THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHT

After their big comeback album "Perfect Strangers" this was quite a dissapointment. It´s not that it is a really bad album, but rather that nothing really stands out.

"Mitzi du Pree" is quite an original bluesy track with some great vocals by Ian Gillan. "Mad Dog" and "Bad Attitude" are good,( but not great) rockers. "Call of the wild" is probably the most commercial song that they have released up until this point. "Strangeways" and "Unwritten Law" have some witty lyrics by Gillan and are fairly good songs, but what this album lacks are all those great duels with Blackmore and Lord, more guitar and keyboard solos and that tight drumming from Ian Paice.(He really just plods along on this release) The album doesn´t have that exciting creative output that is a trademark on albums like Fireball, In Rock etc

The tension between Blackmore and Gillan (who left after this album and was replaced by Joe Lynn Turner) already started to rear it´s ugly head on this album. For any straight forward rock band this would be excellent, but for a band of Deep Purple´s calibre it´s just fairly good. 3 Stars.

Here is one typical, mediocre failure, Band that was big in the seventies continued releasing albums in eighties. This one sounds as a bad copy of "Stormbringer". The only cool thing about this one is the cover itself.

This DEEP PURPLE line-up (Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Paice/Lord) is my favourite, and that's one more reason why I was so disappointed after discovering "The House Of The Blue Light".

All the tunes are straightforward, plain hard-rock at it's worst. Occasionally the record sounds like power-pop or hair/glam metal album (which is not necessary a bad thing, but it sounds like a BAD pop or glam).

The biggest success was "Hard Lovin' Woman", later often played live. It's almost impossible to avoid comparison with the almost-similar named track "Hard Lovin' Man", which is way better. The rest of the tracks are not much better. "The Unwritten Law" got an awful glam-metal chorus. "Bad Attitude" is a dull hard-rock song, with quite annoying Ian's vocals, absolutely incomparable with his vocal parts from the rest of the band's career. And so on and so on.

The only song that stands just a little bit out of the mediocrity crowd is "Mitzi Dupree", simply because of bluesy, catchy melody.

This album deserves one and a half star simply because of its ingredients; from the progressive rock point of view I will not round it up to two stars. If you want to listen to the 80's DEEP PURPLE, go and check "Perfect Strangers" and leave this one for someone else.

A bit over two years after the release of their very good reunion album "Perfect Strangers" and this one. I am not quite what they did in the meantime. They only performed four concerts in the US in 1985, none in 1996. Their first tour will take place after the release of this album in January 1987 and they will do about sixty-six shows. So, this is a grand 'pa rythm. This could have left some time to prepare a great follower to "Perfect" but it will not be the case.

Some CD releases contain longer versions of almost each song from the original vinyl album : some by a few seconds but "Strangeways" for instance last for 7'36" while the LP version is only 5'55" long. Ian Paice (one song) and Jon Lord (three) have brought little contribution to this work. This is valid since "Come Taste The Band". All other songs are co-written by Blackmore, Gillan & Glover.

"Bad Attitude" and "Unwritten Law" are good rock song, maybe too FM oriented but that was in the mood, no ? "Call Of The Wild" is an AOR pop-rock oriented song of little interest. The best track so far is "Mad Dog" : great rocking tune with excellent musicianship (but who can doubt about that) ? Good guitar riff and strong / high vocals. A very dynamic song. "Black & White" is a funky / bluesy one (no wonder, with such a title) ! This could have been a typical Hughes song ! Good beat but the song is loud and heavy. Not really great.

"Hard Lovin' Woman" is a clone for "Smooth Dancer" from "Who Do You ...": not as good as its model but still OK. "The Spanish Archer" is one of the very few highlights of the album : great drumming from Paice for this very classical Purple song. In the vein of the "Machine Head" era (which says sufficient). Great hard rocking number : each member of the band plays superbly and Gillan is at his best. Ritchie's solo is specially accomplished. The best song form "The House" definitely.

"Strangeways" is the longest track song of the and is a hard-pop rock (whatever it may mean) song with some Oriental influences : not as noticeable than in "The Mule". I would rather say that it sounds like the Tull on the album "Roots". The beat is very consistent and hypnotic but this song is too much extended in the CD version. Just an average tune.

