ABANDON

Since 1969, we were not really used that the Purple delivered a lot of prog moments in a row. In "Abandon", there are eleven of them. Each break between the numbers. Between them, awful heavy metal songs (not even hard rock) for the huge majority of the tracks.

Some of them sound like very poor Black Sabbath (probably the line-up with Gillan in the "Born Again" album). "Seventh Heaven" is a good example to illustrate this. Gillan seems bored to death on this effort (listen to "Watching The Sky"). "Almost Human" is almost good. Same for "Don't Make Me Happy" which is a bluesy rock song with a great guitar play from Morse.

"Fingers To The Bone" is an insipid rock ballad. "Jack Ruby", "She Was" and "Evil Louie" are probably the worse tracks on the album, although they could probably compete for the all time lows from the Purple (all Marks).

The Purple even released a remake of "Bloodsucker", renamed "Bludsucker". It was the only weak track on "In Rock", being one of the heavier. On "Abandon" it sounds almost fresh and light !

The sole real good number (yes, there is one) is "69" : back to the typical hard-rock song with great rythm and a very good Gillan on the vocals. It is, by far, the worst Deep Purple album with Gillan on the vocals. This "work" is only equalled by the infamous "Slaves & Masters".

Same crap, same rating : one star.

P.S. : What annoys me a lot with this effort, is that it will the last studio one from Jon Lord with the Purple. He was a founding memebr and never left the band while active as such. He will retire from the Purple in 2002.

Jon, you have been wonderful. During so many years you have filled my musical dreams. I was lucky to see you three times on stage. I will (can) NEVER forget you. Thanks for all these fabulous keys moments.