THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHT

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

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