With the sad demise of Jon Lord I would not have believed that Purple could continue never mind return with a monster of an album that readily deserves the initial chart placing in the top twenty but this album, their first for eight years, is superb.
The original members in Roger Glover, Ian Paice and Ian Gillan (yes I know but he was THE classic Purple vocalist) are joined by Don Airey on keyboards and Steve Morse on guitar and Bob Ezrin producing – rather a lot of grey hairs but all leading to an innate understanding of their music and the talent that only develops over half a century of playing.
Airey’s keyboards are particularly fine – I was always a great lover of ‘Lordy’ and Airey brings a lot of his vaulting majesty as well as soulful feel and some jazzy licks. Steve Morse is a brilliant guitarist who has been with Purple since ’94 and brings history with The Dixie Dregs and Kansas as well as Angelfire to the band. Gillan is in fine voice and when you have a rhythm section live Glover and Paice behind you anything is possible.
They touch on hard rock (of course) but there are also elements of prog and folk in the music. Opener A Simple Song has real delicacy and shows the balladic capabilities of the band beautifully with Gillan’s singing remarkably subtle but when the song explodes into a huge and classic Purple number with mad Hammond playing and massive riffs there is no question who you are listening to.
Weirdistan has Eastern elements to it, very much like some of Gillan’s solo material and the huge and dark Out Of Hand definitely has the feel of a Jon Lord number but with the power and raunch of a Zeppelin piece. I was reminded that this was the band who were once the biggest selling and loudest band on the planet.
The tracks keep on rolling on, every one a fine example of the joyous explosion that great rock can be and I cannot imagine any of them being a duffer live – this is a band who are made to play live and I can’t wait to see them this autumn with these numbers.
I think my favourite track is actually the softest – Blood From A Stone has everything, including a great vocal from Gillan.
Great to see they are back and strong – this should be a great sight on stage – PLAY LOUD!