DOWN TO EARTH

Two "Purple" guys on this "Rainbow" album. Surprisingly enough Roger Glover (who was sacked from "Purple" by Ritchie along with Gilan) joins "Rainbow" for a long ride. That's for the plus side. On the down side, Dio is replaced by Graham Bonnet. I was not impressed by Dio on their debut album but he had considerably improved later on. His replacement is absolutely rubbish IMHHO (Bonnet will only survive this album though, which is good news).

Don Airey on the keyboard was another replacement. He is still today the "Purple" keyboardist (2007). No problem there.

Now, in terms of compositions. "Down To Earth" is an average hard-rock album (like their debut one actually). Very few tracks stands out. Instead, some AOR-ish sounds (which I pretty much dislike) as "Since You Been Gone", "All Night Long". Poor music.

One of the very few track I can diggest is "Eyes of the World" but it doesn't really hold things from the other world to be honest. Another one is "Danger Zone". The best hard-rock stuff to get out there is "Lost in Hollywood". My fave of the whole which won't make this album a brilliant one.

Even Purple-less fans couldn't be enthusiast about this album. Two stars.

A short review for a rather "short" album in terms of song-writting. If you except their great "Rising" album, "Rainbow" was just another hard-rock band like tons of others. Of course, Ritchie's name will propelled them into a fame which they hardly deserved.

To discover the prog side of the band, I guess that we'll have to wait for later releases.