PURPENDICULAR

After a nearly three year break caused by Ritchie Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple returned with Steve Morse in his place and produced their last truly heartfelt and succesful effort, "Purplendicular". Purple are in extremely good shape throughout the record and only uneven songs like "Ted the Mechanic" and "Hey Cisco" stand out as less than impressive. The first one does have a good rocking chorus melody, but Gillan's bellowing and banal lyrics ruin it. That is the main problem with Deep Purple, they really could use a better frontman than Ian Gillan. The man was great in his prime, but he is obviously not that any longer!

The standout songs are "Sometimes I feel like screaming", "Cascades:I'm not your lover", "Aviator", "A touch away" and "Purpendicular waltz", a great closer. Morse proves to be a more than adequate replacement for Blackmore. Although he too is a bit of a speed-freak, his solos fit in better with the arrangements and some are downright awesome. Jon Lord is in top form as always and Glover is incredible.

People mat say "Bananas" is Deep Purple's best post-Ritchie album, but I disagree completely. Where Bananas falls into mediocrity after three strong songs (for the most of the album anyway), "Purpendicular" just grows stronger until the spectacular finish. And compared to other 70's hard rockers' albums from the 90's (Black Sabbath for instance), Purpendicular is a triumph for the band consisting almost exclusively from fiftysomething veterans.