MADE IN EUROPE

I've gotta hand it to them, at least DP Mk. 3 was kind enough to still put on good live performances, thus keeping me from losing total faith in the DP franchise. This is a live album taken from the last few concerts before Ritchie would storm out and form Rainbow, and it knocks the crud out of the two studio albums Mk.3 put out. It largely helps that, of the five tracks here (there are actually expanded versions of this with more tracks, but I haven't found them), only one of them really sucked in its original form, and three of them were among my favorites of those two albums. The two title tracks are here, and each rule as much as they did as before and then some. "Burn" has an incredible fire to it (tee hee, I'm punny), as if Ritchie hoped that the better he played, the sooner his dreadful experience would end, and "Stormbringer" is helped by the synth tones not being anywhere as disgusting as in the studio version. Man, that's some quality material there, even if David sounds ridiculous introducing each piece...

"Mistreated" is also a major highlight, as it lets David shine in the one song where I consider his vocals an asset, as well as letting Ritchie stretch out and express his moody pissitude in a constructive manner. Hey, it's not "Child in Time," but what is? As a great moody blues workout, this is easily the equal of, I dunno, "Since I've Been Loving You."

Of course, there's the other two tracks to deal with, and that's where things start to fall apart. Well, ok, "Lady Double Dealer "is alright (though not that much of an improvement from before), but "You Fool No One" takes almost 17 friggin' minutes. I do appreciate how the funky drumming stands out even more here than before, but the song itself was never that enjoyable, and it certainly doesn't help that Ian uses the track as, you guessed, his chance to solo. Ah man, if I considered the big drum solo a drawback on Made in Japan, how am I supposed to feel about it on a lesser live album?

Still, it's quite alright. I don't rate it extremely highly because I can't think of it as really essential (nothing from Mk. 3 is), but it's good for a couple of listens. Which is definitely more than can be said for Stormbringer.

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