Customer Reviews

Azure D'or

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This album, indeed the last by the most popular lineup of Renaissance, tends to be underappreciated by most fans. In my opinion, it's full of strong songs. One reason some people don't like it is that it doesn't contain any long 10-minute epics like previous works. But some of these "epics", such as "Touching Once" or "The Sisters", seemed to be long just for the sake of being long. I liked the introduction of shorter songs.

But the songwriting is stil rooted in the band's usual influences -- folk and folk-rock ("Friends", "Forever Changing", "Kalynda") or the classical/symphonic ("The Flood at Lyons", the rather baroque "Only Angels Have Wings"). Or, combining the two ("Golden Key","Jekyll and Hyde"). And the marvelous instrumental "The Discovery" proves that Renaissance could still hold its own with progressive rock peers like Yes.
The melodies are catchy, the lyrics are always interesting, and Annie Haslam's amazing five octave range floats above it all.

What a lot of fans had problems with was David Hentschel's production. He had produced the band's previous album, "A Song for All Seasons", which gave the band a huge hit single with "Northern Lights". Hentschel, who also produced Genesis at that time, had enough pull to persuade the band to adopt an approach on which guitars, vocal harmonies and especially synthesizers were endlessly overdubbed. This made them sound quite a bit like Genesis. The "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" style does make the album sound rather stiff and sterile. The songs don't seem to have much breathing room. Hentschel was able to balance better the use of electric guitars and synthetic orchestration with the band's usual acoustic approach on "Seasons".

Once you get past that, though, you get to some really good songs. For those who find ten minute prog-rock epics a bit overwhelming or boring, "Azure d'Or" might be a good introduction to the marvelous sounds of Renaissance. For more seasoned fans, repeated listening will uncover the wonderful lyrics and melodies of these songs.

It might be hard to do, but if you can separate David Hentschel's homogenizing production work from the songs themselves you will probably appreciate Renaissance's effort here quite a lot. What Hentschel did was to take out all of the bass and emaciate what could have been. . .well, very pleasingly plump. Hentschels's synthesized sheen renders the album virtually bloodless- - -play this back to back with TURN OF THE CARDS, for instance, and you'll hear what I mean. Yuk. As for the songs, however, no complaints. Renaissance was always a pop band at heart, admit it or not (ever heard 'Carpet Of The Sun'? 'I Think Of You'? 'The Vultures Fly High'? 'The Captive Heart?') and on AZURE D'OR they allow their pop sensibilities full reign. Particularly excellent are 'The Winter Tree' with its gorgeous melody line and chorus, and the melancholic 'Forever Changing'. None of the songs here are terrible by any means, even if Jon Camp cheesily advises that 'Only Angels Have Wings' (hey Jon, how do you explain Mothra?). It isn't as if every Renaissance album until AZURE D'OR were perfect. . .still, David Hentschel reduced what could have been sonically awesome into near-tepid and all-generic proportions. And I sure do miss the orchestra. And the grrahnd piahno. Come to think of it, I kind of miss Renaissance. Say, where's my copy of WIND AND WUTHERING? Hentschel produced that, too. Sounds like he just changed the vocalists and added a Mellotron or two.

This album is much-maligned by Renaissance true believers, since it replaced their use of orchestral backings on their previous albums with synthesizers, and cut the length of their typical songs from 6-to-10 minutes to about 4. (These changes were actually happening to most prog-rock bands, as the punk movement was forcing everyone to refocus their efforts. Yes also produced a much-maligned yet excellent album around this time in Drama.)

It's still a fantastic piece of work, though. "The Winter Tree" and "The Flood at Lyons" are as good as anything Renaissance ever did. While "Only Angels Have Wings" is indeed rather drippy, "Secret Mission" and "Friends" let Haslam's voice swoop and soar. The synthesizer work is generally fine, mainly because the material was clearly written for it. If there's a problem with the arrangements here, is that the group's impressive pianist doesn't have the opportunity to show his skills.

