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Curved Air.
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Gladwin
Gladwin
402 posts

Re: Curved Air.
May 16, 2013, 12:48
IanB wrote:
I should go have another listen. They didn't do much for when I gave them a go way back when. I have them filed away in my head with Sky and the Moraz era Moodies. What is essential?

You do need to be in the right frame of mind. Kind of having enjoyed Mike Oldfield's Moonlight Shadow or To France, or one of Sandy Denny's less folksy solo epics, and feeling yourself wishing there was something a bit...more.

I don't much go for the first two albums with Jane Relf on vocals myself, but there are a lot of people who do. My own recommendation would be to try Ashes Are Burning (1973) or Turn of the Cards (1974) first, and if those appeal work forwards through Scheherazade and Other Stories (1975) and Novella (1977). After that you have a choice, as far as the prime period stuff goes. Either go back to Prologue (1972) which was the first album with the new line-up, or on to A Song for All Seasons (1978) which of course is the one with The Hit, i.e. Northern Lights.

You do have to put up with a few potential irritants as a Renaissance fan. For a start, there's Annie Haslam's Julie Andrews delivery, which on occasion will make you roll your eyes. There's also a few lyrical clunkers from Betty Thatcher. This, for example, from Can You Hear Me (from Novella, 1977).

"Fly like a song, fly while you're singing.
A song without you is a bird without winging."

Ouch!

But it's lovely stuff in the main. The 'classical' elements don't intrude anywhere near as much as you might expect, either.
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