Lyrics for "Mitzi Dupree" are quite sexual oriented (it's about a meeting in a plane between a singer - from Purple ? - and an entertainer). I quote : "Well I knew right away, that I'd seen her act before In a room behind a kitchen in bangkok, and three or four times more in singapore She may not be the first , but i know she ain't the worst She was mine, but i ran out of time". Quite explicit, right ?

The rythm is kind of heavy and on par with the rest of most of the album (which means below average). "Dead Or Alive" is the third good track and the closing number. Hard rocking beat with great organ and guitar. A good way to close this album.

The House of Blue Light is not a bad album but it lacks in great and memorable moments. It will reach substantially lower spheres in the charts than its predecessor (no miracle) : Nr. 10 in the UK and 34 in the US. Two stars for this quite average effort (maybe 5 out of 10 if I could rate on this scale).

"Let's not drag it out like a Cagney death scene"

The follow up to the glorious reunion album "Perfect strangers" was a far more patchy affair, which indicated that the rekindled inspiration waned as quickly as it appeared. "The house of blue light" is best described as a typical Deep Purple album. It certainly has plenty of the type of song a fan would expect, but it lacks the spark which distinguished the great ones such as "In Rock", "Fireball" and indeed "Perfect strangers".

After a brief burst of organ by Jon Lord, we launch straight into "Bad attitude". The track would be fine as a mid-album song, but its position as lead off is misplaced, the track lacking both a distinguished intro and the dynamics of songs like "Highway star", "Knocking at your back door" and "Burn". The reason for the track's lofty position quickly becomes apparent though, as the following tracks offer a succession of increasingly ordinary, sometimes downright poor attempts at finding the old magic.

The prosaic nature of track after track makes it all to easy to over emphasise the disappointing feeling of the album as a whole. It should be said though that these are not bad songs, they simply fail to rise to a level expected of the band. Many other groups would rightly be very proud of such an album, but Deep Purple set their own standards over many years, and "House of blue light" simply fails to meet those standards.

To be fair, this album was released in 1987 at a time when many of our heroes were struggling to adapt to the musical atmosphere of the time. It would be unfair to expect Jon Lord not to exploit the diversity offered by the synthesiser, or the band not to write in the relatively simple style of the period. On tracks such as "Mad dog" though, they simply take this too far and end up with a Bruce Springsteen like piece of AOR. Likewise, "Black and white" strays into Aerosmith territory. Even the longest track, "Strangeways" has nothing remotely prog about it, being a straightforward song extended through repetitive instrumentation.

Lyrically, the band are still in fine fettle, but songs such as "The Spanish archer" betray the unsettled nature of the internal relationships: "Is there someone waiting in the wings to take my place, let's not drag it out like a Cagney death scene. . . Do you remember when the sky was blue we used to talk for miles, and now we drive along in this thundering silence."

The only track to vary from the relentless pace is " Mitzi Dupree", a blues rock number which is not really that special, but makes for a pleasant change.

While it is easy to simply dismiss this as a poor Deep Purple album, a much better description would "disappointing". It is not a bad album, but it fails to satisfy expectations. "The house of blue light" is certainly still worthy of investigation by fans of Deep Purple though.

Footnote, most of the tracks here were edited for the vinyl release. Most were only slight edits, but "Strangeways" loses a full 2 minutes. Some CD compilations use these edited versions of the songs.

Deep Purple are one of the classic bands from the 70's. Although starting out in the late 60's, the 70's were the decade when the band rose to fame and fortune, releasing a series of classic albums before the band disbanded in the middle of the decade. The House of Blue Light is the second album released by the band after their 1984 reunion.

Musically they continue doing what they are best at here. Classic hard rock is the name of the game, with a regular verse and chorus structure, usually with some soloing in the middle of it all. The band has upgraded their sound quite a bit though.

On this release several members of the band have discovered new toys - synths. There were synths available back in the 70's as well, but in the mid 80's they were better, gave more and better options, and these options are used quite a lot here. Which results in a very slick and smooth sound; smooth to the extent of almost eliminating the hard in hard rock on this album.

