Azure d'Or
By Renaissance
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Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Jekyll and Hyde 4:41
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cello
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- A2 The Winter Tree 3:05
- A3 Only Angels Have Wings 3:43
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vocals
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- A4 Golden Key 5:16
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mandolin
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moog taurus bass pedals
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- A5 Forever Changing 4:49
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classical guitar, autoharp
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moog taurus bass pedals, 12 string acoustic guitar
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glockenspiel, kalimba, timpani
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- B1 Secret Mission 5:02
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moog taurus bass pedals, electric guitar
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timpani, chimes, gong
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- B2 Kalynda (A Magical Isle) 3:43
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moog taurus bass pedals, electric guitar
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- B3 The Discovery 4:27
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classical guitar
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organ, electric piano
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moog taurus bass pedals, lead guitar
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- B4 Friends 3:32
- B5 The Flood at Lyons 4:57
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autoharp
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Mellotron
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moog taurus bass pedals
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timpani, chimes, xylophone
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- Total length: 43:15
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
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Review
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15 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Azure d'Or [p] 33 rpm
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Azure d'or 33 rpm
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Azure d'Or 33 rpm
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1988 CD CDTB 045
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2001 HDCD WPCR-10883
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Azure d'or CD Sized Album Replica, Remastered, SHM
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Azure d'Or Remastered
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Azure d'Or Paper/Cardboard Sleeve, Remastered
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Azure d'Or Bonus CD, Bonus DVD, Box Set, Remastered
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Azure d'Or 2022 Remaster Bonus Tracks, Digital file, Remastered, Streaming
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CD SV-657-A
20 Reviews
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A1
Jekyll and Hyde
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A2
The Winter Tree
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A3
Only Angels Have Wings
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A4
Golden Key
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A5
Forever Changing
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B1
Secret Mission
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B2
Kalynda (A Magical Isle)
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B3
The Discovery
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B4
Friends
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B5
The Flood at Lyons
Azure d'Or appeared a year after the relatively backward-looking A Song for All Seasons. Undoubtedly motivated by the UK chart success of that album's "Northern Lights", the band decided to double-down on accessibility with Azure d'Or. This is most obvious in the album's complete abandonment of fully-orchestrated accompaniments. The record is also devoid of longer-form tracks, whereas John Tout has replaced most of his virtuosic piano with cutting-edge synthesizers. Very "late-70's sounding" in both instrumentation and production. As for the vocals, Annie Haslam is still instantly recognizable, but her melodies emphasize the precious, art pop side of earlier Renaissance albums. The overall effect isn't hugely dissimilar from what Genesis was attempting several years earlier, with the album's warm synthscapes strongly recalling parts of Wind and Wuthering. Just don't be expecting anything on Azure d'Or that's as complex as "Eleventh Earl of Mar" or "One for the Vine"…
Being a devoted prog fan who was drawn to Renaissance for their intricate, classically-informed compositions, Azure d'Or is an obvious disappointment. All of those synths routinely distract from Haslem's gorgeous vocals and waste Tout's enormous talent. The shorter track lengths also leave less room for extended instrumental segments or unexpected melodic twists. Fortunately, almost all of the songs here avoid the disposability of mainstream radio pop: this isn't the same Renaissance that recorded Scheherazade, but they're still far more sophisticated than your typical New Wave-era band. Coupled with the fantastic vocal performances, this means that I'm less sour on Azure d'Or than most progheads. In particular, I consider it to be far closer in quality to the six LPs that immediately precede it than to either Camera Camera or Time-Line (both of which are rightfully skipped). If you can look past the dated synthesizers, and especially if you're also a fan of late-70's prog pop acts like Alan Parsons Project, Azure d'Or may even prove to be a pleasant surprise.
All of this makes Azure d'Or into a pleasant yet inessential component of my Renaissance collection. Not an album that I return to all that often, but still valuable for its handful of personal favorites. Here I'm referring mostly to "Golden Key", the fully-instrumental "The Discovery", and the closing "The Flood at Lyons", which also happen to be the album's three most ambitious tracks. Symphonic prog is clearly what Renaissance does best. The record's less traditional, art pop-leaning tracks are more of a mixed bag. "Jekyll and Hyde" gets the album off to a good start, but it's definitely the best of the bunch. Lead single "The Winter Tree" also appears to have its supporters, but I find that track to be frustratingly lightweight. And then there's the Jon Camp-sung "Only Angels Have Wings" and the sugary sweet "Kalynda (A Magical Isle)"- a pair of skippable tunes that shouldn't have made it out of the studio. Nothing on Azure d'Or is downright poor, but it's far less consistent than what listeners had come to expect from the band.
