BURN

With Burn Blackmore has performed the final takeover of the Deep Purple household. Gillan and Glover got replaced by Coverdale and Hughes and this gave Blackmore the lead to steer the band into a hard rocking guitar-focussed blast of an album.

Coverdale and Hughes prove to be a great vocal duo that pleases me every bit as much as Gillan did. Of course their soulful delivery makes this album into an entirely different Purple experience. Not all tracks are top notch but with Burn, Sail Away,You Fool No One, Mistreated and 'A' 200 the album has some of Purple's best songs and they cover a lot of ground ranging from hard-rock, soul, blues to proggy moogs.

Even though it is not entirely consistent, I would rate it as the third essential album for Deep Purple next to In Rock and Made In Japan.