The production further enhances this; the guitars of Blackmore are pushed back in the mix, and have a less dominant role in the overall soundscape than what they did last time around.

The songs are still mostly on the good side though. There's a couple of fillers here, but the rest of the songs here are highly enjoyable. No classic tracks, but quite a few good ones.

They broke the unwritten law

After the reunion album that was Perfect Strangers it took Deep Purple three years to release a follow-up in The House Of Blue Light. It is often agreed by all hands that this album was a disappointment after the very good Perfect Strangers, and while I certainly agree with that sentiment I wouldn't say that The House Of Blue Light is a downright awful album. Rather, I would say that it stands up rather well alongside some earlier (and later) not-so-good albums like Who Do We Think We Are and the albums from the David Coverdale-era. My biggest problem with this album is that the songs are a bit simpler and not much room is left for soloing; attempts are made to be "catchier" and you might suppose they were trying to have a hit single at this point? But the again, many other bands did much worse such attempts!

The production here is almost a bit slick too which contrasts radically with the often raw and under-produced albums of the early 70's. I think they got it exactly right on Perfect Strangers, but here they might have went a little bit too far in terms of high production values and the result might be just a little bit too "glossy" for Deep Purple.

The best songs come toward the end of the album with Spanish Archer and particularly Strangeways being worthy of special mention. Here Blackmore and Lord are finally allowed to stretch out on their instruments a bit. Lord uses more synthesisers than usual in addition to piano and his classic organ sound on this album; they are mostly in the background adding texture and they do not sound cheesy like so many other synthesisers in the 80's.

In many ways House Of Blue Light is actually your typical and average Deep Purple album. It is hardly among their best, but not their very worst either. The riffs and melodies are all decent, but I miss something truly memorable here, something that stands out. This is just Deep Purple-by-the-numbers.

A rather weak Deep Purple album overall with only a few worthwhile moments

Excellent or only good

After the comeback of the monster Deep Purple in the mid eighties exactly in 1984 with Perfect stranger after a decade of silence, the band want to work on another album with Gillan on voice. So the second album of the '80's was born and they named House of a blue light from 1987. To me this is better than Perfect stranger, the production , the sound the whole album is better than the first DP from the '80's. I might say this is the most accomplish album since Burn from 1974. House of a blue light is more hard rock than prog but is very ok, the guitar of Blackmore is very good as always, the keys of Lord again deed a good job, the voice of Gillan is better than ever, the drums of Paice are wery well done and performed, and finaly but not least the bass of Glover is all over the album. So a very good album in my opinion with outstanding tracks like:The Unwritten Law, Black & White, Strangeways (with a smell of Rainbow on arragements) and maybe the most catchy tune from here Mitzi Dupree, the rest are also good. The album sounds very fresh in comaparassion with the last 2-3 albums, ok between Come taste the band and House of a blue light is 12 years and the music changed a lot in the '80's but Deep Purple was capable to release an actual album then with a lot to offer, musicaly speaking. Finaly i give to this album 4 stars because is among the best DP albums and is excellent in the end.

It is rather hard to believe that, a mere three years after the blockbusting reunion album "Perfect Strangers", Deep Purple would release a stinker of such proportions as "The House of Blue Light" (named after a line in the immortal "Speed King"). Unfortunately, it was not the first time the mighty five had subjected their loyal fans to such a burning disappointment... Something very similar had happened in 1973, when the band had released the very poor "Who Do We Think We Are" as a follow-up to the glorious "Machine Head". However, this album is so bad that it makes its less-than-illustrious predecessor sound almost half-decent - and this is no mean feat.

One of the many problems that afflict "The House of Blue Light" is related to having been released in the Eighties, therefore displaying the polished yet ultimately hollow sound of that era. The main victims are Jon Lord's rumbling, trademark Hammond sound (all too often replaced by the decade's favourite toys, synthesizers), as well as Blackmore's distinctive guitar tones, which sound eerily muffled in the mix - especially in comparison with the dazzling power of their Seventies recordings. Ian Paice's drumming has also been flattened, and sounds mechanical and soulless like a drum machine - gone are the glory days of "The Mule". The only bright note is Gillan's singing, as good as ever - with the years, he has become more of a singer and less of a screamer, and his lyrics writing skills have also immeasurably improved. However, the songs are all so samey and unmemorable that even one of the best vocalists in the history of rock can hardly rescue them.