With an acceptable slate of (minor) highlights sitting alongside a comparable number of forgettable tracks, Azure d'Or settles in at a "merely good", 3.0-star rating. A worthwhile acquisition for established Renaissance fans, assuming they know what they're getting themselves into. Just make sure that you hold off on the album until you've thoroughly familiarized with everything the band released between Prologue and A Song for All Seasons.
5.8/10
Published
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Solid instrumentation and vocal contributions buttress Azure d'Or, Renaissance's 9th overall album and 7th featuring Annie Haslam. It all goes down very well and it's not like they took the direction of the Abba-esque "Northern Lights" into either AOR or disco here. It all retains that sense of the stage which Haslam and the band still command attention. The instrumentation is not nearly as dense as the pre-1978 output and there's not the same sure-fire winner of a song like the lead track of A Song for All Seasons here on Azure d'Or. That said I do enjoy most all of the work. Not enough to really get so much out of a nearly 2-hour long expanded 2022 remaster in one go but certainly to enjoy the highlights.
Published
This would be the last album from the classic Renaissance lineup; after this John Tout and Terence Sullivan would quit, and the remainder would reconfigure their sound for the much-derided Camera Camera and Time-Line albums.
The band are also attempting to change and evolve their sound here - but to my ears they do so more successfully. Yes, it's a departure from the sound which had largely served them well from Prologue to A Song For All Seasons, but they'd been ploughing that particular furrow to exhaustion; it was time to evolve or die, and though the classic line-up would ultimately take the latter route after this, they do make an honest bid at the former.
Synths are a bit more prominent, songs are shorter and tighter, and in general a lot of the features which had crept into the music on A Song For All Seasons are dialled up significantly. Another factor is that Michael Dunford is no longer so omnipresent when it comes to the songwriting; from Turn of the Cards he'd at least a co-writing credit on all of Renaissance's songs to Novella; and the only songs on Prologue and Ashes Are Burning which didn't have a Dunford credit on them were old Jim McCarty pieces left over from his tenure in the band, and the only song on A Song For All Seasons which didn't was a Jon Camp piece.
From Novella onwards, Camp had been contributing more intensively to the songwriting, but usually in collaboration with Dunford; here, however, the Camp/Dunford writing partnership is more or less dissolved, save for The Flood At Lyons where Dunford provides music and Camp does the lyrics. For the rest of the album, aside from Sullivan's Forever Changing, it's either Jon Camp pieces (with lyrics by Camp himself) or new Dunford/Thatcher numbers.
Camp even takes on lead vocals on Only Angels Have Wings; by this point it had become rare for Renaissance to feature male lead vocals, since they'd realised what an absolute gift they had in the form of Annie Haslam and, quite sensibly, didn't want to mess with that. Aside from that departure, though, the material here doesn't feel as disjointed as one might expect, with all the songs fitting into the general atmosphere of the album and the album itself representing an entirely acceptable development of the band's sound, adapting to a new era without dispensing with their spirit.
One can imagine Renaissance continuing into the 1980s developing this particular musical strand further and further - but the departure of Tout and Sullivan and the end of their old record deal put paid to that, and perhaps made the more radical changes heralded by Camera Camera seem necessary for the sake of survival. Yes, it's less orchestral, but with this Renaissance proved that they didn't need the orchestra to hand to work their magic - and there's ample evidence here that their prog chops remained sharp even in the context of shorter-form compositions. (Just listen to the brisk instrumental The Discovery if you don't believe me.) Azure d'Or is often left out of the classic run of Renaissance albums, and I feel like that's an injustice - it's at least as solid as A Song For All Seasons, which I'd consider it a companion piece two since it's the other album did in that general style.
The band are also attempting to change and evolve their sound here - but to my ears they do so more successfully. Yes, it's a departure from the sound which had largely served them well from Prologue to A Song For All Seasons, but they'd been ploughing that particular furrow to exhaustion; it was time to evolve or die, and though the classic line-up would ultimately take the latter route after this, they do make an honest bid at the former.
Synths are a bit more prominent, songs are shorter and tighter, and in general a lot of the features which had crept into the music on A Song For All Seasons are dialled up significantly. Another factor is that Michael Dunford is no longer so omnipresent when it comes to the songwriting; from Turn of the Cards he'd at least a co-writing credit on all of Renaissance's songs to Novella; and the only songs on Prologue and Ashes Are Burning which didn't have a Dunford credit on them were old Jim McCarty pieces left over from his tenure in the band, and the only song on A Song For All Seasons which didn't was a Jon Camp piece.
From Novella onwards, Camp had been contributing more intensively to the songwriting, but usually in collaboration with Dunford; here, however, the Camp/Dunford writing partnership is more or less dissolved, save for The Flood At Lyons where Dunford provides music and Camp does the lyrics. For the rest of the album, aside from Sullivan's Forever Changing, it's either Jon Camp pieces (with lyrics by Camp himself) or new Dunford/Thatcher numbers.
