SHADES OF DEEP PURPLE

It's not the same as the screaming Ian Gillan's era of albums, but this album is a great example of DP's prog/R&B roots. With the original lineup of Rod Evans (vocals), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ritchie Blackmore (guitars), Nicky Simper (bass), and Ian Paice (drums), they made a brief charting success in America with their first single, "Hush." Other than their commercial success on that one song, the rest of the album is also quite good. "And The Address" is an intro to the DP philosophy of their mix of hard rock and classical influence, "One More Rainy Day" is a very dreary "poppy" ballad as well as the lengthy "I'm So Glad", but "Mandrake Root" really kicks into the traditional DP prog-rock. Their cover of the Beatles "Help" converts to a bombastic ballad, thanks to Jon's keyboard orchestration, but what got me pissed off was that Ritchie got really cheesy on the guitar solo. Could've been better! Then, skip to the final track, a cover of "Hey Joe" done bolero-style with haunting vocals by Rod and classical keyboard interludes. All in all, a great start to their music career.