Artist: Renaissance
Album: A Song for All Seasons
Label: Esoteric Recordings
Release Date: 3.29.19
Where so many classic progressive-rock acts went on to become iconic names in later decades, Renaissance still somehow glided under the radar and stayed obscure even in that esoteric corner of the world. On paper, they should have stood alongside the likes of Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer. There was the same attention span for long elaborate arrangements and symphonic orchestrations. They combined extensive classical roots with fanciful imagination and scary smarts, topped off with flamboyant stage dress. (Let’s not hold that against them too much; it was the ‘70s.) It also didn’t hurt that Annie Haslam has one of the most angelic singing voices the genre has ever known.
But all things eventually change. 1978’s A Song for All Seasons brought back the modern electric guitars and leaned on concise, pretty verse-chorus songs more than any previous outing had. It still included two trademark epics, but the band didn’t need to keep repeating the formula of past landmarks such as Scheherazade and Other Stories. Their subsequent full dive into shorter pieces and synthesizers wasn’t successful in the end either, so Song turned out to be the last album of their golden age, and there’s still a whole lot for listeners of different stripes to enjoy.
The always-poetic lyrics have a wistful thread through this one; “Day of the Dreamer” muses on memories and passing time amid some high-energy orchestral drama, while the more thoughtful ballads handle the same themes with thoughtful simplicity. Pleasantly, things turn warmer and more optimistic as the set goes on. They get downright adorable with the charming “Northern Lights” (an unexpected but deserved top-ten hit in the UK) before the title track closes out with a grand sweeping panorama of moods, standing as one of the band’s all-time finest moments in the end.
Remastered sound and a couple TV-session tracks are a plus, but the main draw of this reissue is the addition of a two-hour live show from late in that year’s tour—no orchestra, just the group of five members filling in the sound and playing off each other beautifully. Everyone’s clearly fired up by the new songs as much as their older staples, and another run through the chill-inducing showcase of “Ashes Are Burning” is always a treat. If Renaissance was always happily out of their time, their catalogue stands in a world of its own just as much today. Expansions like this are always fascinating and still most welcome.
—Geno Thackara
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