Renaissance
Turn Of The Cards
Esoteric/Cherry Red
8/10

By Decibel Report - Mar 31, 2020

Turn Of The Cards has often been considered as one of Renaissance's most accomplished releases. A band of many talents, the focal point being the rounded, almost porcelaneous glow of Annie Haslam’s purity of voice as she telescopically reaches and holds onto notes with a seemingly effortless grip very few vocalists can match. 

The U.K. folk crossover scene at the time of this original recording, for those who listen deeper, had a bounty of homegrown female vocalist in Sandy Denny, Maddy Prior, June Tabor, Beverley Martyn, Mandy Morton, Linda Thompson and more delivering their individual and singular voices. And with her multi-octave range, Annie Haslam could nail a note at any distance; never over-shooting or falling short.

Blending opposites into harmony, the staccato swing of Things I Don’t Understand - an older band composition refined - and the sweeping stride of Running Hard elaborates how Renaissance progressively shaped compositions. They captured and fired the imaginations of their cultured audience with Haslam syncopating her pure scat and elegantly changing key in a rollercoaster of fluent vocal exercises.

The swoop and occasional bombast of this group’s consummate classical flourishes are like a shapeshifting murmuration of sound. Their dramatic duelling of acoustic and electric instrumentation produced one of the first orchestral rock recordings on this thrilling and timeless album. 

Confident in their evolving sonic spectrum, darker elements surface on Black Flame and the epic fugue of Mother Russia adding a textured depth led by John Touts’s masterful keyboards, Michael Dunford’s deft guitar play with Jon Camp and Terry Sullivan’s boundless ballast.

Throw in a star cameo turn by Wishbone Ash’s Andy Powell on Ashes Are Burning on the bonus disc Live At The Academy Of Music, with a 25 piece orchestra, and revel in this delightfully collected deluxe symphonic masterpiece.

This wonderfully curated clamshell box set includes:

A NEW EXPANDED 4 DISC (3CD / 1 DVD) CLAMSHELL BOX SET OF THE LEGENDARY 1974 ALBUM BY RENAISSANCE, “TURN OF THE CARDS”

• FEATURING TWENTY BONUS TRACKS DRAWN FROM A NEWLY MIXED CONCERT PERFORMANCE AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC IN NEW YORK IN MAY 1974, A NEW 5.1 SURROUND SOUND MIX OF THE ALBUM & PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MATERIAL

• INCLUDES AN ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET WITH NEW ESSAY FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH ANNIE HASLAM, TERRY SULLIVAN AND JON CAMP