NOW WHAT?!

Well, lets face it, with the departure of Blackmore "classic" Deep Purple ceased to exist about four decades ago. Along with Blackmore were gone those excellent riff-based compositions that made the band one of the best Rock acts. The remaining (rather excellent) musicians kept limping along with little - if any - direction, producing forgettable albums. At this point it would have been wise to change the band's name to something like "Light Purple".

Finally, the recruitment of sensational guitar player Steve Morse appear to have rejuvenated the band. Their live renditions of Blackmore-era tunes are brilliant, as can be heard on "Total Abandon" and other performances. Their studio albums however remained rather weak, due to a lack of quality new compositions. They got the odd tune right here and there, but altogether little memorable material was recorded in more than a decade. One could tell that Jon Lord was getting tired, largely devoid of inspiration and had it not been for Morse's superb guitar slinging, this band could have easily faded into obscurity quite some time ago.

This album with a strange title and cover appears to be surprisingly good in comparison. Whilst I'd find it hard to pinpoint highlights, the album as a whole represents solid performance and somewhat better tunes than preceding works. Collectively, Gillan's unique voice coupled with the precision of Paice, Glover and Morse deserves recognition. Airey does his bit on the Hammond and altogether it works out quite well.

I wouldn't call it a great album though, rather an improvement. If I wanted to really salivate over DP, I'd fall back on their live works, any day. This one comes in just under 4, which all considered is not too bad.