Azure d'or was the first Renaissance album I ever heard, and it's still one of my favorites.

and by a long shot, but unfortunately repeats some of the same mistakes.

One positive note about this album is that instead of having half of the songs orchestrated and in the classic Renaissance style along with more vocally textured and synth-heavy tunes, it is all basically one cohesive, wall-of-sound style and holds together much better sonically as an album than it's predecessor, A Song For All Seasons. Some may complain that it sounds muddy, and I couldn't disagree more. Sure, it is a very full mix, but the huge layers of keyboards and vocals (with a lot of studio reverb) give it a heavenly sound not too unlike Yes's Going For The One album.

And way to hold together sonically! This is probably the most far removed from the old sound that they had gotten at this point of their career, instead of the earthy, acoustic based sound with orchestra, they opted for many layers of vocal harmonies, ethereal synths and mellotron, and kept the song structures taut and focused, for the most part. Basically, the sound is very reminicent of Genesis around Trick Of The Tail, which is not a bad thing at all.

They sure knew how to introduce the public to the new sound with "Jekyl And Hyde," which pounds along furiously like few Renaissance tracks had before, and it's convulted disco-ish rhythm is so catchy that you probably won't notice some of the more complex rhythm changes that garnish the track. Nope, definately not the same old Renaissance, but it's hardly a bad thing at all.

After this unusually energetic number most of the remainder of the album is stuffed with ballads, some of which are a real treat (The ethereal beauty "Winter Tree," the sentimental, cute ode "Friends" which is a personal favorite and the more seriously toned "Golden Key") some which are just ok-ish ("Kaylinda" "Forever Changing") and one of which is absolutely disgusting (the Camp-sung "Only Angels Have Wings").

The album does contain a few curiosities, when they go for the huge, bombastic vibe or unnecessarily complex structure to compensate for a lack of good music to put in the song it doesn't gel quite as well. "Secret Mission" is the one that will make you shake your head the most and is one of their most bizarre and disjointed songs, which will create a feeling of confusion similar to the way most Gentle Giant would sound on first listen. This is one of the tunes that really tries to ape the prog-lite style Genesis were going for around the time and with all the Moog-Taurus bass pedals, ethereal ARP lines and mellotron it's hard not to make the comparison. Although it is over-complex, downright confusing, and contains way too many different sections of music stuck together that don't initially sound like they belong together, the song will eventually grow on you, as it does contain a couple of really awesome sections that make the tune a worthwhile listen, mainly towards the end when Annie screams "Changing every DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!" and hits that super high note that caps off the best Renaissance tunes. It's just effin' stunning and makes sitting through the preceding chaos worthwhile. The traditional prog-rock style just wasn't their forte, that's all. At least it showcases the rhythm section well, which features some of Camp and Sullivans tightest playing together as a unit and is not too far removed from the sound Squire and Bruford had together.

This album also contains the instrumental piece "The Discovery" which is VERY similar in structure to the Genesis instrumental "Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers/In That Quiet Earth" and I can almost see David Hentchell telling both bands to shoot for an instrumental with an energetic, driving first part with a more bombastic and glorious 2nd half to cap it off. It is definately not near as good as its Genesis penned big brother (especially lacking in the first section) it ends with a 2nd half that is among the most menacing and eerie in the Renaissance catalog and you'll be finding yourself rewinding that part over and over again. Again, something worth sitting through something that's so-so to get to something good, but it's worth it, trust me.

The album ends with something again that unfortunately tries to be more complex than it needs to be, but is the best of the failed (somewhat) experiments, which is "The Flood At Lyons" where Annie really gets to stretch out and display her unmatchable vocal power. Once again, an unnecessarily proggy intro and somewhat weak verses are offset by absolutely amazing choruses and a great coda.

