Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Soaring Masterpiece of Classical Rock, July 5, 2000
Once upon a time . . . back before the 80s marketing gurus dreamed up the term "classic rock" to describe anything that predated the Sex Pistols, there was a genre of popular music known as "classicAL rock," referring to rock musicians like Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, and Renaissance, who borrowed from classical repertoire to give their music a more expansive feel. Today this genre is mostly called "prog-rock" ("progressive rock"), but "classical rock" remains the more accurate term. Throughout Renaissance's music, melodies by Rachmaninov, Debussy, Barber, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other classical composers can be heard in their musical palette. And while classical rock was never hip enough for [those] who wrote for magazines like Rolling Stone, to those of us who heard beauty in this music, it was (and still is) transcendent and glorious, a testament to humankind's desire to reach for something greater -- greater beauty, greater happiness, greater understanding.Renaissance was the classical rock band par excellence, and Ashes Are Burning is, to this reviewer, the band's undisputed masterpiece. From the opening piano torrent of "Can You Understand" through to the elegant jamming at the end of the title track, this album soars with richly-textured musicianship. This disc marked the first time Renaissance used an orchestra while recording, adding additional depth to their already-symphonic sound. Nowhere do the strings sound better than on "Carpet of the Sun," a light-hearted celebration of nature and light. That song, like "On the Frontier" before it, features lyrics that are confident and joyous; but songs like "At the Harbour" evoke a darker feeling of loss and grief--all is not sweetness and light in Renaissance's world. Lyrically, the album's finest moment is the title track, a meditation on journeying and vision which resolves in a mystical, somber affirmation of forgiveness and love. "Your sins you won't remember, and all you'll find there are love...ashes are burning the way." What is this referring to? The flames of purgatory? The fires of divine love? The singer (Annie Haslam, whose voice is utterly gorgeous) never says. We are left to interpret the words for ourselves, as the music plays out into a lovely coda. What a great album. They don't make 'em like they used to!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
burning the way.., January 30, 2001
Classical folk rock with a jazz influence - that's Renaissance, and by the time of Ashes Are Burning they had finally developed their distinctive sound. No one before (or since) had blended soaring melodies, complex orchestration and the occasional classical quote with the modern stylings of rock and jazz like this. Of course, it's also easy to recognize Annie Haslam's gorgeous voice by itself; her singing alone is worth the price. Her voice acts as an additional instrument, an integral part of the composition rather than following a vocal line 'over' the other instruments.Apart from an occasionally awkward lyric ("Let It Grow," which is still a beautiful song nonetheless), this album is strong and consistent, start to finish. "Let It Grow," "Carpet of the Sun," and "On the Frontier" show the group's cheerful and sunny side. The longer pieces "Can You Understand" and the title track stretch out and cover more musical ground than many entire albums. Overall it's an eminently positive album - quite a marked contrast to the following Turn of the Cards, which can be downright depressing. This one is for a sunny autumn day, 40 minutes of life-enriching beauty not to be missed.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Renaissance's classic recording., October 5, 1999
By A Customer
This recording, along with Turn of the Cards, mark Renaissance's peak as a band. The compositions and performance's, particularly Annie Haslam's vocals, are exceptional. The only flaw would be the occassionally awkward lyric(see Let it Grow). Following these two albums, and the follow up Sheherazade, the band succumbed to the pressures of the recording company to maintain a more contemporary sound. Sadly, this spelled the beginning of the end of the band as they lost that which made them unique and as a result, their audience.
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