Camp even takes on lead vocals on Only Angels Have Wings; by this point it had become rare for Renaissance to feature male lead vocals, since they'd realised what an absolute gift they had in the form of Annie Haslam and, quite sensibly, didn't want to mess with that. Aside from that departure, though, the material here doesn't feel as disjointed as one might expect, with all the songs fitting into the general atmosphere of the album and the album itself representing an entirely acceptable development of the band's sound, adapting to a new era without dispensing with their spirit.
One can imagine Renaissance continuing into the 1980s developing this particular musical strand further and further - but the departure of Tout and Sullivan and the end of their old record deal put paid to that, and perhaps made the more radical changes heralded by Camera Camera seem necessary for the sake of survival. Yes, it's less orchestral, but with this Renaissance proved that they didn't need the orchestra to hand to work their magic - and there's ample evidence here that their prog chops remained sharp even in the context of shorter-form compositions. (Just listen to the brisk instrumental The Discovery if you don't believe me.) Azure d'Or is often left out of the classic run of Renaissance albums, and I feel like that's an injustice - it's at least as solid as A Song For All Seasons, which I'd consider it a companion piece two since it's the other album did in that general style.
Published
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Goodbye orchestra, hello to more synths and shorter-length tunes. But this is still very much prog, like art-pop with extra wank on every instrument except on the guitars. That doesn't happen too often. And honestly to me this ain't no downgrade; kinda refreshing in a way.
"Jekyll and Hyde" may not be an epic opener, but it's still quirky in arrangements and the time sigs get tricky at times. Annie hasn't changed her tone whatsoever, dishing out those folky high notes despite the more electric sound of the music. There's some pretty balladry to be had as well, especially "The Winter Tree", a real beauty.
While the opener and closer "The Flood at Lyons" are cool and keep the prog-flag flying, it's the stretch of middle tracks that's really floating my boat. "Golden Key" has some mysterious aura to it, "Forever Changing" winds up sounding like proto-dream-pop towards the end (love that one), and "Secret Mission" ups the pace but throws in some cool, unexpected chord progressions towards the middle of it. And yeah, shout out to "Kalynda (A Magical Isle)", you sweet little bugger.
It's not all ace, as "Only Angels Have Wings" is clunky all around, and "The Discovery" is an instrumental that proves that the band weren't ready for 'rockin' out'. But there's way too many good tracks on this thing to ignore. While I can understand those looking for mega-orchestral epics ain't gonna be down with this, I enjoy the evolution the group takes here, way more than I was expecting.
"Jekyll and Hyde" may not be an epic opener, but it's still quirky in arrangements and the time sigs get tricky at times. Annie hasn't changed her tone whatsoever, dishing out those folky high notes despite the more electric sound of the music. There's some pretty balladry to be had as well, especially "The Winter Tree", a real beauty.
While the opener and closer "The Flood at Lyons" are cool and keep the prog-flag flying, it's the stretch of middle tracks that's really floating my boat. "Golden Key" has some mysterious aura to it, "Forever Changing" winds up sounding like proto-dream-pop towards the end (love that one), and "Secret Mission" ups the pace but throws in some cool, unexpected chord progressions towards the middle of it. And yeah, shout out to "Kalynda (A Magical Isle)", you sweet little bugger.
It's not all ace, as "Only Angels Have Wings" is clunky all around, and "The Discovery" is an instrumental that proves that the band weren't ready for 'rockin' out'. But there's way too many good tracks on this thing to ignore. While I can understand those looking for mega-orchestral epics ain't gonna be down with this, I enjoy the evolution the group takes here, way more than I was expecting.
Published
The end of the classic era is quite close for this legednary band.Renaissance stop using a back-up orchestra and the orchestral elements in ''Azure d'Or'' are a result of overdubs, also all tracks are quite short to satisfy more listeners, although the trademark sound of super-elegant Symphonic Rock is still apparent, even if slightly diluted by some poppy interactions.Musically the mood is still romantic and ethereal with acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards prevailing, featuring evident British Folk vibes, Classical elements and Pop Rock choruses, great vocals by Haslam and decent songwriting with smooth interplays and solid orchestrations.This was the last album with Tout and Sullivan and, following their departure, Renaissance became more and more poppier in the upcoming years.
Worldwide LP/cassette on Warner Bros. Records, 8-track/LP on Sire for USA/Canada
Several LP/CD reissues
Several LP/CD reissues
Published
This gets a bad rap, as it comes during a time in which the band was about to go into a sort of free-fall. Perhaps some signs are there - they simplify their songwriting a bit and replace the orchestra with synth. Plus, they've stopped doing the longform stuff that made them famous, with the longest track here being a mere five minutes long....pschaww!! But I like the tunes here more than the last two albums, particularly "The Winter Tree" (a B-level song that Haslam elevates into something special, as she so often does), and the mini-epic "Flood at Lyons". Real good bass playing on this album, I'd never really noticed how fluid Camp's playing is. A minor gem.
