As for the rest, "I Surrender" and "Magic" are attempts at pop, the former being marginally acceptable and the latter just awful. "Freedom Fighter" and "Midtown Tunnel Vision" are just dull and generic with bad lyrics.

Joe Lynn Turner is easily the least impressive of Rainbow's vocalists, but he is still pretty good--just somewhat lacking in character. Not a great album by any means, but there's lots worse. And, hey, that is Ritchie Blackmore on guitar. How bad can it be?

Blackmore Difficult to Beat on
In the late 70's and early 80's, Ritchie Blackmore abandoned the "medieval" theme of earlier Rainbow incarnations and replaced it with unpretentious, straight-ahead rock and roll with commercial overtones and just enough melodious sprinklings to keep things interesting. Rainbow's two best and most consistent albums were the culmination of this effort. "Difficult to Cure (1981)", like its predecessor "Down to Earth (1979)", contains no weak songs; rather, many strong ones with some a bit stronger than others. The best song on the album is "Maybe Next Time", a dreamy instrumental highlighted by a brilliant climax of guitar notes bursting in melodic splendor, before Blackmore pulls back the reigns and takes us out slowly. "Can't Happen Here" opens with a jolting quick splattering of notes and then settles into a powerful, chord-driven rocker with a raw, live feel to it. "I Surrender" showcases the smooth-flowing, melodic style characteristic of some of Blackmore's solos of that period. "Spotlight Kid" features an unusual, Russian-folk-songish riff - certainly unexpected for a hard rock song but a refreshing touch nonetheless. "No Release" builds into a no-holds-barred finale with Blackmore going berserk. "Magic" sounds like a commercial FM radio hit with a short but soaring solo from Blackmore. "Difficult to Cure" is what Beethoven's Ninth Symphony would sound like if Beethoven played electric guitar - then again, maybe not, because nobody plays the guitar like Blackmore, which is precisely what this album is all about.
This album is a good hard rock album. There's no Ronnie James Dio but the vocalist is quite good. There's all time classics like "I Surrender" (very happy hard rock song) and "Can't Happen Here" (also very happy). The fast, good ones "Spotlight Kid" and "Freedom Fighter" as well as "Magic" and slower one "No Release" are very good hard rock songs. This must be the best album after "Rainbow Rising" and "Long Live Rock'n Roll". "Maybe..." is an instrumental as well as "Difficult...". Both weren't so good. "Midnight..." was quite near blues. I recommend if you like "I Surrender" and "Can't Happen Here".

Difficult to Cure
When Joe Lynn Turned came onboard, Rainbow's approach really changed into a lighter and more commercial hard rock style (even 'tho the previous "Down to earth" sure had some light moments). "Difficult to cure" is a very good album even 'tho I prefer the Ronnie James Dio-era, and it's absolutely better than the following "Straight between the eyes". On this album you get to hear the amazing "Spotlight kid" (just listen to the excellent solo part), the radio friendly tracks "I surrender", "No magic", "Freedom fighter" and "Can't happen here". You are also in for some classical music, since the band is doing a cover (?) of Beethoven's nine symphony. All aspects included, this is a solid rock effort worth having!
I absolutely adored this album when I was a teenager and now, at the ripe age of 35, I still like it, though not as much. I think that I may have listened to it a few many times...or maybe I see the silliness behind some of the songs now.
Anyhow, Rainbow's first album with singer JOE LYNN TURNER is still one of their best albums. Rainbow delved back into progressive hard rock on this, especially on cuts like "Maybe Next Time" and the title track.
" I Surrender" gets the album off to a very powerful and upbeat
and slightly poppy start. It's their second cover of a RUSS BALLARD song( artists like RAINBOW, SANTANA and AMERICA all had hitswith RUSS BALLARD songs, tho RUSS himself never did.) I think JOELYNN TURNER sounds terrific on this song and on the entire album!
Nice sad, emotional guitar playing by BLACKMORE on this track.
"Spotlight Kid" is probably my favorite song here! It's a fast paced, heavy metal song with some great lyrics and an amazing instrumental section; BLACKMORE's guitar solo is superb and I really love that little irish jig part( or russian jig, i dunno, george!) Very emotional vocal from TURNER!
"No Release" is a slightly soulful/bluesy hard rock song> I like it!
"Magic" is a progressive pop song, with a very melodic guitar line, which Turner sings along with.
"Maybe Next Time" has BLACKMORE'S saddest ever guitar playing on it; the song is melodic, pretty and depresssing at the same time. BLACKMORE makes his guitar gently weep on this and it will make YOU weep if you don't watch out!
"Cant Happen Here" starts out with a little rock-n-roll guitar lick from BLACKMORE, then the rest of the band joins in and the song turns into another emotional, but heavy prog rock song. This song has another outstanding vocal from TURNER, as does the next track, " Freedom Fighters", which is another highlight ofthis album. "Freedom" is another fast paced hard rocker, with some very intelligent lyrics. I'm not a big fan of the last two songs, "MIDTOWN TUNNEL VISION" and "DIFFICULT TO CURE". I know alot of people think very highly of this last track, but I always found it rather pretenscious( did I spell that word right?)
Other than the last two songs, this is a great progressive hard rock album. I also think RITCHIE BLACKMORE hit his peak as a songwriter AND a guitarist on this. After this album, BLACKMORE seemed to keep borrowing riffs amd licks from earlier DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW songs. He also began to overplay as a soloist after this, at least on the next two RAINBOW albums and the DEEP PURPLE album PERFECT STRANGERS. Many fine songs were still to come, though not THAT many; indeed, my favorite song off the nexttwo RAINBOW albums, SNOWMAN, wasn't even written by BLACKMORE.
I hated RAINBOW'S next album, the very commercial STRAIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES, but DIFFICULT TO CURE is a great album!