#2734 Renaissance - Renaissance

I love prog. Proggy prog prog.

Those rippling piano runs, a Renaissance signature, are in their purest form here.

Prog gets knocked for intellectualizing rock with classical scaffolding, but the best classical was a gutpunch, the rock of its era, slicing to the emotional centers. And that's the side of quote//unquote classical you get here, that hypnosis by myriad notes, that jazzy bassline rambling, that surrender to sheer density, with those rock and roll backbeat shortcuts to what-you-need. Those ghostly vocals, reaching out for Radiohead songs still so long in the future

It's all very pretty, all strangely outside the hand of man, a more-mysterious version of everything good about early Genesis, which is to say very good indeed.

Jettison ye notions of coolness and you'll find something that people worked very hard on, trying to make the best songs ever, and coming surprisingly close. A swirling, euphoric masterpiece of weightlessly arty music 4.5/5