THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

200 wonderful minutes of Deep Purple, legends of proto metal and too good to be crammed onto just one CD. This collection is 3 CDs spanning the career of these giants of rock, and as such contains just about everything you could ever wish for as far as the greatest Deep Purple songs. Unedited and totally in tact one can sit back and immerse themselves into this incredible music with the likes of quintessential Hush, Black Night, Speed King, and Child In Time on CD1. This CD also features some classics from the vintage years such as the psychedelic era of the band with the likes of Mandrake Root, Hey Joe, and the cool rocker Wring That Neck. Shield, Bird Has Flown, Emmaretta and Hallelujah caps off the early years, that is a real insight into the roots of metal for those uninitiated.

CD 2 is where it all gets brilliant in the best era of the band as they belt out one classic after another, Fireball, Strange Kind Of Woman, and the riff blaster Smoke On The Water. There are some oddities on this that are given a new remix that may be a drawcard for the Purple fan who has everything, namely No One Came (1996 Remix), Highway Star (1997 Remix), When A Blind Man Cries (1997 Remix), and Space Truckin (1997 Remix). The live versions are a nice touch too with a 10:33 version of Lazy from "Made In Japan", and Never Before.

CD 3 is the more recent Purple, although not that recent these days and it is a decent collection of songs with highlights such as Might Just Take Your Life, a live Mistreated clocking 11:35, and live classic Perfect Strangers. I still miss Knocking at your Back Door that seems to go missing in action on many compilations though it is a treasure. The live Ted The Mechanic is a quirky addition and there are some weird choices with Bludsucker and Sun Goes Down. However it is great that the compilation features at least one song from all their studio albums that counted.

There are progressive tracks that could have been included such as April from "Deep Purple" (1969), The Mule from "Fireball" (1971), A 200 from "Burn" (1974) and This Time Around / Owed To 'G' from "Come Taste The Band" (1975). However the compilation fails to include these, as well as the absence of Knocking At Your Back Door, and this is unforgiveable for 3 CDs of Deep Purple. However with all the nitpicking in reality these albums are definitive purchases along with "Made in Japan" (1972) "In Rock" (1970) and "Machine Head" (1972). Grab all these albums mentioned and you really have the best of Deep Purple.

This is a great compilation though with 3 CDs of pure Deep Purple magic; it is perhaps as good as it gets outside of a box set or the actual studio albums. It comes at a cheap price too and is even included in the book club as one of the choices for an album which is where I spotted it. Worthwhile, but nothing replaces the studio albums.