Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - Stranger In Us All
Rainbow have been one of those bands that I've always been interested in. In fact, 'Gates Of Babylon' from the 'Long Live Rock And Roll' album would probably make into a list of my top 10 favorite songs. After his most recent departure from the Purple camp, Ritchie has resurrected the Rainbow name. The rest of the band are a group of musicians I'm not familiar with.
I haven't played this album very much. Maybe it's because I know that Ritchie is capable of doing so much better. Most of the tracks are competent enough songs of the type you expect from latter day Rainbow. If it wasn't for the presence of the Man In Black himself this could be a Rainbow covers band trying to write Rainbow songs by numbers.
A couple of tracks do deserve a special mention. 'Hunting Humans' is the best song on the album. I would love to hear Cozy Powell playing drums on this one. At the other end of the scale is 'Hall Of The Mountain King', which is based upon the classical piece of music of the same name. This may have seemed like a good idea, but the result is almost laughable.
I really hate having to be so cruel to one of my heroes, but I expect this album to be relegated to the bargain bins very shortly. To make matters even worse for Ritchie, his former colleagues in Deep Purple have just released the best Purple album in a very long time, with Steve Morse on guitar.
Rating : 4
