On their second release, Rainbow not only avoid the sophomore jinx; they hit a home run.
After replacing the entire band (except Ronnie James Dio) immediately following the recording of the first album, Ritchie Blackmore and the Rising lineup (Blackmore; Dio; Tony Carey, keys; Jimmy Bain, bass; and the late, great Cozy Powell, drums) had plenty of time on the road touring the first album to get the chops and material together for their second.
In particular, "Stargazer" really came together on the 1975 tour and featured stunning keyboard work from Carey.
The material is uniformly strong, with "Starstruck" and "A Light in the Black" standing out in particular.
Ronnie Dio turns in a great vocal on the stunningly direct (under three minutes!) "Do You Close Your Eyes." All six songs on the album are up there with anything the band has done, before or since.
The playing has a very tight, colorful feel to it, which was lacking a bit on the first record.
This album can legitimately be mentioned in the same breath as classic Deep Purple.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarot WomanRitchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow | Play | 06:04 | 13 MB | 39 MB |
| 2 | Run With the WolfRitchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 3 | StarstruckRitchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow | Play | 04:08 | 9 MB | 30 MB |
| 4 | Do You Close Your EyesRitchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow | Play | 03:02 | 6 MB | 21 MB |
| 5 | StargazerRitchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow | Play | 08:32 | 19 MB | 61 MB |
| 6 | A Light In the BlackRitchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow | Play | 08:11 | 18 MB | 58 MB |
| 33 mins | 77 MB | |||||
| 33 mins | 239 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jimmy Bain | Bass |
| 2 | Martin Birch | Producer |
| 3 | Ritchie Blackmore | Arranger, Composer, Guitar |
| 4 | Tony Carey | Keyboards |
| 5 | Fin Costello | Art Direction, Photography |
| 6 | Ronnie James Dio | Arranger, Composer, Lyricist, Vocals |
| 7 | Suha Gur | Digital Remastering |
| 8 | Ken Kelly | Paintings |
| 9 | Rainer Pietsch | Conductor, Score |
| 10 | Cozy Powell | Drums |
| 11 | Rainbow | Primary Artist |
| 12 | Fritz Sonneleitner | Concert Master |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |