DIFFICULT TO CURE

1981 - a very fertile year for rock! Following their last album "Difficult to Cure" came as a relief and a revelation to Rainbow fans, having taken on the brilliant young vocalist Joe Lynn Turner this album rates as my favourite post - "Rising" effort by the band - sound quality, song quality, and the addition of Bob Rondinelli on drums, Ritchie sounds very very pleased indeed with his "new" band! - even elaborating big-time on his classical aspirations in the shape of an amazing tribute to Van Beethoven on the title track to the tune of the "Ninth" symphony. This will interest Prog fans I'm sure, but there are some great songs that accompany this little masterpiece!

"I Surrender" was the big hit from this album, the liquid tongue of JLT sliding round this one with ease, an extremely catchy chorus, a great riff and soloing from Ritchie. Another great riff introduces "Spotlight Kid" which features very fast solos from Ritchie and some brilliant playing from Don Airey, reminiscent of the old Purple shoot-outs between Ritchie and Jon Lord! The next track, the amazing "No Release" - this song has a mysteriously hypnotic riff, and is one of my favourite song intros, the song has a shuffly beat and repeats that riff and some great soloing, definitely one of the best songs on the album! The next catchy pop song "Magic" is followed by "Vielleicht Das Nachster Zeit "(translates as "Perhaps that next time"), an extremely beautiful slow instrumental guitar piece about love lost, featuring some sad, emotional liquid playing from Ritchie - I'm surprised no-one picked this up for a theme tune for something!

"Can't Happen Here" is another great catchy rock song with a brilliant riff, a political song about fears of nuclear war, a subject which many songs were written about in 1981 which worried everyone at the time, which it still does - nothing changes! "Freedom Fighter" is a straight rock song which covers the romantic subject of political rebels, followed by "Midtown Tunnel Vision" , an amazingly bluesy,sleazy riff introduces this amazingly bluesy, sleazy song, which contains an amazingly bluesy, phased, sleazy solo!

The crowning instrumental mini-masterpiece "Difficult to Cure" rounds off the album perfectly - this is Ritchie's tribute to Van Beethoven, and one of his finest symphonies, the "Ninth", using the famous tune from the chorus "Ode to Joy", and is indeed a joy to hear, too! Using the central theme to work round with his amazing soloing, Ritchie excels here, some amazing playing which also includes some great playing from Don Airey, (a worthy successor to Jon Lord in Purple), the band sound like they had a lot of fun doing this track, and also the character laughing along in the run-off groove!!

ROCK RATING 5/5 PROG RATING 3.5 / 5

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