| | Full Review | Ratings (255) |
Give your Rating |
| 0.0 | Your own inadequacies have twisted your mind into a pretzel that needs a bit of salt. | April 16th 20 | This is a tough rating for me. I'll praise Tim Henson till the day I die and will always laud his willingness to forge ahead in merging pop hooks/melodies with mathy fretwork, but Renaissance lost a bit in the process. The mixing isn't perfect and the drums are not nearly as tight as in later Polyphia releases. While there are some truly superb cuts on Renaissance, the record has some flaws that hold it back.
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| 4.0 excellent | Bootface | November 25th 17 | I'll say this first: I like this album far more than most of the people posting in this thread. I
agree that the production is too compressed. As a guitarist, I learned that a decent way to get a
tone if you have shitty equipment is to use scooped mids. It seems like they went that route even
though they didn't have to. The album and tones sound good for the most part, but there are times
where they could definitely use more clarity and less harshness.
The album suffers from a lag in the middle. At this point I just skip through a lot of the middle
songs. They lack the cool parts that you'll find in Culture Shock, Ivory or Amour for example. If
anything, the middle songs are just in a different style that I don't like as much - less fun,
more serious? Polyphia excel at fun and making ear candy, which they've seemed to have learned for
the most part with their newer EP.
The songs could use more depth. While some of them are great, they suffer from inconsistency,
where some parts are just boring compared to the rest of the song - think the bridge of Paradise.
And then, like I said, most of the early/middle part of the album. It would have been great as 8
songs. Although, on a personal note, I find that most albums are better when you skip the filler
and I think the 40 minute standard is bullshit that leads to filler.
So those were my criticisms. This is still a great album. There are insanely catchy parts, great
guitar work, and it is damned easy to dance to.
Recommended: Culture Shock, Ivory, Amour, Crush
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| 4.5 superb | forbes72 | April 23rd 17 | An excellent album. Light and Crush are great in particular.
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| 4.0 excellent | robkoi | April 8th 16 | An extremely joyful record with songs so catchy that it's almost impossible getting them out of your head.
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| 3.0 good | BlackTaxi2d | March 19th 16 | i am also torn, the guitar work is obviously very good, but the drumming is just so bad and the pop melodies seem forced. the drummer hits that silly open hi-hat dance beat more than once and has no creative rhythms or fills. the band's social media presence indicates they have completely sold out - but i still find myself coming back to this. it's friendly, but i wouldn't spend too much time on it
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| 4.0 excellent | MikeBG | June 26th 24 |
| 4.0 excellent | Shwany | January 13th 23 |
| 2.0 poor | bmelt | December 23rd 22 |
| 3.5 great | Simon K. STAFF | October 22nd 22 |
| 3.5 great | AGC | June 21st 22 |
| 3.0 good | MrSu | October 26th 21 |
| 3.0 good | n3zar | September 15th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Jerrad | August 30th 21 |
| 4.5 superb | Wj2006 | January 25th 21 |
| 4.5 superb | Mac | April 6th 20 |
| 3.5 great | Uzumaki | November 11th 19 |
| 3.5 great | zuzek | August 10th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Moraff | June 30th 19 |
| 3.5 great | josh | June 10th 19 |
| 3.5 great | MO | May 24th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | Vlexis | April 8th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | ARDCWE | March 30th 19 |
| 3.5 great | murphA | January 18th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | Josh | January 13th 19 |
| 5.0 classic | rare114 | October 26th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Jadmin | October 22nd 18 |
| 2.5 average | pixmpy | February 13th 18 |
| 3.0 good | Elevon | December 2nd 17 |
| 3.5 great | brunch | October 13th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | CygnusX1 | September 8th 17 |
| 5.0 classic | nbats | August 21st 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | evn | April 22nd 17 |
| 1.5 very poor | matteo36 | February 27th 17 |
| 3.5 great | tcarafi | February 20th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Brett W | January 25th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Prole | January 22nd 17 |
| 2.5 average | El Olam | December 11th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Omeggia | December 7th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | ian b. | November 20th 16 |
| 2.5 average | Ulshad | November 11th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | Thor | October 27th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Nishe | October 12th 16 |
| 3.5 great | MIST | September 27th 16 |
| 3.5 great | hadriel | September 20th 16 |
| 3.5 great | oDjento | September 18th 16 |
| 3.0 good | jmh886 | August 9th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | dmp3131 | July 30th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | PG2001 | July 14th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | xHit | June 8th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | JJKeys | May 15th 16 |
| 3.0 good | gilly | May 12th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Elvis | March 26th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | oldsoul | March 21st 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | YaDig | March 20th 16 |
| 3.0 good | maddin | March 20th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | trilo | March 18th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | CutMan | March 14th 16 |
| 3.0 good | scx | March 13th 16 |
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