After the "Straight Between The Eyes" US tour dates, all the members of Rainbow had been sacked by Blackmore and the management team; Blackmore was becoming lazy and was interested in the mad money that the impending Deep Purple reunion would bring. Initially, with Blackmore and David Coverdale patching up their previous differences, Coverdale had been offered the vocalist position but he decided to refuse sensing major success with Whitesnake (a wise decision as it turned out). Deep Purple Mk 2 looked to be likely for getting back together but an alleged argument between Gillan and Blackmore over publishing rights/royalties shipwrecked the plan. Blackmore promptly resurrected Rainbow and re-hired everyone bar skinbeater Bobby Rondinelli, replacing him with Chuck Burgi, a musician who bears no big differences with his predecessor styilistically.

Roger Glover was too busy with his own solo album to get involved with song-writing duties for this platter but was happy to play bass and produce as before, returning to Flemming Rasmussen’s Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen – Blackmore liked the guitar sound there, and he just went for a smoother one here. Rasmussen worked with Metallica, Artillery, Blind Guardian, Ensiferum and even Morbid Angel!

This album features all Blackmore/Turner compositions with only one song featuring Glover and Rosenthal as additional writing credits. Since Glover wasn't much involved in the composition, almost all the songs turned out to be full of hummable melodies and memorable hooks.
The result is a work where class exhumes from the pores of all the people involved despite the general uncomfortable circumstances that preceded its making. An intense work that stands out not by sheer guitar power as it happened with the previous "Straight Between the Eyes", but since this is a dark album - almost all the songs here are written in minor keys, so there's a menacing atmosphere throughout the release that not everybody has been able to perceive.
And therefore being so brilliant a set of songs that made it to #34 on the charts, who knows how big Rainbow would have become if Blackmore hadn't decided to pull the plug after the Japanese gigs in early '84 and reform Deep Purple, who knows how many great albums we could have listened to if Rainbow's ascent hadn't been interrupted just when they were starting to take over American rockers' hearts?

Released in August 1983, "Bent out of Shape" is the British band's seventh studio album, the third and last with US vocalist Joe Lynn Turner at the mike. The title is a north American idiom meaning ' angry/upset' or 'alcohol/drug intoxicated', and I would opt for the second translation as among the 10 tracks it contains there is one called "Drinking with the Devil". Don't think that the consequence is a collection of party songs, because actually this is a record winking at the American public and MTV due to the choice of an AOR direction: less Hard Rock and more radio-friendly Melodic Rock graced with sporadic Barocco elements, it also contains songs that are slighty streaked with melancholy and, on rare occasions, dark, gothic and mysterious taints, all embellished by theatrical and dramatical operatic vocals.
As usual Rainbow's purists don't consider this as a real Rainbow album and lash out a wealth of critics on this, which have honestly sickened me to death, because those who listen to the music with attention will realize this is another masterpiece from Blackmore and company.

All the lyrics come from the mind of Turner. Like many observed this album seems Pop and harmless but it's actually embued with melancholy, darkness and eerieness if you just listen to it scratching the surface. Here come the themes of the 8 tracks which possess lyrics in detail:

* somebody feeling alone and abandoned
* the inability to sever a romantic relationship which is by over by now
* someone who is deceived and used for one night
* a ritual made by a dance in the fire at the moonlight
* somebody who's desperate after being chucked who says they're gonna break through
* a person haunted by sounds and memories of an ex wondering if it's all real
* a guy drunken by the devil and then forced by him to do what he wants after he's taken possession of their soul by having them sign a cogtract
* someone who means to avenge themselves and is ready to shoot.

No intention to beat around the bush and "Stranded" immediately strikes us with its pulsating bass lines and its simple drum beats based on a martial rhythm that lead Turner's robust mezzo-soprano vocals. A guitar lick is followed by the second verse, where the typical AOR trick of opposing clean powerful vocals to other whiskey-soaked less energetic ones is present. Turner vents prolonged arena vocals in the refrain, and then it's time for a break embedded with a great number of guitar-effected acrobatic licks; a break that somebody defined influenced by Van Halen's "You Really Got Me". Here the voice is either whispering or shouting or making a Van Halen-like short scream, and soon makes way for a quite convincing axe solo. The drummer accompanies everybody until he makes a tom-tom roll to arrive at the bridge where the operatic vocals return and soon afterwards the chorus is repeated until the conclusion submerged by a mountain of licks, excluding the last seconds where Rainbow go without vocals and recur to 2 abrupt stops 'n' go.

