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Deep Purple - Fireball CD (album) cover

FIREBALL

Deep Purple

 

Proto-Prog

3.81 | 935 ratings

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Tarcisio Moura
Prog Reviewer
3 stars Fireball is a bit of a letdown when you think it came just after the powerful In Rock and before their magnum opus Machine Head. It simply was not up to Deep Purpleīs high standard, much less when you think how talented was this line up. Ok, Fireball is still stronger than their final studio album Who Do You Think We Are, but I found not too many bright spots here. Letīs see.

The album kicks off with the powerful title track: a truly fantastic song that shows everything DP is capable of: an inspired number with outstanding performances by all band members. A classic tune, no less. I always thought it as a bit short but a classic anyway. Oh, how I wish the whole album would come out the same way! But then followed by No No No, a mediocre song that is only partially saved (well, sort of) by the elegant Jon Lord organ solo and the bandīs competence. It is also too long. Demonīs Eye sounds half baked, could be a lot better (again there is a good Lord solo). The very unusual Anyoneīs Daughter is an improvement albeit quite uncharacteristic: a nice piano and slide guitar featured on this blues/folk/jazz number that shows how versatile DP can be.

The mule is just a filler, a good excuse on live shows for a drum solo. Fools is a little on the more experimental side of the band and it works quite well as that. No One Came is a good, inspired, hard rock number. Overall one can see the band was not really sure what direction to take and they admitted that on later interviews.

A little trivia for DP fanatics: when released in Brazil in the early 70īs Fireball had Demonīs Eye substituted by Strange Kind Of Woman (although the former was credit on the LPīs sleeve, which led to much confusion). I wish the band had done that too, since that song is much better than Demonīs Eye.

I donīt have the new remastered version with bonus tracks so I cannot say anything about them.

Conclusion: an uneven album. It has some quite good tracks among lesser ones. Good CD? Yes, definitely. But this same line up had done much better before and after this one. Rating: somewhere between 3 and 3,5 stars.

Tarcisio Moura | 3/5 |

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