SCHEHERAZADE AND OTHER STORIES

Renaissance showed potential with previous work's "Ashes are burning" and "Turn of a card" with their mix of symphonic prog, folk acoustic guitars and that great, great voice. If potential is what they showed, here they deliver it in a silver platter and the result could not be better. Without a doubt their best album, a serious contender for album of the year (but the honors would go to Pink Floyd once again) and definitely one of the highlights of its genre. Easily in the top 20 of symphonic prog if you ask me.

As is any great album the first track must be one of the very best of the list, if not the best, if this is not the case, if the first track is not good, then the album already has one foot in the grave. Fortunately this is clearly not the case here. A trip to the fair, with it´s dramatic piano intro sets the mood for the rest of the album, here you are no longer listening to a rock band any more, this is pretty much classical music made pop, and I tell you, the result. magnificent! Of course when Haslam starts her singing well. then you find yourself in prog heaven. The second song, The vultures fly high, is the shortest and also fastest of the album, This one is a more of a rocker than the rest, although remember that this is Renaissance, so don't expect it to rock too hard! It's still a great song with some of Haslam´s exquisite singing. Ocean gipsy follows but it's once again a longer track and softer too, almost a ballad. It´s, again, a very good song, but it´s the one I care the least from the whole album. And, we come to the final song. the epic. THE epic! Renaissance only, which might make it even more special, although it's that good that they could have done a thousand more and this would still shine just the same as it does being alone. I´m talking of course of Song of Scheherazade. A true orchestrated piece of music, this one has everything a hardcore symph fan can ask for. and then some! I won't even get into details, as I fear I would have to analyze every single second. it's really that good, just like the whole album is one of the best of it's genre, this song is also the case, but it might rank even higher!

A true classic of the ´70, a masterpiece. Renaissance would start to go down hill after this one, it seems they could not go any higher, and better that they did with this one. and it's ´cause, it's true, a band could not top themselves after this.