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Renaissance - Camera Camera CD (album) cover

CAMERA CAMERA

Renaissance

 

Symphonic Prog

2.52 | 153 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
1 stars I can't forgive one of my favourite bands for having produced a so bad thing. At the beginning of the 80s the three survivors of their golden era tried to renew their sound and they did in the worst possible manner.

"Camera Camera", The title track has still something of the good old times, but the keyboards are really "plastic" as a lot of stuff in the 80s, with Annie Haslam trying to make her impressive voice sound like Kate Bush's (Another impressive vocalist, but why doing so?).

"Faeries" is very trivial. Does anybody remember a french girl called Lio? This is how Aniie's voice sounds on this electronic song. She seems to be influenced by Lene Lovich, too.

"Remember" has a nice opening. If you resisted from throwing the disk out of the window, this could have been a weak filler in a good album. At least they have put some effort in the composing.

"Bonjour Swansong" is not that bad, but I can imagine it played by Caravan of mid 70s instead of by Renaissance.

A good bass line is not enough to save "Tyrant-tula" from being a poor song, even if probably the best until now. The chorus retains something of the old times, but it sounds like a spy B-movie soundtrack.

"Okichi-San" is neither bad or good. A song built for Annie's voice with a chorus that reminds to Novella. Some of the old glory is still present.

Without some screams a-la Nina Hagen "Jigsaw" wouldn't be a bad song. They probably remembered to be the Renaissance. Betty Thatcher is accredited as composer. Too few to save the album and too late, probably to be listened. I'm almost discovering it now as I probably didn't resist so much to this disc.

"Running Away From You" is a good suggestion. A very poor electronic track. It can be compared with Remote Romance, the weakest and most embarassing Camel's track ever.

The last track, "Ukraine Ways" is geographically close to "Mother Russia", but even if they were probably trying to sound like that masterpiece, they failed.

This album doesn't reach 2 stars and I strongly suggest avoiding it. If anybody, listening to it thinks this is Renaissance, they would miss the good things done before and also after this album. This is absolutely their worst moment. I think I can better serve the Renaissance cause by keeping the potential listeners away from it.

octopus-4 | 1/5 |

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