please recommend a post-Dio Rainbow CD

[SoundMaster]

Hi all,

I love anything with Blackmore, but for some reason, have always avoided the post-Dio incarnations of Rainbow.

Can someone recommend which of these discs is the best? I'd like to (finally) give one a try.

 

[ElectricWiz]

Straight Between the Eyes. Very cool songs on that, plus Joe Lynn Turner. I never much cared for Graham Bonnet (sp?). Not in any band.....

 

[SickBoy]

Stranger In Us All, definitely!
JLT phase is too poppy for my taste, while SIUA somehow retains the early Rainbow spirit, a bit modernized! Just listen to Wolf To The Moon (my band is rehearsing it, an über cool song!) or Ariel...

 

[TheWhisper]

Difficult To Cure & Straight Between The Eyes from the JLT era.

 

[TheWhisper]

I never much cared for Graham Bonnet (sp?). Not in any band.....

Have to agree.

 

[wdiv]

Bent out of Shape & Straight Between The Eyes

 

[Wyvern]

After Dio the best IMO it's "Down To Earth", before JLT made the band soft (guilty or not it happened). Very good rockin' album containing two of the best Rainbow songs in the catalogue 'Eyes Of The World' and 'Lost In Hollywood'.

 

[Electronicoil]

I like "Straight Between the Eyes."

FWIW, can't stand Bonnet's stuff at all.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

I love Graham Bonnet! He's one of my top 5 singers. I'm with Wyvern on this one. I like Down to Earth best of the post-Dio albums. Never did care for Joleen Turner much. Songwriting is still strong, but he really takes the edge off Blackmore's riffs. You really can't go wrong with any of them, though. They all have some really great songs on them.

NP: Sword - Metalized

 

[TheWhisper]

IMO, JLT gets way too much grief over the direction of latter day Rainbow. I, for one, don't think they really went soft. Though, if someone must be blamed for the direction...blame Ritchie. RJD himself said one of the reasons he left was RB wanted to write love songs. 'Down to Earth' isn't a bad album, it's just that I have never been a fan of Bonnet's vocals.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

You're probably right, Whisper. Joleen does get a lot grief, and some of it comes from my camp. My biggest problem with him is his vocal style is so firmly rooted in AOR (not that there's anything wrong with that). A slightly more powerful and aggressive vocal style (and a different singer) would have better fit the last three Rainbow albums, IMO.

Hell, in an ideal world, he whould have hired Nils Patrik Johansson. Unfortunately, Nils was probably still sucking his thumb and rear loading his diapers at the time.

NP: Fifth Angel

 

[Electronicoil]

Just for perspective, Graham Bonnet is way too overly "sincere." The boy's trying, like, 57 times too hard and not in a good way (like Brian Johnson). He just shrieks over everything. Joe Lynn Turner's got the pipes and is laying it in nice and easy. Yeah, the albums with him are more of a pop version of Rainbow, but they're still just better. Ballads like "Stone Cold" are awesome. He also fronted Deep Purple, if very briefly. And did a couple with Yngwie. He's good.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

Damn, 'coil, our ears must not be tuned to the same frequency. "Shriek" isn't an adjective I think of when describing Graham Bonnet. I love his unique, mid-range-raspy, emotive style of singing. I also thought his work on the first Alcatrazz was godly!

Joleen's okay, I guess, but he kinda sounds like a damp sponge drying on concrete to me.

NP: Sword - Metalized

 

[SoundMaster]

I realized I have a Greatest Hits collection from Rainbow featuring songs from all of the post-Dio albums. So, of course, I gave it a spin. And.....I'm not feelin it. It's just too watered down, too soulless......but perhaps these are just the singles and the full albums are much better??!

 

[Wyvern]

J He also fronted Deep Purple, if very briefly. And did a couple with Yngwie. He's good.

Just as a quick note both DP and YM era with JLT are weak, not necesarilly horrible but surely bland and poppy IMO (and I do own all those albums).

Damn, 'coil, our ears must not be tuned to the same frequency. "Shriek" isn't an adjective I think of when describing Graham Bonnet. I love his unique, mid-range-raspy, emotive style of singing. I also thought his work on the first Alcatrazz was godly!

Joleen's okay, I guess, but he kinda sounds like a damp sponge drying on concrete to me.

I'm with you on this assestment too.

 

[Electronicoil]

I realized I have a Greatest Hits collection from Rainbow featuring songs from all of the post-Dio albums. So, of course, I gave it a spin. And.....I'm not feelin it. It's just too watered down, too soulless......but perhaps these are just the singles and the full albums are much better??!

It's definitely softer and poppier and more "classic rock" than "hard rock." No denying that. The stuff with Dio is almost metal. The stuff with JLT and Bonnet sounds more like, say, Foreigner. I still like it, however.

 

[Wyvern]

I still like it, however.

Oh so do I, I have all Rainbow albums and for the record there are really great songs of the catalogue with JLT, just that in average the albums are bland and not very consistent except for BOOS which is the most cohesive of the bunch IMO.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

I realized I have a Greatest Hits collection from Rainbow featuring songs from all of the post-Dio albums. So, of course, I gave it a spin. And.....I'm not feelin it. It's just too watered down, too soulless......but perhaps these are just the singles and the full albums are much better??!

They certainly didn't put the best post-Dio songs on the Greatest Hits record. The second half of that album is loaded down with their hit singles. There are certainly better songs than those on each record.

Here is my philosophy, Soundmaster. I want to replace all my old cassette versions of these albums, because they are worth getting. But I'm also not going to pay full price. I've just been shopping for them used. I picked up Difficult to Cure about a month ago, and it was fun listening to it again. It has some really good songs on it...along with a few weak ones. Once I get them all, I plan to make my own "best of" cd, combining the best songs off the three JLT albums.

NP: Kick Axe - Vices

 

[Walter_Langkowski]

Does anyone have the Rainbow album he did with Doogie White that came out in the 90's (forgot the name). I've heard from others that this is a bit of a throwback to the Dio sound. Any truth in that?

 

[Wyvern]

Does anyone have the Rainbow album he did with Doogie White that came out in the 90's (forgot the name). I've heard from others that this is a bit of a throwback to the Dio sound. Any truth in that?

To me was a great comeback and swang song altogether. It's called "Stranger In Us All" and is one of my favorite albums, I have high above any of JLT material and even higher than "Down To Earth". It's very hard, really heavy, very rockin' and if not as classic as Dio material definitively worth to have IMO. Stuff like 'Hunting Humans (insatiable)', 'Wolf To The Moon', the remake of Still I'm Sad (with vocals like in the live album) and the two gems 'Black Masquerade' and 'Hall Of The Mountain King' are simply (also IMO Doogie sound a zillion times better than he does with Yngwie)