Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is making good on a promise the guitarist made earlier this year to release new music in 2017.
The two new songs from Blackmore's longtime project include the instrumental "Land of Hope and Glory" and a re-recording of the Rainbow classic "I Surrender," which was first released in 1981 on the band's Difficult to Cure album.
"Land of Hope and Glory" is a play on the melody from Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1." While the song's May release is timely, given all the graduations, it's probably not what Rainbow fans were looking for when they heard there would be new music.
You get the feeling "Land of Hope and Glory" could have been released in any Blackmore-led project over the years.
Current Rainbow vocalist Ronnie Romero handles vocal duties on the remake of "I Surrender," which written by Russ Ballard but recorded by Joe Lynn Turner. It seems Blackmore wanted to give Rainbow fans a proper introduction to the band's new singer, Romero, with the safety of a familiar track.