THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHT

The strained relations between the members combined with the agony for a "modern" sound that's just nor normal for them leads to a significantly weaker album than Perfect Strangers.

Let's see how they tried but failed, track-by-track:

Bad Attitude: In the Perfect Strangers (the song) logic, it's a very good song and a successful single. Not as glory as others in the past, but it shows the greatness they bare even when they don' t like each other so much.

The Unwritten Law: The first sign that they are trying to sound "modern", which they later acknowledged it was a mistake. A good song that could be better if they weren't trying that hard.

Call Of The Wind: Totally AOR, could be a song by Journey or something. It's fun, but not special. It's also way too long for it's kind, songs like this can't be longer than 3:30, and this one is 4:53!

Mad Dog: It seems like they are repeating themselves in a desperate attempt to make a record almost 10 minutes longer than they are used to. This is a fast song with nothing too bad, but nothing fancy too.

Black & White: Riff copy-paste from the Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin, but in a much more polished, "modern" composition. The lack of special elements is obvious once more, as there is nothing outstanding. When you rip such an iconic riff but your song fails to impress, there is definitely a problem.

Hard Lovin' Woman: Another fast radio oriented song that offers nothing significant. Next.

The Spanish Archer: Ah, this one has something from the Perfect Strangers (the album) atmosphere, with more interesting music and vocal lines that make you wanna sing along the chorus, finally! Not great, but much better than most in this album.

Strangeways: YES! Finally, a great riff! This has to be the riff that Blackmore enhanced six years later to create the fantastic Anya for the The Battle Rages On album. Beautiful song, every part of it is magnetic and I couldn't stop moving to the rhythm! It should be a minute shorter to be perfect. Will they have the best for last again as they did in Come Taste The Band?

Mitzie Dupree: Oh yes they did it again; they saved the best for last. This is a sensual blues rocker that would be better sang by Coverdale, but it still has wonderful music, very nice riff, and Gillan does his absolute best. Bravo, but yet again it should be shorter.

Dead Or Alive: Mosh pit with Deep Purple? There you have it! A song that could belong to the high octanes of Rainbow Rising and has to be a Blackmore idea, it's also the most stellar Jon Lord moment of this album. By far the greatest song of the album, it bares the majestic DP aura that the other songs lack. Classic!

RATING: That mysterious tactic of putting the best songs last has a certain logic behind it, which I can't follow. It was a 2 stars album until track 7, but achieved the 3 stars with the last three tracks. In addition to the forced modern sound and the broken chemistry between the band members, this album is hurt by the extended lengths of the songs. If they needed to catch the 50 minutes mark by any means, they should put 1 or 2 more songs in there. But then, they barely had 10 decent songs to begin with... Anyway. 3 stars.