Rainbow – Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow (1975)

March 21, 2024

A stunning debut from this legendary band. Personally, I think the Rainbow sound was perfected on Rising, but there are some frankly excellent songs on this album, including the now immortal opening track, “Man on the Silver Mountain”. The production, seemingly shared between Blackmore and producer Martin Birch, is organic and flows nicely through the various styles of songs present on the album.

(Apparently I enjoy listening to this so much that I reviewed it twice, this time on 15th May 2024)

Are Rainbow one of the greatest bands of all time? Off the strength of the first two records alone I don’t think that’s too daft of a statement. This thing is loaded to the gills with absolute rock and roll classics, such as the phenomenal opener “Man On The Silver Mountain” and side B’s “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves”. Granted, there are a few tracks here which are good but aren’t really my kind of thing, such as “Black Sheep Of The Family” or “If You Don’t Like Rock N Roll”, but I can’t let this kind of thing detract too much from what is otherwise a good album. Production wise, things sound as brilliant as you’d expect for 1975; fans of warm analogue production should rejoice.