Turn of the Cards [Import]

Renaissance | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 30, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Repertoire
• ASIN: B000000132
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,846 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

1994 reissue on the Repertoire label of the prog icon's 1974album, originally released on the BTM label. Six tracks, including 'Running Hard' and 'Mother Russia'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A desert island record:for the lovers of ROMANTIC BEST PROG, December 8, 2002

By 

Lethe "lor68" (Milan, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turn of the Cards (Audio CD)

My personal favourite album by Renaissance, I choose this one along with "Scheherazade" and "Ashes are burning", followed by their first symphonic albums with melodic and pop colours: "Novella" and "A song for all season's"(these records having a few weak moments and a lot of memorable ones!!).

"Turn of the cards" is a poetical and monumental romantic album too, equal to the best Yes albums and sometimes giving something more...well the first track "RUNNING HARD" is characterized by a fantastic epic piano intro, followed by the magical introduction by Annie Haslam, who performed according to her finest voice-tone ever!! A great performance and absolutely flawless too..."Think of you" is a sweet song, like a "fairy-tale", while "Things I don't understand" is characterized by the final angelic voice's breakthrough, after the last symphonic excursus at the piano, enriched with the outstanding colors of Annie's voice, whose abilty to harmonize the melody is enormous and wonderful as well!! "Black fame" and the arrangement of Albinoni's Adagio ("Cold is being") are worth songs and an excellent interlude towards the final mini-suite "Mother Russia", which is enriched with amazing themes and the story of a famous russian dissident as well, even if the lyrics aren't always inspired (well the focuse is more on the instrumental performance than on the lyrics,nevertheless, is anyway flawless)

Highly recommended!! Absolutely a must have album from Renaissance ...

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and Brooding Never Sounded Sweeter, August 22, 2000

By 

"alvino1" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turn of the Cards (Audio CD)

Turn of the Cards was the third Renaissance album I ever purchased, A Song For All Seasons and Ashes Are Burning being the first two. This album takes a significant turn from the airy, dreamlike tracks featured on the earlier Ashes and the later Seasons LPs. On Turn of the Cards, Renaissance seems to provide an alter ego to Ashes, its immediate forerunner; the tunes, while equally grandiose and expansive, are much darker and more brooding in both music and lyrics. Some might describe this entire album as downright depressing, and this isn't entirely inaccurate. The haunting tone of the album however, doesn't detract from the pure beauty of either the whole or its individual parts, as Turn is certainly a masterpiece in its own right and offers listeners a level of excellence that the band, unfortunately, never managed to equal in any of their subsequent albums (although A Song for All Seasons comes very close).

Each song taken individually, "Running Hard" is probably closest to the sound that most Renaissance fans will recognize from the lighter Ashes. Still pensive and introspective, the song is about as upbeat as this album gets and starts out with a truly stunning piano solo that builds to a soaring splash of sound. Near the song's end, a similar climax drags the listener back down to earth with both lyrics and a style of music that evoke a palpable sense of loss. "Things I Don't Understand" is a whirlwind of instrumental flourish and tempo shifts, with a driving beat throughout and an ending that ultimately renders calm from chaos, a true Renaissance hallmark. Here, the band pulls out all the musical stops and leaves practically no sound or style unheard.

"Black Flame", along with "Mother Russia", is perhaps the album's darkest piece and musically, easily its most spare. It is also one of its most triumphant, hypnotically leading the listener deeper and deeper toward despair until the last chilling - and they are chilling - notes expire. "Mother Russia" itself, is probably the album's best-known track, and with good reason. The story of Soviet novelist Alexandr Solzenytzin's internment in a Siberian workcamp ("banished for his written thoughts, starving for his fame...") is made all the more real by the effective use of authentic Russian instruments and musical styles. True to form, Renaissance paints a very vivid picture of the psychological and physical abandonment experienced by the subject and we can almost see him standing silently in the deep snow covering a barren and endless northern landscape.

The remaining two tracks, "I Think of You" (an ethereal but lonesome filler piece) and "Cold is Being" (nothing short of a dirge) are somewhat second-tier offerings, but only when considered alongside the album's more powerful songs. Even so, they do not detract from the overall superiority of Renaissance's darkest, and most weighty, production.

Listeners who've never experienced the thrill of Renaissance would be best served by purchasing both Turn of the Cards and Ashes Are Burning, and listening to them back-to-back. Although these albums were produced within a year of each other, they represent different sides of the same lush and amazingly complex coin that long-time Renaissance fans continue to treasure and use as the standard by which all other so-called art-rock groups are measured.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best showcase of the glorious voice of Annie Haslam, September 27, 2000

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Turn of the Cards (Audio CD)

"Turn of the Cards" is my favorite Renaissance album, although as I listen to them all in order I am struck by how it also perhaps the most atypical example of their progressive (nee classical) rock. Taken as a whole these songs are relatively unadorned. "I Think of You" is a relatively simple piece, ending with one of those wonderful high notes by Annie Haslam followed by some nice harpsicord work by John Tout. Likewise "Black Flame" begins with the simple elegance of an acoustic guitar (a reminder that the forthcoming "Unplugged" Renaissance album is not really breaking new ground for the group).

Of the two set pieces, "Running Hard" is most decidedly in this simpler vain, which has the overall effect of better showcasing Haslam's glorious voice. The other showpiece, "Mother Russia," shows that the group was paying attention to Russian dissidents (the song is dedicated to Alexander Solzhenitsyn) as much as they were Russian classical musicians and offers an emphasis on percussion quite usual for a Renaissance song in the driving conclusion. Again, Haslam's voice soars over and above, as well as through, the rhythmic progression of the music as proves that she does not need to be singing actual words to contribute to the beauty of a song.

Perhaps it is insightful to recall that in terms of Michael Dunsford's music, "Turn of the Cards" is the album that proceeds his most ambitious project, the Scheherazade cantanta. Whatever the reason, this is the Renaissance album that best showcases the vocal talents of singer Annie Haslam.