Yes, the songs... That is the biggest cause for concern on "The House of Blue Light". When good, DP's songwriting can be stellar, but it can also plumb unnamed depths when lack of inspiration strikes. Even though the band had three years to produce this album, the songwriting gives off the impression of a rush job, or worse, of an extremely bad case of writer's block. On repeated listens, there are no songs that really stick in my mind, with the sole exception of the bluesy, earthy "Mitzi Dupree", which stands out because it is so different from the rest of the album's hard-rock-by-numbers. Some mention "The Spanish Archer" as THoBL's standout track, but to these ears it is just another piece of a shapeless musical mess.

The release of this album was just the beginning of a very dark period in the history of the band. Personnel changes and severe inspirational drought marred DP's output in the late Eighties and early Nineties, until something drastic happened - Ritchie Blackmore left the band, never to return. Paradoxically, it was probably the only thing that could have saved them - the injection of fresh blood, in the shape of guitarist extraordinaire Steve Morse. Blackmore's departure probably saved the band from a long, protracted, painful decline.

"The House of Blue Light" is one of the lowest points of DP's career, and as such deserves the lowest available rating. Needless to say, there is very little of interest to hardcore prog fans, but also to those who love high-quality hard rock. Yesterday I put on "Fireball" after listening to it... The difference could not have been greater. What a shame.

The existence of Deep Purple that had started again through years of eight years in 1984 might have been welcomed in no small way as the band that established one main current in the field of Hard Rock. However, might it undertake the re-formation of the band and the field of Rock at that time also have faced the time of the conversion with the part of a certain kind of saturation.

The fan had the expectation enough in this done performance be said five people that the age of gold had been supported for the fan of the band. "Perfect Strangers" that had been put on the market in 1984 enchanted the Rock fan of old and new. The revival gave a not bad impression for the listener. This..situation..fan..band..face..future..form..imagine.The revival of the band in 1984 might have conceived the part and the necessity calculated to some degree if it thought as a situation at that time at the time of enclosed the member of the band.

"Rainbow" was dissolved through necessity. And, the fact as which Jon Lord chose Deep Purple for "whitesnake". It is likely not to have thought David Coverdale to be a too good. Coverdale actually made remarks on a cutting comment to the re-formation of Deep Purple. However, it is guessed that the fact that Deep Purple starts again by these five people is an event done with the meaning. At that time, there might have been an element to be reminiscent of the idea of Rainbow by the tune about the re-formation, too. However, the revival as the band was indeed splendid. And, the way it should be of Deep Purple created by these five people offered the listener the shape that developed further in this album.

The flow of "Bad Attitude" might have discovered the appearance of Deep Purple that had evolved for the fan of the band from old times. However, the tune might have the element of Rock of an original band. The band might surely have been advancing as directionality of a band at that time in the future.

If current music of the band is exactly considered, making the sound of the melody and the keyboard of music in the Middle East of "The Unwritten Law" will have a reformative part. The idea and ensemble of the band might be splendid in the performance of the evolving band though a consistent style is followed. The fan from old times might have been surprised at the sound of the band that had evolved of course.

"Call Of The Wild" is a tune with a friendly melody in the composition of this album. I will feel the area and the allowance of the width of the band in the performance of the tune to show such a phase momentarily related to various music of the member of Deep Purple and gather again. The arrangement of the band has succeeded, too.

As for "Mad Dog", I will exactly feel the depth of the band as the king of Hard Rock. The flow of straight Rock will be able to enjoy the fan of old and new. Solo of the keyboard will feel the history of the band.

As for "BlacK And White", the melody of the harmonica with the element of the blues is impressive. The part of Groove has gone out of the rhythm strongly very much. The idea of such a tune might be proof of the process to which the band gradually evolves.