It may seem like I have picked apart the album somewhat, but I most definately favor this over the more acclaimed Song For All Seasons album, which was hinting at a more pop oriented direction. See, I don't have any problem at all with them going for some hits with this release, it's just that their attempts at pop music on Azure D'Or were just executed much better than the preceding album, and even the ones I didn't care for as much would at least stick in your head and were memorable in some way, unlike many of SFAS's failures. Instead of breezing by me without leaving much of an impression, they would at least contain more memorable melodies that were catchy in some way, or at least had a few sections I liked a lot.

I really do find it unfortunate they didn't have the same luck Genesis and Yes did with commercializing their sound, as their are several tracks on here that have "HIT" stamped on them loud and proud. As a matter of fact, the attempt to commercialize the sound backfired completely and they charted twice as low as the preceding albums. For this I feel it's recieved an undeserved bad reputation and automatically turns people off to it, but with a rich, full production and enough pleasant tunes and strong performances, the album holds up and is the best of their releases following Novella. Sure, you should buy the classic stuff with Annie first, but if you're interested in their mid to later period stuff this should be the first album you pick up. It's not perfect, but you definately won't be disapointed.

See also the reviews under the IMPORT version of this album. I owned the vinyl album of Azure d'Or for many years and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is more pop oriented and upbeat than the earlier albums and kind of marks the beginning of the decline of Renaissance in my opinion. That said, I sometimes am not in the mood for the more melancholy strains of Renaissance and Azure d'Or fills in quite nicely at those times. People whose devotion to Renaissance is based on the earlier classic-pop works seem most disappointed with the later albums, but IMO a mediocre Renaissance album is far better than some very good works from other artists. I have been without this album for about 5 years, since my turntable broke and was pleased to learn recently that it is on CD. Can't wait for my replacement to show up.

I'll be short: I didn't know this band in the seventies, I only knew the bandname. One day, a few years ago, I bought this album together with Turn of the cards and found them both great. Afterwards I bought all the albums of this interesting band. Turn... and Azure... are quite different in style, but in both the songs are fantastic. Azure d'Or may be a little more 'pop', still the melodies, the arrangements and the voices are just perfect for me. I even find it excellent that this band managed to produce this different style too. For some fans it's difficult to change along with the artists, I think, and that could be the reason this album isn't appreciated like Ashes are Burning or A song for All Seasons. It's true that albums, which came later, were weaker, but this one stands as a rock. Don't hesitate to buy it, you won't be disappointed.

Azure D'or is nearly always compared unfavorably to other Renaissance albums. I often find that people who listened to this album first liked it alot, if they liked the pop genre in which it was made. I was one of those people. I loved the album. I moved on to the others and loved them too, but it is short-sighted to condemn Azure D'or based on how it does or doesn't measure up to the earlier works. Anyone new to the group should know that before 1978, Renaissance was a classical-pop mix, with a bit of English folk, a bit of jazz, a bit of Elizabethan, etc., etc. It was an unusual sound and sophisticatedly crafted. After 1978, the composing was still out of the mainstream (far from punk and disco) but the production was more pop oriented and relied heavily on synthesizers. The music is generally very melodic, with beautiful harmonies. Some songs suffer from too many competing recording tracks, making a muddiness, but that is not true of the whole album. Annie, the lead singer, sounds great, and despite the difference from the earlier albums, the music is still special in its own way.

