HEAR THIS: Ro Re-Releases 'Rainbow'

Yay for Alliteration!

Coming to you LIVE from the midst of the Hurricane Irene hoopla, I have a whole other hurricane to present you with, more of the poptastic variety.

One of my undeniable favorite indie popstars, Ro Danishei, has recently sent a new version of her solo debut bow End of the Rainbow to an iTunes (and by extension, Spotify) near you. End of the Rainbow was released for free this past January on Ro's website, but the new Deluxe-ified version features lots of new goodies sprinkled in that are very much worthy of your attention.

The album features three remixes perfect for the club -- two of "Blackout" (one by her main producer, Jeff "Jadion" Wells, the other by Paul Hetherington), and one of the title cut ("BOYBLUE Remix"). However, the real meat & potatoes of the re-release is the three brand new, never-before-heard Danishei Dazzlers added to Rainbow's already full-house of hits: "Put Em Up", "My Song" and "Wicked Baby."

"My Song" builds into intensity with its handclappy backbeat, and is decidedly sunnier in comparison to much of Rainbow's darker pop sound. Meanwhile, the synthy "Put Em Up" speaks up of the collaborative efforts between Ro and her BFF in fellow indie popstar allstar, Mr. Simon Curtis. It follows the team effort, be a strong, confident youth menality that was highlighted in Simon's "Laser Guns Up" and "Get In Line" (along with its sonic elements). In fact, I've already mentiond just how badly I want a megamix mashup of "Put Em Up" and "Laser Guns Up" and "Get In Line" as an ode to the Dolls & Robots of the world at large (and also to the Jadion Collective being general badasses themselves).

The central capstone of the re-release resides in "Wicked Baby", yet another punchy duet with Simon to follow the fiery "Michelle" from the original Rainbow release. As my friend Paul has already stated, "Wicked Baby" pays supreme tribute to the Ace of Base,  fabulous 90's pop of yore. It opens with Ro's rebel yell, and is no doubt the finest Ro/Simon/Jadion collab yet (and that's really saying something). It has been on absolute total repeat since I first heard it. As much as I love "Michelle", I really think "Baby" plays much more to both Ro and Simon's vocal strengths, and is much more immediately catchy -- more a straight-ahead kind of pop glory cut.

Needless to say, if you didn't catch Rainbow the first time around, now is the time to capitalize on its goodness. All of the new cuts are worth the money on their own, but add in the gems that already reside in the album's original version and you have one hell of a bargain. You can purchase End of the Rainbow (Deluxe Version) on iTunes now.  You can read my review of Rainbow's original incarnation here.