Incisive organ lines played by Rosenthal interpreting the beginning of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" make me think of a ceremony that was initially thought to be played in a Baroque church by Bach, but now that is instead occurring in a horrorific castle or mansion. This good minute constitutes the introduction of "Can't Let You Go" to a drumming with a fantastic Hard Rock beat rich in feeling. The vocals are grittier during the verses and perfectly match with the refrain, which conquers us all with its superb clean opera singing. All of this makes us understand how smoothly Turner had blended with Rainbow's sound at that time. Blackmore borrowed the verse staccato from Abba, while the guitar solo touches several notes of the stave and turns out therefore to be one of the most complete and sophisticated in his entire career. The refrain is then repeated persistently until the rapidly faded-out conclusion.
There's also an official video matching the song, watchable at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqUx84-ljPE The reference goes to "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", a silent horror film, where a somnambulist awoken by an insane hypnotist commits murders on his command in a northern Italian town surrounded by an atmosphere where hallucination and reality don't have distinct borders. The doctor observes the somnambulist who is about to kill his girlfriend but he stops him in time, seeing the experiment has worked out and makes him asleep again before putting him back into his box.

"Fool for the Night" begins with keyboards in which mid frequencies abund. This could be described as the most Pop-Metal composition of the platter, being in the vein of Loverboy and Def Leppard a bit. This song is fast and tight, doesn't waste time and aims at the brief refrain. The verses invite to an irresistible sing-along before we get to a point where the guitar and the voice splendidly remain suspended for a few seconds as if they were inside a beautiful dream. When the guitar solo comes, we see that Blackmore has given birth to a very original one that he's opted to divide into two parts. It must also be noticed that in these moments there's a clever use of the hi-hat and maximum precision in the drums stops. Here in the finale the keyboards work pretty stubbornly even if they're just playing as an accompaniment, whilst the drumming frantically utilizes the snare drum.
Personally I would have used this song as third single, instead it wasn't promoted enough.

Another fast number of pure Hard Rock with a scary Halloweenian vibe, "Fire Dance" contains vocals full of pathos and seems to anticipate what Deep Purple put on "Slaves and Masters" years on. Gotta love the marvellous lines of bass guitar, so sombre, nervous and muscular. A breakdown with a convulsed drumwork ensued by a wonderful Prog keyboards solo is in turn replaced by a long guitar solo of sheer Rock 'n' Roll. This song abunds with breaks and the next one is in crescendo; later on, the initial verse comes back, and then the refrain with fairy keys coupled with Turner's screams pop in. The conclusion is assembled with quick tom-tom rolls where the lesson of Iron Maiden has been learned extensively, as well as space keyboards notes.
If you listen to this composition live you'll notice its Speed Metal backbone, because it is always played much faster.

The first instrumental, "Anybody There", lasts a tad longer than 2 minutes and seems relaxed and relaxing enough. Rosenthal's work is in the background, Burgi stresses the beats, in the meantime Blackmore rules everything with its guitar strokes in licks or in a solo that are able to touch our soul. I really like that every note and nuance has been planned and has a meaning in this song, leaving nothing to chance. We're in front of a number not written with the aim for money, trends or satisfying the audience, but on the drive for inspiration, talent and will of guitar god Ritchie Blackmore. Technically it's not so difficult, still it thrives on emotionality and is easy to recognize. As melodramatic as Bach, Blackmore keeps on letting melody flow without repeating himself.

Due to the opening keyboards at the beginning of "Desperate Heart" I feel like saying that Rainbow go medieval in a fairytale atmosphere, but afterwards the rhythm veers towards Hard Rock. The keyboards reappear smiling at precise intervals, while the Survivor-influenced AOR structures of vocals and drums achieve perfection when the guitar designs a precise plot at the service of the utmost feeling by riffing and delivering a vibrant solo, which finishes in an unexpected way. The melody and the precise arrangements end up with making this song superior to all of the others.
You can definitely perceive this composition was created with an '80s mentality, still it keeps on emotioning the same way.
The axe solo requires more effort than the others present on this album, it's also more diversified, piercing, thick and moving than all of the rest. The keyboards are recessed in the mix especially during the final part, marking the rhythm once in a while with heavy touches, while this song - like several others - fades out rapidly.

