Scheherazade And Other Stories - Renaissance (1975)
There are lots of things one might associate with prog rock, but I think one of the most common is wild, blaring, minutes-long guitar solos.
People who love the prog sound because they wanna hear Robert Fripp or Steve Howe carry on will be quite disappointed by Renaissance. While they were about as ambitious a prog band as you’ll find, wanting to push the envelope as far as they about that kind of art was possible with a rock band setup, they did it with piano and acoustic guitar, adding symphonic elements and the soaring vocals of Annie Haslam.
This record came in the middle of their string of engaging and grandiose albums in this vein. The first side of the record is gorgeous, piano-driven folk rock as good as anything their more famous peers were doing.
The second side is an epic 9-part exploration of the themes of One Thousand and One Nights which features the band playing along with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Each of the sections of the epic has writing credits by different combinations of the bandmembers, although in typical 70s rock fashion the one person who gets no composition credit is Haslam, whose voice is probably the biggest creative contribution. As a result, it maybe doesn’t sound as cohesive as you might expect. The band plays excellently together, though, so you don’t notice too much.
It’s a remarkable record, and partially remarkable for just how good it is despite not being very well-known.
