Original released on LP BTM 1000
(UK, 1974)
The third
album by this incarnation of Renaissance was a match for their previous
success, "Ashes Are Burning", with equally impressive performances and
songwriting and a few new musical twists added. The songs here fit more easily
into a rock vein, and the prior album's folk influences are gone. "Turn of the
Cards" rocks a bit harder, albeit always in a progressive rock manner, and Jon
Camp's bass and Terence Sullivan's drums are both harder and heavier here, the
bass (the group's only amplified instrument) in particular much more forward in
the mix. This change works in giving the band a harder sound that leaves room
for Jimmy Horowitz's orchestral accompaniments, which are somewhat more
prominent than those of Richard Hewson on the prior album, with the horns and
strings, in particular, more exposed. Annie Haslam is in excellent voice
throughout, and finds ideal accompaniment in Michael Dunford's acoustic guitar
and John Tout's piano. The writing team of Dunford and Betty Thatcher also adds
some new wrinkles to the group's range - in addition to progressive rock
ballads like "I Think of You," they delivered "Black
Flame," a great dramatic canvas for Haslam and Tout, in particular; and
"Mother Russia" is a surprising (and effective) move into topical
songwriting, dealing with the plight of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and other
victims of Soviet repression (you had to be there in the 1970s to realize what
a burning issue this was). And then there were the soaring, pounding group
virtuoso numbers like "Things I Don't Understand," which managed to
hold audience interest across nine or ten minutes of running time. (Bruce Eder
in AllMusic)
