Repertoire
1981
Camera Camera
About This Album
Renaissance's Camera Camera is one of the all-time "Who do they think they're fooling?" albums. Released in 1981 on former manager Miles Copeland's unassailably hip label IRS Records, Camera Camera features suavely cool graphics on the cover (along with singer Annie Haslam in a flirty, kicky pose) and brightly colored clothes on the slimmed-down lineup. Seriously, have a gander at these clothes if you ever see a copy of this album: the old phrase "mutton dressed as lamb" does not even begin to describe the sight of the formerly sedate and certainly old-enough-to-know-better Michael Dunford and Jon Camp in patchwork pastels and black and white vertical stripes, respectively, and although Haslam is gorgeous enough to almost make it work, even she can't pull off that hair, not to mention the ghastly nameplate necklace. So anyway, the whole idea is to make believe that Renaissance is a quirky new wave trio (hired hand keyboardist Peter Gosling and drummer Peter Barron aren't pictured, possibly because there wasn't enough of a wardrobe budget for them) and not the progressive rock mainstays they had been since 1972's Prologue. Again, who do they think they're fooling?

Now comes the hard-to-believe part: Camera Camera is actually a surprisingly good record.
Track List (try tracks 1,2 and 8)

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