16:08 |
|
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
|
|
I prophesy disaster
Forum Senior Member Joined: December 31 2017 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 4596 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Is it just me or does anybody else think that Trip To The Fair sounds like something that Julie Andrews might sing in Mary Poppins?
|
|
No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.
|
|
Saperlipopette!
Forum Senior Member Joined: December 20 2010 Location: Tomorrowland Status: Offline Points: 10048 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
|
|
|
Post Reply | |
Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |