ASHES ARE BURNING

The most immediately noticeable differences with 'Ashes Are Burning' over the prior two Renaissance albums are the precisely measured arrangements of each song, and the overt confidence displayed by the band members as they perform them. 'Prologue' was a decent album but the studio atmosphere was clearly less rigorous than here. There are several places on that album where the band seemed to indulge in extemporaneous space-filling (like both the opening and closing tracks), and others where musical ideas seem to have been left unexplored (eg., "Bound for Infinity"). But with 'Ashes' the band has found their groove and every song is rich with both musical precision and lyrical meaning.

Michael Dunford was still writing for the band and in fact officially rejoined them to provide acoustic guitar on the album. He replaced the briefly-employed Peter Finberg who had come from and returned to a career in mostly pub-rock bands like Slack Alice and HiHooka Joe. Finberg had himself replaced Rob Hendry who was encouraged to leave following 'Prologue' and according to John Tout was never a good fit for the group.

Dunford wrote all the songs on 'Ashes' with the exception of "On the Frontier" which former band founder Jim McCarty had composed and recorded with his new band Shoot and which Renaissance immediately appropriated for their own use. The late Betty Thatcher had by this time completely ensconced herself in the lyricist role for the band and provided Annie Haslam with all her lines for the album. Tout's piano is much more prominent throughout, but the real difference seems to be Dunford as the music has returned to a more folk-rock direction, albeit a fairly commercial one. The production is clearly improved over the last couple albums under the direction of Dunford and co-producer Dick Plant who had just notched invaluable experience in a similar role with ELO's 'On the Third Day' sessions.

"Can You Understand?" opens the album with Tout, bassist Jon Camp and drummer Terrance Sullivan laying down a seductive melody that borrows heavily from Jarre's 'Doctor Zhivago' 60's score and finds the band in top form with shifting tempos and playful chord variants that give the song a bit of a world-music feel in addition to something that sounds like something that would fit as a theatrical musical score (which I suppose it was, sort of).

The band relies heavily on Haslam's vocals and Tout's piano to drive many of the songs here especially the airy "Let It Grow" and "Carpet of the Sun", the latter which features rich orchestral accompaniment of strings and reeds that sound remarkably like some of the same sort of stuff Joe Boyd had overseen with several of his Island stable acts around the same time. This music is quite rooted in the early seventies and clearly the band was paying some attention to what was going on around them musically at the time.

"At the Harbour" is a beautiful composition that combines piano, light acoustic guitar and what sounds like a bit of organ for a prototypical example of the sort of songs the band would go on to create on their next few 'classic period' releases.

The closing title track once again finds the band adding an extended, heavily instrumental piece to end an album, something they had done on all three prior releases. Wishbone Ash's Andy Powell provides the electric guitar here which along with Tout's frenetic piano passage in the middle and organ forays throughout gives the tune some sonic depth that is lacking just a bit on the rest of the record. Unlike 'Past Orbits of Dust' which closes 'Illusion' and to a lesser extent "Rajah Khan" at the end of 'Prologue' this track seems to be devoid of improvisation, rather focusing on delivering a tight composition that brings all the talents the band to bear for a promising glimpse of what was to come.

This is the best Renaissance album so far, and would become the band's first charting record in the States, opening doors for them to tour extensively there over the coming years. A four star offering without a doubt, and highly recommended to anyone even remotely interested in the band.

peace