Stranger in us All to me was a very mixed bag in my opinion. I think they tried to do too many things, and ultimately didn't completely succeed with any of them. I know that Ritchie originally wanted commercial songs, and whilst Too Late for Tears and Wolf to the Moon still work, Stand and Fight and Silence really don't; to me, they are probably the worst thing Rainbow ever did. In a way, I think the distinction between these songs and the JLT era is largely irrelevant, as they sound like throwaway JLT songs to me. None of them approach songs like Spotlight Kid or Death Alley Driver.
Then there are the gothic songs, that got introduced after Ritchie and Candice started writing together. I think these songs, as a whole, are better, but Hunting Humans (Insatible) really don't work for me. Ariel and Black Masquerade are cool, though, even though the latter is a bit of a throwback to Anya. Hall of the Mountain King is wonky, but fun; my old band used to do that. Still I'm Sad is decent, but has the distinct disadvantage that it tries to recreate what Ritchie did live with Dio, and there is no way they could pull that off.
All things considered, I like it, but I also find it to be a very mixed bag in more than one way. I can forgive that, though, and enjoy it for what it is. It was, after all, released in 1995, and that was a dark, dark era for all old-school heavy bands.