Published
Renaissance's ninth album Azure d'Or shows the band moving onto bit more restrained material. The album features no epic 10-minute songs and generally has a slightly more streamlined style than usual, with maximum focus on catchy melodies and not as much proggy madness. Arrangement-wise, the lush orchestra has been replaced by somewhat less impressive 70's synths, which could be argued to be another step back.
But despite these changes, you can still recognize the band as the same Renaissance as before. Annie Haslam's vocals are still a strong lead element. The songwriting is varied and vibrant, and there is enough imagination in the music that it's worth listening. You could consider it to be just another Renaissance album, except only consisting of shorter, more pop-oriented songs... and possibly a little bit of filler.
While Azure d'Or may fall short of being essential listening, it's still fairly endearing, talented music. Prog pop with heart.
But despite these changes, you can still recognize the band as the same Renaissance as before. Annie Haslam's vocals are still a strong lead element. The songwriting is varied and vibrant, and there is enough imagination in the music that it's worth listening. You could consider it to be just another Renaissance album, except only consisting of shorter, more pop-oriented songs... and possibly a little bit of filler.
While Azure d'Or may fall short of being essential listening, it's still fairly endearing, talented music. Prog pop with heart.
Published
Very surprised...some good music here..! 1979 is waaay late for this previously folk/prog outfit to still be releasing music in a somewhat hostile "new wave" environment when most of their contemporaries had (..maybe wisely) faded out and disappeared. The orchestral instrumentation of the earlier Lp's has been replaced with a string synth sound here, and it actually works a lot better than you'd expect. Some elements of their earlier folk/prog sound remain...but mostly this is heavily leaning toward late 70's pop. Not a masterwork...but a reasonable attempt to move with the changing music scene with a handful of very good tracks among the so-so stuff.
"Jekyll and Hyde", "Only Angels Have Wings" & "Golden Key" are excellent.. I can't fault them, a lot better than I expected...
"Jekyll and Hyde", "Only Angels Have Wings" & "Golden Key" are excellent.. I can't fault them, a lot better than I expected...
Published
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Catalog
19 Apr 2024
18 Apr 2024
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A1
Jekyll and Hyde
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A2
The Winter Tree
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A3
Only Angels Have Wings
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A4
Golden Key
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A5
Forever Changing
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B1
Secret Mission
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B2
Kalynda (A Magical Isle)
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B3
The Discovery
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B4
Friends
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B5
The Flood at Lyons
12 Apr 2024
7 Apr 2024
4 Apr 2024
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1
Jekyll and Hyde (2022 Remaster)
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2
The Winter Tree (2022 Remaster)
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3
Only Angels Have Wings (2022 Remaster)
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4
Golden Key (2022 Remaster)
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5
Forever Changing (2022 Remaster)
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6
Secret Mission (2022 Remaster)
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7
Kalynda (A Magical Isle) (2022 Remaster)
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8
The Discovery (2022 Remaster)
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9
Friends (2022 Remaster)
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10
The Flood at Lyons (2022 Remaster)
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11 Island of Avalon (2022 Remaster)
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12 Jekyll and Hyde (Single Version, 2022 Remaster)
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13 Jekyll and Hyde (Stereo Remix)
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14 The Winter Tree (Stereo Remix)
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15 Only Angels Have Wings (Stereo Remix)
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16 Golden Key (Stereo Remix)
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17 Forever Changing (Stereo Remix)
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18 Secret Mission (Stereo Remix)
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19 Kalynda (A Magical Isle) (Stereo Remix)
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20 The Discovery (Stereo Remix)
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21 Friends (Stereo Remix)
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22 The Flood at Lyons (Stereo Remix)
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23 Island of Avalon (Stereo Remix)
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24 Friends (Extended Version)
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25 Jekyll and Hyde (Single Version, Stereo Remix)
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26 Kalynda (A Magical Isle) (Early Version)
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27 Forever Changing (Acoustic Demo)
31 Mar 2024
30 Mar 2024
30 Mar 2024
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A1
Jekyll and Hyde
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A2
The Winter Tree
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A3
Only Angels Have Wings
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A4
Golden Key
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A5
Forever Changing
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B1
Secret Mission
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B2
Kalynda (A Magical Isle)
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B3
The Discovery
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B4
Friends
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B5
The Flood at Lyons
18 Mar 2024
12 Mar 2024
10 Mar 2024
9 Mar 2024
26 Feb 2024
8 Feb 2024
31 Jan 2024
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