STORMBRINGER

With Jon Lord using more and more synths after experimenting with them on "Burn", this album comes closer to prog rock, at least sonically. It opens up with "Stormbringer", which is a very proto-Rainbow track boasting the chorus "like the rainbow, like the sky". Great hard rock track, and it sounds like the only thing on this album that Ritchie Blackmore would collaborate on willingly, maybe along with the last track. The dual vocal force of Coverdale and Hughes sounds great here! The next few tracks are unfortunately dominated by the aforementioned duo of soul-lovers, and we are treated to some mediocre tracks with not so hetero singing. Really it's not even that bad in principle but but this is something you would expect of Marvin Gaye, not freakin' Deep Purple! The only other hard rock track on the album besides "Stormbringer" is "Lady Double Dealer", but it sounds rather forced, and closer in style to Rainbow than classic Purple. I have to say that despite being a very funky number, "You Can't Do It Right" makes me tap my foot with ease - it doesn't sound like Deep Purple at all, but it's their most successful venture into the funk territory. The last track "Soldier of Fortune" is the other classic from the album besides the title track, and it's one of their best songs ever! The album album is quite worth buying for the outside tracks, but if you have iTunes, it's better to spend $2 on them than buying a whole mediocre cd.