MACHINE HEAD

Machine Head is a record of Deep Purple which has some great moments and some down moments. I felt troubled by rating this record, because it contains some great hits like "Highway Star", "Pictures of Home" and "Lazy", but my overall feeling of this record is not so great.

In Machine Head Deep Purple is going further with setting forth the formula of straight hard rock. In Fireball there were some more styls heard then on this record, like the country influenced "Anyone's Daughter" and the psychedelic space related "The Mule" and "Fools". The only exception on Machine Head is "Lazy", which contains some nice blues parts with great soul in the vocals. The guitar melodie of lazy is also great as is also the case of "Pictures of Home". The reason "Highway Star" is one of the better tracks is because of the metal like riffs and great solo's.

The tracks "Maybe I'm a Leon", "Never Before", "Smoke on the Water" and "Space trucking" fail in entertaining me, because they are too predictable and miss soul, exciting solo's and/or inspiration.

In total this is a good record, although the better tracks can also be heard on the "Made in Japan" record except "Pictures from Home". So, this record is not so essential.