NOW WHAT?!

1 - This album is a homage to Jon Lord. It is nice to see that those decades as partners was able to create a sense of friendship among those sixties boys. It seems Jon was a gentleman, an easy guy to be in touch; but there is an example in the same band that shows this is not as common as we would like that to be. Ok, this is not about the music, this is about emotion. But what is prog, what is music, what is art if not emotion ? This is well posted in Ian´s verses "Your souls had been touched, are forever entwined". This things grows in importance when you are more than fifty years old?

2 - The new way of doing and performing music was recovered and discovered as well at the same time. Improvisation is the musical core of those guys; and when Bob Ezrin saw them jamming he came with the perspective of producing them an album straightly based in their instrumental skills. Their songs come from improvisation sessions, where its roots are launched. So, this means a return to what make them formidable musicians; but not a return repeating the seventies. The new way of performing was so succesful that here in progarchives "Now, What ?" score less than just "In Rock" and "Machine Head", and I am in total agreement with these scores

3 - The music itself. Homege to Jon Lord, achievement of an excellent new/old style, etc... Fantastic but useless if the music is poor; but this is not the case. The Opener "A Simple Song" pairs with their best openers; maybe is not match only for tracks like "Child In Time" and "Highway Star". Even average melodies like "Hell to Pay" benefits from instrumental interludes and Bob Ezrin´s job as producer. And if we follow the album, we will see plenty amount of quality in songs like "Above And Beyond", "Blood From a Stone", "Uncommon Man" and... gosh there is not a weak one here !

It was a grateful surprise that Deep Purple was able to reinvent themselves in 2013, even if profoundly set in their roots. As a prog and hard rock fan I can only thank them to be so bold and compromised with music to the point of presenting us what was not expected anymore : a masterpiece of music...

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