MACHINE HEAD

Deep Purple's follow-up to Fireball. Though it lacks the rawness of In Rock it surely captures the fire. All of it's songs can be categorized as awesome. This album has it surely a great rocker. It has it all. Fast riffs, power driven vocals, solid performance and even brings a little of the funk.

The albums opener Highway Star sets the pace off right. Fast and furious with appropriate lyrics to match. You won't find "intellectualized" lyrics here nor will you with any of their songs, but that isn't why we love Deep Purple. The give and take between the Guitar and Organ leave nothing desired.

Pictures of Home brings the pain with hard rocking drums and and excellent guitar solo by Blackmore. The chorus is catchy and this song remains a favorite.

Smoke on the Water has the most recognizable and overplayed guitar riff in human history. However it is a great track nonetheless with a true story in the lyrics.

Maybe I'm a Leo and Never Before are the only tracks I feel are a bit out of place and are the only reason why this isn't a five star album. The songs are good in themselves, however like I said they're out of place with the energy of the album.

Lazy is a blues inspired rock song with a great organ intro and good blues solos to accompany. The lyrics are funny yet so true for many people as well. "You're lazy just stay in bed/You're lazy just stay in bed/You don't want no money no you don't want no bread."

Space Truckin is a good album ending with the same solidity and energy as the beginning of the album.

Overall Rating : Four Stars