By all accounts, Deep Purple should not exist today. During its first 8 years of existence they managed to plow through 10 different members before finally imploding, the 1976 lineup bearing little resemblance to the 1968 lineup in personnel, appearance, and sound. Against all odds, the most famous lineup (the second one) reunited in 1984. Again many changes occurred in the following years, but 30 years later the band remains alive and well.
Now What?! is the ninth album of the post-reunion era and the fifth of the "Morse" era. It's hard to believe that Steve Morse, who essentially saved the band from annihilation in 1994 after Ritchie Blackmore's stormy final departure, has been with the group for nearly 20 years. Obviously, the release of albums is nowhere near as frantic as back in the 1970's, but the band still tours around the world fairly aggressively.
Among the five "Morse" era albums, there seems to be a pattern of an uneven but exciting album (Purpendicular, Bananas) followed by a more confident but less gripping followup (Abandon, Rapture of the Deep). Now What?! marks yet another change in sound thanks to a change of producer (Bob Ezrin), but amazingly manages to capture the best qualities of the previous four albums. In other words, the band delivers a confident album, but one that can still excite after all these years.
Above: First Deep Purple music video in 20 years!
In 2013 there was a lot of hoopla over the long awaited Black Sabbath album (the first in 18 years), but this album, even with only a mere 8 year hiatus from the previous album, is the better of the two. Where Black Sabbath struggles to recapture the classic sound (after years of trying to escape it), Deep Purple continues to explore new, more progressive musical territory and succeeds brilliantly. Now only if the rest of America could take notice.....
No comments:
Post a Comment