THE VERY BEST OF DEEP PURPLE

Another Deep Purple compilation, that, to my surprise, wasn't in this site. As I expected, almost all the songs are from the "classic" line-up (Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice), which was obviously the most sucessful one and (IMO) the best period on DP's career. From that period here are some great classics like "Black Night", "Highway Star", "Strange Kind Of Woman", "Speed King", "Child In Time", "Demon's Eye" (a song I do not consider a classic, so I don't know why it is on this compilation), "Fireball", "Woman From Tokyo" and obviously "Smoke On The Water". From the very early years of the band, we've "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman" (single version that really does not represent the sound of the band from that Psychedelic (Prog) Pop era). "Burn" and "Stormbringer" are good selections for the Coverdale/Hughes era. From the 80s period we've "Knocking At Your Back Door", which I personally'd prefer "Perfect Strangers" instead of that one, because represents exactly the sound of the band in the 80s. Also, the CD booklet contains lengthy liner notes and photographs from various periods in the band's history.

Overall, this is a decent compilation, 79 minutes of lots of Deep Purple's classics, that could serve as an introduction to the band for those who have never heard of them. But there's the problem that DP has so many good songs that some of them have been omitted for this compilation, for example "Lazy", "Pictures Of Home", "Wring That Neck" and others. Also the last era, with Steve Morse, is missed. So, if you haven't heard DP before, the "30: Very Best Of" is an excellent compilation that also features the story of the band (on the booklet). This is a good but non-essential compilation.

P.S: You can't miss (if you haven't them yet) "Machine Head", "In Rock" and "Burn"!

Rating: 3.0/5