I still clearly remember my excitement in 1979 when I saw this album in the record store. The gorgeous cover convinced me that I was in for a treat along the lines of "Novella" or "A Song for all Seasons." I was so confident in Renaissance that I bought this without having heard a single track.Needless to say, I was disappointed."Azure D'Or" marks the beginning of the end of Renaissance. With this CD the balance of power in the band shifted from gifted guitarist Michael Dunford (the composer of nearly all of Renaissance's great music over their previous 5 albums) to bassist Jon Camp, who wanted to expand on the success of the band's hit "Northern Lights" (from "A Song for All Seasons") by pushing Renaissance into a more pop-oriented direction. The result? A collection of songs that work neither as pop nor as prog-rock. With her operatic 5-octave range, Annie Haslam was meant to sing epics like "Mother Russia" and "Ashes Are Burning," not little ditties like "Winter Tree." Even worse, the production sounds muddy and unfocussed -- a far cry from the crisp sonic splendour of earlier efforts.I give this album two stars since, despite its disastrous attempt to transform Renaissance into a pop group, tracks like "Forever Changing" and "The Flood at Lyons" still convey a sense of this band's power and lyrical beauty. And Annie Haslam's voice is lovely as always. I own this CD, and I suppose every die-hard Renaissance fan should have a copy. But if you're new to Renaissance, don't start here. I say go with "Prologue" and "Ashes Are Burning" first. If you want a sense of their later sound, stick to "A Song for All Seasons."

Renaissance is one of my favorite bands of all time. I bought this album when it first came out in 1979, and recently purchased the CD. It has remained one of my favorite albums. This is a transitional album for the band. It was the first album not to use an orchestra. This was due to the unionization of professional orchestral musicians. Using orchestras became too costly, instead synthesizers were used. Some fans had trouble with this, but I did not. This is also the first album not to have long songs. All of them are short in comparison to previous albums. In my opinion, this is a perfect album. There are no bad songs on the album. Although prior Renaissance albums contained great masterpieces, they also contained at least one terrible song. For example, my favorite Renaissance album is Song For All Seasons, but even it has the regrettable 'She is love'. I can listen to Azure d'Or without ever pressing the forward button. The masterpiece on this album is 'Golden Key'. The lyrics are great and describe a star who has sold out for fame and success. The song has a good mixture of softer music with louder, energetic music. In the Summer of 1979, I actually remember hearing 'Secret Mission' played once on the radio, which was unusual even then. 'The Discovery' is a memorable instrument. Usually, you do not remember instrumentals on albums, but I always remember this one. I like 'Jekyll and Hyde' because of the lyrics. It is about the psychology of 'Jekyll and Hyde'. Renaissance was never the same after this album. However, Renaissance is one of the unique bands in history, like the Doors, whose music is beyond and outside of the time period it was recorded. This means that their music sounds as fresh and extraordinary now as it did in the late 1970's.

1979's "Azure D'Or" was the last Renaissance album with the classic 70's line-up of Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford, Jon Camp, John Tout and Terry Sullivan, with both Tout and Sullivan leaving the band after the tour for this album ended. "Azure D'Or" also marks a turning point for the band in another way, as they created every single note for the album *without* any orchestral accompanyment, a long-standing trademark of the band (perhaps this was done as an attempt to adapt with the changing musical climate at the time? After all, punk and disco had just happened and all that...). This shift in musical direction resulted in a more keyboard-heavy sounding album, and some fans were disappointed with it. Even Renaissance themselves don't look back upon "Azure D'Or" with too much fondness! But let's be fair: while "Azure D'Or" may not be the band's finest acheivement, this is still an excellent album. Heck, it's got "Forever Changing" on it, EASILY one of the band's most dreamiest, beautiful songs ever (and it was co-authored by, surprise surprise, drummer Sullivan---way to go Terry!). Other winners include such solid songs as "Jekyll And Hyde", "The Winter Tree", "Golden Key", "Kalynda", the excellent instrumental "The Discovery", and the concluding "The Flood At Lyons". And, as always, Annie Haslam's lovely voice simply melts you, and the band's performances are superb. After "Azure D'Or", the remaining trio of Haslam, Dunford and Camp soldiered on as a very "revamped for the 80's" Renaissance, and released a couple of decent but unspectacular albums, "Camera Camera" and "Timeline", before stopping altogether until the reunion in 2001. So, "Azure D'Or" certainly marks the end of an important chapter in the career of this remarkable band, and, while not their best work, it's still a wonderful album that all diehard Renaissance fans should have in their collections.