DEEP PURPLE

A big 5 out of 5 for this one, but good luck finding it on vinyl. At this point in America, their first label, Tetragrammaton (owned by Bill Cosby), went deep in bankruptcy and only sold this album for two or three months. Bummer! Anyway, this marks the change from their R&B/Vanilla Fudge influence to heavy metal rock. Very dark tunes (listen to the first track Chasing Shadows, really creepy) and beautiful ballads as well, like a jazzy take on Donovan's Lelena (sounds better than Donny's original) and Jon's full-blown classical opus April (almost had me to tears). Even The Bird Has Flown has Jon and Ritchie throw amazing solos with a crescendo finale. You won't regret picking up this gem. It also marks the end of Roddy Evans tenure as lead singer.