Catch the Rainbow - The Anthology

Okay, this is my fourth Rainbow compilation review. Here's a rundown of the others:

Very Best of Rainbow: Starts strong, but feels incomplete overall
Millenium Collection: Cheap, easy primer, but less than complete
Pot of Gold: Bizarre collection of primarily album tracks

CTR is essentially an expanded version of the VBOR, and it's is far superior. This album for a wonder features virtually every Dio-era Rainbow song you could possibly need. My God, this thing has "A Light in the Black"! That is amongst the most unbelievable and underrated songs in the catalogue! "Mistreated (live)" as stated in the Millennium Collection review is a fantastic track from On Stage album that is somewhat obscure and fills in the Dio album chronology was the was incomplete on VBOR.

The first disc is in the high 90's, one of the best compilations to get. Now, the second disc is understandably bad, but in fact it has some bright spots, specifically: "Eyes of the World", "Power", and a live "Difficult to Cure" are probably the most adventurous and entertaining post-Dio tracks, and although I would prefer dropping some weak Dio numbers and tacking these three songs on the end of disc one, it at least makes it worth something to spin the second disc a few times.

Problems? Nothing from Stranger in us All (not that it's good or anything), and the liners are pathetically out of date, basically a reprint of the liners from VBOR, a comp from 1997. Come on folks, it actually talks about Rainbow's reunion as though something might come from it. Heads up, nothing did and Ritchie went out and started playing Renaissance Festivals. End of story.

Stand-Outs: "A Light in the Black", "Stargazer", "Kill the King"