On the contrary, the keys fulfil a key role in colouring the synth solo at the first minute, as well as further various structures of the delicate "Street of Dreams", an AOR number held on by a euphonic riff and superb bass lines stressing the pace in a 'thickly rounded' manner. Once again Turner's sweet vocals are worth the purchase of the album alone, halfway between Steve Perry and Paul Rodgers.
As anticipated above, please pay attention at 2:24 when the keys briefly appear on a lick and influence Europe in creating a whole new song around it, "The Final Countdown"!
Here the guitar solo is more controlled, short and is only needed to sew two fragments and not to draw attention on Blackmore.
The faded-out conclusion sees prolonged vocals and the reverberated refrain laid onto them.
No doubt this is one of the most remarkable power ballads of the eighties - heroic, romantic and symmetrical - back in the day several couples chose it to be played at their weddings. Honestly, it makes me think of my dears who breathed their last.
Being a R 'n' R anthem with perfect arrangements, it is no coincidence it was chosen as first single (with "Anybody There" on the B-side) and also to be accompanied by an official video (which is available in its entirety at "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxKZPytRcZg"); it's actually a mini-movie video shot in the UK, directed by Storm Thorgerson with a man, a hypnotist and a kidnapped woman, while the band performs in a white room and in front of electrical boxes. The man talks about a dream and later on frees the woman, who is his girlfriend and knocks the evil shrink out.

"Drinking with the Devil" is a high-spirited track that radically changes the ambience, being closer to Deep Purple by a reverberated riff fit for live situations. Some penetrating keyboards lines intervene at regular intervals, while soon Blackmore's solo reveals itself to be fiery Hard Rock: potent, lengthy and gaudy. Also, the adrenalinic and modern vocals of this song that make it seem recorded yesterday show the American singer's versatility that throws down a few Ian Gillanesque screams as well.
Like "Fire Dance" it would fit well in "Slaves and Masters".

The second and last instrumental composition, "Snowman", is fundamentally based on an explosive and rocky kick drum beat, repetitive, slow and eerie. The guitar parts are pretty limited to a few appearances, whereas the keyboards shine in a pompous, airy, striking manner as if we had just awoken surrounded by a winterlike frozen view. Blackmore pops in for brief moments at the beginning, then at half of the track he launches a sharp solo melting with the acute keyboards lines and then it disappears. It makes his comeback about one minute later with the identical procedure, and even if he's not the protagonist he's the keystone anyway by turning a simple, almost documentarist (and to some boring) track to a very interesting one. I take the view that this is an evocative piece with an atmosphere belonging to a distant and forgotten time, or even to another dimension, terminated by a single keyboard line just after some bell tolls.
"Snowman" was originally composed for an animated movie for children of the same title introduced by David Bowie and directed by Raymond Briggs.
Starting from a version composed by Howard Blake named "Walking in the Air", Rainbow have transformed it into a Xmas tune that gives me peace of mind like meditation, yoga or prayers.
Nightwish have made a cover version of that, too, but adding words.

The longest and wildest piece of the full-length, "Make Your Move", deals with Hard Rock sustained by tough vocals and occasional screams. Impossible not to be fascinated by the meaty swift bass lines, while the drumwork is a tad more various, intent on distributing different accents as well as a blend of strong and refined strokes here and there. I also find the instrumental breaks passionately nice, where the guitar and drums slow down, thus preparing the climax for the speedy and irrepressible solo by Blackmore. The vocals return and you can be sure some healthy headbanging is guaranteed in the near repeated refrain with frenzied Rock and Roll licks in the background reminding me AC/DC and the likes. These are bound to go on until the gradually diminishing ending.
So many people claim that there exists a similarity with Deep Purple's "Slow Train".
Watch out! The lucky owners of a tape version are probably aware that it contains an extended last part of "Make Your Move" that features some searing guitar runs.

If you have a son or a daughter who has no clue what the 80's were like, you can do them a favour and let them listen to this album, which - in good and in bad - fully embodies that unrepeatable epoch.
Believe me, when they get older, they will thank you for making them approach such highly valuable and honest music played and sung without tricks but with a lot of emotional involvement.