A Song for All Seasons

Artist: Renaissance
Label: Wea International
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075992595926
EAN: 0075992595926
ASIN: B0000073B3

Release Date: 1999-02-09

A Song for All Seasons

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Tracks:

Opening Out
Day of the Dreamer
Closer Than Yesterday
Kindness (At the End)
Back Home Once Again
She Is Love
Northern Lights
Song for All Seasons

Album Description

The esteemed prog rock act's 1978 album for the Sire label. Eight tracks, including 'Opening Out' and 'The Day Of The Dreamer'.

Album Details

Renaissance's 1978 release for Sire records. Features eight tracks, among them 'Back Home Once Again', the theme from the U.K. T.V. series 'The Paper Lads', plus 'Day of the Dreamer', 'Northern Lights' & more. Liner notes include the lyrics to all tracks.

Customer Reviews:

Classic album.......2001-11-01

Though "Novella" is overall a more consistently strong album, "Song for All Seasons" has more variety due to it having 9 songs, rather than 5. The longest songs - the title track and "Day of the Dreamer" - provide the rich, intricate stylings that Renaissance fans enjoy. "Kindness (at the End)" features the occasional singing of bassist Jon Camp. "Closer Now Than Yesterday" is a pleasant acoustic track. "Northern Lights" is a more pop-oriented track, but is still interesting and very appealing.

Overall the album has a bit of a Genesis (circa 1977-78) sound to it, partly due to producer David Hentschel. And that is a good thing.

This isn't the last great Renaissance though! The following album ("Azure d'Or") is great too, though having shorter songs...

2.5 stars.......2001-03-06

After the deathly serious "Novella," Renaissance returned with a noble, but ultimately uneven effort in "A Song For All Seasons."

Interestingly the albums two strongest tracks were songs that oozed mainstream pop appeal. "Back Home Once Again," and the catchy as all get out "Northern Lights" were concise and memorable songs that should have been huge hit singles ("Northern Lights" was a top ten single in England) and could have brought the band a wider audience had things worked out right.

The rest of the album is a mixed bag and like its predecessor "Novella" has some pleasant moments, but ones that fall far short of the groups "Turn of the Cards," and "Scheherzade" heyday.

2.5 stars.

The last great Renaissance album still holds up today.......2000-09-30

This 1978 album by the British progressive (nee classical) rock Renaissance represents some major changes that probably explain in part why I consider this the last really good album by the group. There are eight tracks on the album, a radical departure for a group that had averaged only five tracks per album on its previous three, understandable since the hallmark of Renaissance was always their length set pieces. On "Song For All Seasons" only the title track really qualifies as such. The group also regresses somewhat, reintroducing electric guitars as well as synthesizers into the production mix and actually hiring an outside producer to work on the album (David Hentschel had produced the early work of Elton John).

There are two tracks that make this album worth owning. The first is "Northern Lights," a "single" that represented the group's biggest success in terms of radio play in Britain and their most popular "short" song since "Carpet of the Sun." The song is marked by a final chorus wherein Annie Haslam harmonizes with herself, a sound of which I never get tired of hearing. Similarly the title song, which closes the album, concludes with Haslam's soaring voice holding strong against the thunderous final rush of the orchestra. It is perhaps Renaissance's most symphonic song and if the orchestrations seem somewhat different from previous Renaissance efforts and yet somehow hauntingly familiar, it may well be because they were done by Louis Clark, who did similar work for the Electric Light Orchestra before losing his soul and doing the infamous "Hooked on Classics" albums.

Ah, the memories!.......2000-08-08

In the summer of 1978, I wanted to go see Renaissance at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver. They were on their Novella tour. I went and got the album and fell in love with a voice. Then I fell in love with a sound. Then I fell in love with a concept. I think A Song For All Seasons was their best, well it is my favorite outside of the Live at Carnegie Hall album. It had the right mix of long orchestral selections with some short tuneful melodies. It just struck the right balance. My copy of this album has alas, been long worn out from overplaying. This was the soundtrack for my junior and senior year of high school.

I did manage to see Renaissance the following summer at Red Rocks for the A Song for All Seasons Tour. It was overwhelming! The music, the setting, it was perfect. I remember that Annie Haslam was having problems breathing and hitting the high notes because of the altitude. I also remember that it was just a perfect evening. We were pretty close so we got a great view of the band and we were just amazed at the musicianship and the complex interplay of the band. Of course I had gotten home pretty late and got in trouble with my parents, but it was all worth it.

I think I'll go and play that album now.

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