What the hell, Tarot Woman and Run with the Wolf are brilliant.
Brilliant? No, Stargazer and ALITB are brilliant. No one is going to confuse TW and RTTW with those two. But like I said, I'd take at least half of the debut and at least half of LLRNR before I came back to anything on Side 1 of Rising.
Stargazer > Run with the Wolf > Tarot Woman > A Light in the Black > Starstruck > Do You Close Your Eyes
But I get it, tastes.
For me, the difference between debut / LLRnR and Rising is that all the songs on Rising are ranging from good to awesome. The songs from debut and LLRnR, well, it's half killer, half filler.
Going further on the controversial side, I would take Stranger in Us All over any of JLT-fronted albums.
See, now you lost me. Bent Out Of Shape is probably my second favorite Rainbow albums, and I sometimes listen to it over Rising. "Fire Dance" is probably the top two or three vocal performances in the catalogue. AS A GROUP, I prefer the JLT era to any other, because while there are better SONGS in the Dio era, there are better ALBUMS in the JLT era.
1. Rising (Only because it came first)
2. Bent Out of Shape (One of my favorite albums of all time)
3. Straight Between The Eyes (All killer, no filler)
3. LLRnR (drops below SBTE because of L.A. Connection and Sensitive To Light-a. I just might-a!)
5. Down To Earth (underrated, even though I hate Since You've Been Gone, and not a huge Bonnet fan)
5. Difficult to Cure (Side two is awesome for me, plus I love Blackmore's instrumentals)
5. Rainbow (A little too much filler; when the Blackmore's Night version of "Self Portrait" is better, that's a problem)
8. Stranger In Us All (I don't mind Doogie, but the album just didn't work for me)
Songs on Rising:
Stargazer/Tarot Woman/Run With The Wolf/Light In The Black/Do You Close Your Eyes/Starstruck