"Hard Lovin' Woman" originally follows the part of good Rock of the band. Riff and the arrangement of the guitar show the existence of Deep Purple. This album might be a content to which the variety was really abundant.

"The Spanish Archer" has taken a good melody of Blackmore. It might be one of the tunes that they are skillful in this tune advanced with the rhythm of the shuffle.

"Strangeways" might give the listener the idea and the impression of Rainbow in this album. The fan of the band from old might be surprised at this tune a little more. The phrase of good of Blackmore rules the tune. However, the impression of the album progresses naturally. The part where the flow and the sound of straight Rock were refined will tell the band to have evolved really the listener. The processing of the sound to which the arrangement and the keyboard of strings evolved might be splendid.

It might be a tune that develops a good part where the band originally had the element of the blues of "Mitzi Dupree". The arrangement of this tune might be a little reminiscent of the sound of past Deep Purple. The arrangement that devises solo of the guitar is done.

It is a tune to which the section of the "Dead Or Alive" wind instrument that decorates the end of the album is taken as an arrangement. The arrangement and the composition of the band that naturally offers the area of the width of Hard Rock remarkably show the existence of Deep Purple. It might be a tune that the idea of the band that has been done up to now and the knowledge of the performance are satisfactorily demonstrated.

After this album was announced, dismantlement and restructuring were done through necessity again as for the band. The latter half of the 80's was time that media and the image gradually revolutionized. It might be also true that the band that is not the exaggeration even if it is called a live band flows to the wave of the day and the band revolutionized it in this album. Done performance and idea might have been indeed reformative matters in this album as directionality at that time. Deep Purple in the flow howeverThe entire composition of the album might be an album with which indeed unique, various ideas are blocked. This album might be overlooked a little for the fan. However, the content of the album has been enhanced.

This is a solid hard rock album. I don't think Deep Purple has ever released a turkey in their entire career. Considering what was being passed off as hard rock in the '80s(Cinderella, Warrant, Poison, etc.) this is solid. _Bad Attitude_ is a solid rocker and great kick off for an album. It would not sound out of place on the previous Perfect Strangers. The Spanish Archer is another highlight as it would not sound out of place on Black Sabbath's Born Again album or any Gillan solo effort. The only difference is that you can hear Ritchie Blackmore's guitar all over it. _Mitzi Dupree_ is a bluesy little classic on par with Anyone's Daughter from DP's Fireball. They should put that one in their live repertoire. I can't say this is for fans only as this is worth revisiting. It's not In Rock, Machine Head or Perfect Strangers...but as good as Purpendicular from 1996.

At first, this album seems like the same crap as before, only even more generic and with worse singing. I mean, what the freak is the difference between something like the opening "Bad Attitude" and something from Poison or Def Leppard or whatever band like them? Well, maybe the synths are more prevalent here than there, but that's hardly a positive in Deep Purple's favor. Then there's "The Unwritten Law," which goes from slight coolness in the guitar to an incredibly mediocre pop-metal piece driven by a mediocre synth-riff (well, ok, the riff could be ok, but the synth tone is thoroughly blargh) augmented by handclaps. "Call of the Wild" starts off seeming like it'll be better, but then when it hits that chorus, I just can't do anything but roll my eyes.

Just as I've accepted that I'm about to sit through one of the worst albums of my life, though, on comes the opening riffage of "Mad Dog," and I'm nearly knocked out of my chair. Holy crap, what a great, gruff riff that piece has - the rest of the song is mostly built of the usual 80's pop-metal ingredients (terrible synths, electronic drums, etc), but if this song had been made 15 years earlier, it would've been absolutely killer.

Thus begins a pattern that largely dominates the rest of the album. EVERY song from that point onward has some aspect that sounds extremely good to me, even if that aspect usually ends up getting covered by everything else. "Black and White" has a cool harmonica/guitar duel in the middle! "Hard Lovin' Woman" has a terrific pair of riffs (one of which is unfortunately doubled on synth horns at times), and some solid (albeit kinda 80's) soloing from Ritchie in the middle! "The Spanish Archer" has Ritchie's guitar truly dominating the sound for the first time in forever! "Strangeways" has a synth riff so goofy that it's actually entertaining, and almost makes me forget that it's over seven minutes long! "Mitzi Dupree" is a goofily slow, almost jazzy rocker, with some actual Hammond in the background! "Dead or Alive" has great messy riffage, just like old times!

