FIREBALL

After the huge commercial success and widespread acceptance of 'Deep Purple in Rock' and in the midst of a busy schedule of concerts and commitments, the pressures of the record label to seize the moment led Deep Purple to rush the release of "Fireball" (1971), the fourth album by the British band and the second with their most classic line- up, known as Mark II.

"Fireball" was recorded in the few spare moments the band had, suffering from the growing ego disputes between Ian Gillan and Richie Blackmore and even dealing with the discomfort of Jon Lord, who saw his desire to incorporate classical overtones losing more and more ground.

It is in this complicated context that the album's approach suffers and doesn't quite come together, despite the unbridled start of the rocking "Fireball", the driving and bluesy "Demon's Eye" with Gillan in Jim Morrison mode and some very good solos by the Lord/Blackmore duo, and the Arabic insinuations of "The Mule" with Ian Paice's persistent drumming, a sense of reduced revolutions and creative exhaustion envelops the work, and is glimpsed in the repetitive and simple "No No No", in the unexpected "Anyone's Daughter", a country song that would have been better suited to a collaboration with Bob Dylan, and in the experimental and lysergic "Fools", which is not bad, but at times becomes more monotonous than necessary, weighing it down.

The irregular "Fireball", which inexplicably did not include the hit single "Strange Kind of Woman" in its European edition and has an interesting Funky outburst at the end with Lord's consistent keyboard-led melody in "No One Came", is in my opinion, more than what it is said to be, but less than expected, perhaps because it is in the shadow and wedged between the band's two emblematic albums, "Deep Purple in Rock" and "Machine Head".

3/3.5 stars

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