  
Ear Music/Playground
DEEP PURPLE is a legend in the band´s own right. Legendary splits, reunions, funk, pub rock, monster hits and more has passed in their 45 years of existence. This in fact studio album number 19 since their conception, and they probably don´t know how many live and best of albums there are themselves. This time around they seem to have recorded an album with no music boundaries, and they claim that “Made in Japan” meets “Perfect Strangers” on this one! The line-up is since a number of years; Ian Gillan, vocals, Steve Morse, guitars, Roger Glover, bass, Don Airey, keyboards, and Ian Paice, drums.
A few things are striking; there seems to be a lot of focus on Don´s keyboards, the arrangements are great, they rock – but not the way many remember them, and the vocal parts seems adjusted to the present Ian. Opener “A Simple Song” may sound trivial at first but it grows. The groovy bassline in “Weirdistan” still haunts me and the keyboard solo too. “Out of Hand” may have a Ritchie-like solo, but it is still not a hot spot. My favorites are definitely “Hell to Pay”, which after a RAINBOW opening goes into DEEP PURPLE meets KISS with a nod to the past. “Apres Vous” seems to point back to their “Perfect Strangers days”, and gains a lot from the atmospheric keyboards. The oddity is no doubt “Vincent Price”, and I wonder if the organs and choirs were ever so weird in the great actor´s movies? But the solo is great and the creepiness is definitely there. This is way better than “Bananas” and “Rapture of the Deep”, but those with most recollections of the seventies will not rejoice very loudly after all.
Track List
A Simple Song
Weirdistan
Out of Hand
Hell to Pay
Body Line
Above and Beyond
Blood from a Stone
Uncommon Man
Aprés Vous
All the Time in the World
Vincent Price
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