Customer Reviews

Bent Out of Shape

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was first introduced to Ritchie Blackmore through this CD, and it remains one of my favorites. This shows Ritchie and Joe Lynn Turner's songwriting skills at their height - a height, unfortunately, that Blackmore has sadly not surpassed 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. It starts off with the ominous, charging riff of "Stranded," in which Joe Lynn Turner's vocals are damn near operatic, a performance he repeats masterfully on the powerful "Can't Let You Go." This is a GREAT song - from the classical, horror-film organ intro to the sweeping chorus.

"Fool For the Night" is the closest the group treads to the pop-metal prevalent of this era (Loverboy, Def Leppard), but it's still enjoyable, if not a bit dated.

"Fire Dance" is a vicious guitar and organ duel that's not quite speed metal, but it is ferociously fast. Not sure what the hell the lyrics are about, but one doesn't buy Rainbow albums for the poetry. That's what U2's for.

"Anybody There" is a dark, dark instrumental that eventually gets lighter toard the end. Blackmore does some excellent soloing on the tune, and keeps it short, which is nice, 'cause it's one of the more depressing tracks on the CD.

"Desperate Heart" is good, melodic 80s pop metal, featuring a frantic, over-the-top guitar solo that ranks as one of Blackmore's best. Dave Rosenthal's keyboard flourishes are interesting, too - the closest the band ever comes to sounding like Prince (!)

"Street of Dreams" is a masterpiece, a moody song full of melody, great vocals from Turner and a killer chorus. One of the band's classics. If Rainbow could've stayed together and written more tunes like this, it would've ultimately been preferable to the damp squib the Purple reunion ended up being.

"Drinking With the Devil" has a nasty riff that sounds like it bubbled out of a New Orleans swamp, and Turner does the album's best screaming on this track. Blackmore's solo is nice and aggressive, and the guitar break at the very end of the song is downright evil. In a nice way, of course.

"Snowman" is a beautifully eerie instrumental written by Howard Blake for an animated children's cartoon, of all things. With the Rainbow treatment, one is more apt to think of haunted Transylvanian castles than snowmen. Rosenthal's keyboards are truly haunting, and Blackmore's tortured solo is one of the album's best. This might be Blackmore's best instrumental ever.

"Make Your Move" gets panned by many fans, but it's really the only uptempo song on the album, and one of the fastest. It's the closest the band comes to sounding like AC/DC, and the cassette version, for whatever reason, contains an extended ending that features some searing guitar runs.

This CD is the closest Rainbow sounds to being contemporary, whereas Blackmore and his Purple pals would release CDs in the 80s and 90s sounding hopelessly dated. History will hold "Bent Out of Shape" as an example of what could have been had Blackmore not succumbed to the lure of easy $$$ an ultimately futile Purple reunion would bring him.

It stays intense, song after song, but not by relying on sheer guitar power so much like you find with, say, Rainbow's previous Straight Between the Eyes album. Turner can't really scream it out as much as other vocalists Blackmore has recorded with, so Turner's screaming it out on some places in SBTE was pushing it a bit. The vocals and adjusted heavier sound there may have come as overcompensation for the distinctly pop-sounding "Difficult To Cure" album before it. But here, the vocals and intrumentals finally come together beautifully, and for the whole disk, not just a song or two. The creative use of keyboards rounds out the music really nicely and doesn't date it - no more than it dates Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" - as overuse of keyboards has often done with music from the 80s (hence the term "80s Butt Rock"?!).
Not only is this much too intense to be written off as pop (and too awesome to be "written off" as anything) you get all the great style and influence that you've come to expect with Ritchie Blackmore and the great musicians he has worked with over the years. I usually go after staight forward hard rock and roll (AC/DC, VAN HALEN, UFO, etc.). While some might say this disk may have a "softer" approach in some ways, it definitely isn't missing anything for pace or intensity, and each song brings something new to the table: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone with even just a casual interest in Deep Purple, Rainbow, or Joe Lynn Turner.

1983 proved to be an interesting year in music. As a junior in high school, Rainbow finally hit my ears on a metal compilation cassette I had purchased in a store. When 'Street of Dreams' moved through my headphones, my musical interests found a different direction from the new wave music that permeated the radio. Joe Lynn Turner and Ritchie Blackmore are inseperable on this album. Listen to the gritty yet melodic 'punch' of 'Stranded' and then ease into the classically tainted keyboard opening of 'Can't Let You Go'. The emotional intensity of Turner's vocals and Blackmore's guitar are complemented impressively by David Rosenthal's melodic and haunting keyboards.
I found myself lost in the emotion expressed in the album's two wonderful instrumentals 'Anybody There' and 'Snowman'. The rest of the songlist provides variety in a hard rock direction, mixing guitar-driven rhythms and keyboard interplay.
Don't let the other reviews mislead you..There is much to be admired here from the album as a whole and even though Rainbow no longer exists, this CD always finds its way into my player.

This is the finest album in the Blackmore/Turner partnership. Singer Joe Lynn Turner and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore have a unique and genuine chemistry that is rare in hard rock. Every time these two men and bassist/producer Roger Glover work together they create something special. And this excellent album is no exception. Mixing hard rock, pop and haunting instrumentals, "Bent out Of Shape" is a virtually perfect album. "Street Of Dreams" deserved to sell as many singles as Bon Jovi, and should have done. I hope Blackmore and Turner work together again one day. How about it, fellers?

