SCARABUS

This third album was released with a much more pleasant Monster artwork in North America, even if I don't really remember seeing another copy than mine, found in my then-fave second hand shop, Vortex Record, downtown Toronto. Obviously Gillan was doing something right since he was able to keep his veteran band running and on the road, but somehow with this album, it seemed inevitable that the end was near

Opening on the Purplish (Fireball-era) Scarabus, the album starts upbeat, but the next few tracks could've also been right down Purple's alley (Twin Exhausted on Who Do You..? or Mad Elaine from Machine Head) and let's face it, the whole album is pretty well that way. Scarabus certainly fails to build on Clean Air Turbulence's major progress and return on safer grounds, meaning that the talented band loses the freedom and space it had almost gained with the second album, and Towns' flute is nowhere to be heard as well. Actually, it is a bit of a shame so many tracks finish on fade-outs, because that usually where the band starts unleashing and you might actually hear the group member's wailing away into the oblivion of the fade-out. Even the bonus live track (elongated to 10 minutes) My Baby Loves Me cannot help the album shift into third gear and really get on with better things in music.

Just in case you're intrigued by this artwork I spoke above, you might want to go back to Vortex Record (no in uptown Toronto) to see if he's still got it, coz he bought it back to me a few months after I had shopped it from him. I can't see anyone else that would be interested in such a record. Definitely better than Gillan's first album on it's first side, but definitely not better than the second side or the CAT album. Best not ventured in, unless you like would-be Purple music, than it is interesting.

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