STRAIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES

Straight Between The Eyes is the sixth full-length studio album by UK hard rock/ heavy rock act Rainbow. The album was released in 1982 through Polydor. It´s the second album in a row with Joe Lynn Turner as the lead vocalist.

The music on the album is melodic hard rock/ heavy rock with a very polished AOR sound. Joe Lynn Turner´s skillful and strong vocals are rather typical for the genre. The sound of soft heavy rock riffing, cheesy eighties keyboards and generic anthemic choruses with lots of choir is normally not something that suits my taste and it´s the same with this release by Rainbow. There is only one pretty good song on the album and one acceptable song. The rest is uninspired and generic to a point were I had to really gather all my strength to get through them. The good song is the fast paced opener Death Alley Driver. That song actually rocks and it has a pretty nice neo-classical solo and theme in the middle. The acceptable song is Eyes of Fire which is a slow and kind of heavy track which does give away that Rainbow was once a great heavy rock act.

There´s nothing wrong with the musicianship on the album. Ritchie Blackmore´s guitar soloes are actually really strong and they are without a doubt the greatest asset on this album. The rest of the band are well playing too but unfortunately the music really doesn´t give them the opportunity to shine.

The production by bassist Roger Glover is the kind of eighties production that instantly gives away what decade this album was produced. A bit thin and not enough bottom.

Straight Between The Eyes is really not a very good album IMO. Unless you enjoy melodic heavy rock from the eighties with rather cheesy sounding keyboards and a cliché of a lead singer ( he is technically skilled but still a cliché) this album will probably fall flat on its face in front of you. I can´t give more than a 1.5 star rating even though there are a few redeeming features on the album. There are not enough of them for me to give a 2 star rating though.