Of course, all of these songs have other things that bug me. Ian G. sounds terrible, Jon's obsession with bad synth tones is both frightening and omnipresent, Ian P.'s drums have the same electronic robotic sound as before, the band is writing melodies that can easily serve as a textbook of bad 80's metal tendencies, etc. But you see, the difference between this and Perfect Strangers is that PS had all these same problems, but didn't have the glimmers of hope that exist in so many of these tracks.

Hence this album gets a better grade than its predecessor. I don't really like it, of course, but I definitely don't hate it either. Many fans do hate it, though, and apparently so does the band, so it's pretty likely that you can find this at a cheap price somewhere.

In 1984, Deep Purple released their comeback album "Perfect Stranger" to a lot of happy fans. The classic Mark II line- up had reformed and that resulted in a welcome reception for the band. The album was pretty good though it was definitely more hard rock oriented with some swashes of progressive sound, and they seemed to move away from what was the typical sound of hair bands in favor of finding a place where their older sound could still feel up to date, and they succeeded in this. Even with the popularity of that album, though, it was still 3 years before the band released their next album "The House of Blue Light" with the line-up remaining intact from the previous album.

Apparently, however, there was a lot of contention among the members. The band, looking back in retrospect to the making of this album, admit that it was a very difficult album to make, not because of the material, but because of their problems of working together. Blackmore was the most regretful about his performance on the album saying he wishes he had taken things more seriously. It would seem both the critics and fans agreed that the finished project was a step in the wrong direction especially after the success of their previous album.

Most people would agree that this album was a failure as far as material is concerned. However, I don't think it is a total loss. There are some good tracks here, but they are the first two tracks "Bad Attitude" and "The Unwritten Law", and the last two tracks "Mitzi Dupree" and "Dead or Alive". The first two tracks are much along the same line as the tracks from the "Perfect Stranger" album, a lot of great riffs generated from Jon Lord's symphonic sounding synths and Blackmore's heavy guitar, and even though there doesn't seem to be a lot of progression from the previous album, they are still off to a good start. Also, the last two tracks harken back more to the band's classic sound with "Mitzi's Dupree" with the deep and heavy rocking blues sound with a touch of psychedelic flavor, exactly what you want to hear from the band, and "Dead or Alive" which is one of their faster moving and rocking out tracks, both of these featuring excellent riffs and memorable solos from both Blackmore and Lord.

The other 6 tracks that make up the middle of the album is where it all falls apart. These are the ones where you can tell that the band just didn't have their heart in the album. "Call of the Wild" is a poor attempt to make the band sound current, but people didn't want Deep Purple to sound like that. It is much too poppy and sounds contrived. It barely made a dent on the single chart, so no one seemed impressed by this awful attempt at all. This continues with "Mad Dog" and "Black & White", which almost works, but then it just doesn't. "Hard Lovin' Woman" could have been okay, but it needs a jam inserted in there somewhere, but no one showed up for that. "The Spanish Archer" is a cool title, but that's all it has going for it. The biggest letdown is "Strangeways", the longest track that hints that it could have been a great track, but the long instrumental break where Lord plays a repeating riff as if there is going to be some great soloing going on, and then that never happens. It's like the track is not finished. When Blackmore finally sounds like he is going to take it somewhere, it fades away. In the end, it's almost 8 minutes of a repeating riff and not much else.

10 songs, 4 pretty good ones and 6 terrible ones. It's not a complete wash out, but it's not what people were expecting or wanting from the band. The middle of the album sags so bad, that the listener loses all hope that the band may never be able to pull it off again. Most of the fault seems to lie with the band, and they have accepted the blame in retrospect. If only their hearts and souls were in this album, it would have easily been as good a their previous album, but with only 4 great songs that neverless don't really expand on their previous sound, this album can only be considered non-essential.