WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE

After three of the most stunning hard rock albums ever made,Deep Purple finally left apparent their self-destroying,almost sick(if we're to believe in 1/10 of what the band has related in interviews so far)work obsession ,which led to an unbearable tension inside the group.

Who Do We Think We Are satisfies as a more direct pop-rock album,but it's a bit frustrating to know this was hardly the band's intention.By the summer of 72(ironically,the same period the all-time masterpiece of live performances was recorded in Japan),when this album was written,Gillan and Blackmore were no longer on speaking therms,and I suspect the music had been put in second plan.The lack of communication(and dare I say,interest) inside the band resulted in very rare guitar solos and less excited vocal performances.

There are no bad songs here,but nothing is worthy of much attention either(at least compared to In Rock,Fireball or Machine Head).This is an album that fits perfectly as backwards music,as turning the volume pitches down won't have much negative effect(unfortunately).The big hit,Woman From Tokyo,is a very nice tune.Perhaps different to the Deep Purple we're used to,but still good.My only complain is the absence of a real guitar solo,like the ones Blackmore used to make before he decided that the band wasn't big enough for both him and Gillan,and as long as it stood that way he would be better of with Baby Face(worth checking out on Wikipedia).

Mary Long is a weird one.Sometimes I love it,others I can only see(hear) flaws.By the time this song starts to play,one can already guess that classic Mk II sounding is gone(forever,with no 80's exceptions);just do your best to ignore this,and I assure you this album will become a much more pleasent listen.

And so it advances through a series of nice(if slightly repetitive)straight rock n'roll numbers,with an insteresting blues track towards the end named Place In The Line.Rat Bat Blue,to many people a Purple favourite,has a funky mood and rythm,but overall is hardly more than just a nice song.The album comes to an end before one expects it to,spotting another of it's problems:a dissapoitingly short lenght.

From here on,Deep Purple lost a significant share of it's unmathcable majesty,and even though they would still come out as a very nice blues-based hard rock act,never again they would be that band sitting on the top of the world,shining high above the overwhelming majority of groups in the same genre by that time.It's pretty safe to say this is still a good album.And you're better grab on to it's qualities and try ingore it's problems,for Gillan and Glover are packing up,giving up their spots in the band to the funky couple.