NOW WHAT?!

So, maybe it is time to thank those guys for the immense joy they have procured to me (and to several other millions of fans).

In my order of preference (quite personal but that's it):

Jon : the instigator of the early days, the "soul" of the band who unfortunately left the band in 2002 even if he was not the most prolific in terms of songwriting. His influence has been enormous.

Ian (Gillan): for his tremendous input to the band. Purple really change directions in 1969 thanks to him and became the band we all know and love.

Ritchie: a fabulous guitar player. Great live performer (remember "California Jam") but so difficult to live with (although they tried hard). A bit the same feeling as for Roger (Waters of course).

Glenn: for his great voice and bass playing during a relatively short break, but IMO an imoprtant one (Mark III to V)

Ian (Paice) : the one and only remaining founding number. Maybe underrated as a drummer. Still, he belongs to my top ten one in this genre.

What a surprise to listen to a new album from the band in 2013!!! Great reviews, good charting (it peaked as number 1 in Germany). This album sounded as a great come back.

Unfortunately, I am not really found of this album. Most tracks are heavy rock oriented and little inspired ("Weirdistan", "Body Line", "Vincent Price"), bluesy ("Blood From A Stone", "All The Time In The World" but here again there is an excellent guitar break: but we all that Steve is brilliant) or just basic rock ("Above & Beyond") although there are some good surprises here and there like ''Out Of Hand'' with its ''Kashmir'' flavour at times. It features an excellent guitar solo as well.

In terms of great rock song, there is no doubt that ''Hell To Pay'' is by far the best of this album. It includes some "Highway Star" feeling in there if you see what I mean. Same good old structure: great guitar solo and then a superb keyboard one. I told you: "Highway Star" is just next door?

Unfortunately, there aren't so many songs like these on this album. Another one of them is "Uncommon Man" which features a great and very emotional guitar intro and raises the level of this work.

Needless to say that you should not look for any prog sound on this album (but Purple generated very few of these throughout their 45 years old career).

I REALLY do not understand that this album rates above "Machine Head". IMHHO, three stars (and this is generous). Five out of ten is my opinion.

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