OUT OF THE MIST

I have to say that the biography just serves to confuse me. As far as I have made out, Yardbirds splintered into two camps; Eric Clapton and some guys who went on to form Renaissance. The latter band released some albums, including some of my alltime favorite albums. Somehow, the original Renaissance setup splintered away again from Renaissance and formed Illusion. One of the members then got electrocuted and died. Confusing ? Holy camel, I am confused. But I think I got this one right.

Annie Haslam is not here so Jane Relf got the microphone. Although Jane Relf is a very good vocalist, it is absolute impossible to better Annie Haslam. The music here is too different from Renaissance to really give Jane Relf any chance to outshine Annie Haslam anyway. So I have not a bad word to say about Jane Relf. She does an excellent job here.

The album, Illusions career no less, starts with a very good song called Isadore. This is very much in the Renaissance mould. The album more or less follows this road...... with some important detours. One of them is a big look back at Yardbirds and the pinching of their clothes on more than one occasions. There is also a lot of elements from the San Fransisco hippie music scene on this album. Those are the differences from the Renaissance sound. The similarities are far greater though. The piano and the use of keyboards is the same. The closing song Candles Are Burning is a great song which could had been done by Renaissance.

I really like this album, although it has some major flaws. The hippie and the Yardbirds elements being the most serious of those flaws. The lack of any real killer tracks is another flaw. But as a Renaissance fan, I treasure this album. Three stars it is.

3 stars