OK, this is not a Heavy Metal album. It is pop done by one of the best guitarrists of all time and a very talented singer. Most fans will throw this record out of their record collection because it is too soft. But if you look through that, the guitarr playing is excellent and Joe Lynn Turner has a great emotional voice. The songs are pretty strong too, even though the production is too "poppy".

I hesitate to give this album a 4, because it was a disappointment to me back in the days, and probably will be to any fan of Rainbow, but it is too good for a 3. I rediscovered this record some time ago, and if you just look through your expectations I think you will find that it isn't really that bad after all.

The last Rainbow project prior to the Purple reunion in '84, Bent Out of Shape has taken some hard knocks over the years as the Rainbow album that finally degenerated the band to a second rate Journey-quality status (not saying that Journey is a bad band, mind you). It's easy to why; the once majestic, bombastic and medieval rock has been totally replaced with a radio friendly pop sound here. Ritchie had been pursuing this direction ever since late '78 when he hired Graham Bonnett on vocals for the Down to Earth project. And when he acquired Joe Lynn Turner the year after that, the AOR deal was signed, sealed and delivered!
The previous year's Straight Between the Eyes hinted at what was to lie ahead. Songs like "Stone Cold" and "Rock Fever" were definitely mainstream by any standards, let alone those of classic (Dio-era) Rainbow. Bent out of Shape starts off with the fairly lackluster "Stranded" which seems to be lacking muscle and breadth, although it does contain a slippery atmospheric solo by the Man in Black. The Rosenthal keyboard intro on "Can't Let You Go" is very cool, almost churchy, and reminds me a lot of Don Airey's on "Centre of the Universe" by Ozzy Osbourne's Bark at the Moon (also released in '83). But things generally go up in a cloud of smoke for the rest of side one as "Fool for the Night" is color-by-numbers AOR and "Fire Dance" shows Turner trying to pull off silly gothic imagery. The beautiful instrumental "Anybody There" closes side one, possibly even eclipsing the heights acheived on the superb "Weiss Heim" on Finyl Vinyl.
The only tracks worth a mention on side two would be the minor radio hit "Street of Dreams" featuring a classic Blackmore solo at the lead break and the Blackmore/Howard Blake penned instrumental "Snowman." The rest being rather unremarkable hard rock (Drinking with the Devil) or deflated attempts at Journey (Desperate Heart).
Many blame Turner for the lose of direction Rainbow fell into during the early '80s. This is not entirely accurate, as Ritchie simply found a vocalist to suit his new vision for the band. Admittedly, Turner did cough up some fairly mundane lyrics and some over-extensions in the vocal department. I believe Ritchie was well aware that this formula was over baked, hence realizing that it was time for a change which materialized in the reformation of Purple.

It's disappointing that as I write this review, Bent Out Of Shape is only being offered used. After many years I've come to realize that it is one of the better Rainbow albums. Produced by Deep Purple/Rainbow bassist Roger Glover in 1983, Bent Out Shape made it to #34 on the charts thanks to heavy rotation of the video for Street Of Dreams on MTV. When I got the cassette I did not listen to it as much as I should have. But with a lot of formula music out there these days I find myself going back to 70s and early 80s rock. Anyways, there are several excellent tracks like Stranded, Drinking With The Devil, and Can't Let You Go (the other single with a great church organ intro). I also love the two instrumentals, Anybody There and Snowman! Both have great emotional melodic guitar from the master, Ritchie Blackmore. Snowman has a beautiful relaxing melody played on keyboards. Apparently both Richie and singer Joe Lynn Turner wanted to do another album together but due to a sly manager who wanted to see Richie back in Deep Purple, this never happened. They did do the decent Slaves and Masters (Deep Purple) together with Roger but that would be seven years later.

Bent Out Of Shape (1983) is a very good Rainbow album that features Joe Lynn Turner on lead vocals. While nobody, in my opinion, can truly replace Ronnie James Dio as lead singer, Turner does a good job with the material. His distinctive voice and style of singing fit the music very well. I feel this album is about as good as the band's previous release, Straight Between The Eyes (1982).

Bent Out Of Shape is more commercial sounding than the Dio years, but it does contain some hard rockers, such as "Drinking With The Devil". My personal favorite song is the instrumental "Snowman". It's a very atmospheric, eerie song with good keyboard and guitar work.

Overall, a solid album. 4 stars.

This is a very classy hard rock album. If you are interested in checking out Rainbow beyond the Dio years- start here. Joe Lynn Turner may have been commercial and a pretty-boy, but he had the huge rock pipes to back it up. Also, the songwriting is excellent here- this album is full of hummable melodies and memorable hooks. Ritchie plays some smokin' guitar on a couple of eerie instrumentals, and there is a dark, gothic atmosphere throughout the entire album.
A must for fans of classic style hard rock!

This album may not have been as good as rising but it's way better than listening to the modern average radio nonsence with nothing but a whole bunch of talentless hip hop posers or the nu metal artist of today. I thought every song on this album was absolutely decent, The singer Joe Lynn Turner kinda sounds like dio so for what ever reason dio left this singer was a great replacement for dio, the keyboardist David Rosenthal probably not like toney carey but he's a fine wicked keyboard wizard for these great songs and ritchie blackmore's guitar's were wickedly awesome!



My advice: Say no to the radio and buy some rainbow albums!

\m/ Stay metal \m/