INFINITE

An unbelievable half century, yes that's correct, 50 years(!!!) since the seeds of the group were sown in their first incarnation called Roundabout, the band that became DEEP PURPLE just a year later has defied the odds of surviving far into the following century. Almost as if giving a sign of their intent to stay around forever, they release their 20th studio album INFINITE (which cleverly depicts the initials DP forming the infinity sign that has been broken into ocean ice floes by the icebreaker USCGC Healy of the US Coast Guard) in 2017 although the first single "Time For Bedlam" was released as a teaser in Dec 2016 and caught my attention as it signaled that the band were aiming for their classic early 70s sound when they were hitting high notes with "In Rock" and "Machine Head." Despite the classic Mark II sound, this is the same DEEP PURPLE lineup that has been consistent since 2003's "Bananas" album with longtime members Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice alongside newbies Steve Morse filling the shoes of the classic Ritchie Blackmore and Don Airey taking over the keyboard duties of legendary Jon Lord. Despite the newer lineup, everyone successfully channeled their inner early 70s zeitgeists and create one of the most retro albums of their career with INFINITE.

After an unusual monk like chant accompanying a droning synthesizer the band jumps right into their classic business on the opener "Time For Bedlam" which contains all of the elements that made the classic period so damned good as they check off each and every one of them. All those classic guitar riffs and melodic solos? Check. Magical organ runs that provide ample amounts of atmosphere and exquisitely designed classical workouts? Check. Catchy hooky melodies that make memorable sing-alongs? Check. Percussive drive with all the rhythmic breaks and appropriate pauses? Ditto. Even Ian Gillan sounds the same although it's somewhat obvious at times that he has passed his prime but at the age of 71 his voice has held up quite well. The only time i feel he's woefully substandard is on the Doors cover track "Roadhouse Blues," but then again who could possibly fill Jim Morrison's shoes?!!!

INFINITE delivers exactly what you would expect from a retro sounding album that somewhat makes the listener wonder if the album was actually created in the early 70s and the band have just finally gotten around to it as every aspect including lyrical content brings one back to a more care-free era of energetic hard rock and free love at its creative peak. While DEEP PURPLE released a fair number albums of this type in the 70s, the songwriting has always been a bit hit and miss on some of their lesser knowns but on INFINITE they manage to conjure up a whole album's worth of catchy hard hitting tracks that for the listening time suspend all belief that the most members are well into their 70s and the youngest band member, Steve Morse is 62! Perhaps my favorite aspect of this album is the letting-it-loose keyboard skills of Don Airey who unleashes his playing prowess in myriad forms. Not only does he emulate Jon Lords rhythmic key riffing of the past but dishes out some seriously quickened and individualized solos and really fills Lord's shoes in every possible way while adding his own touches that fit in with the intended retro sound so well.

If a totally retro DEEP PURPLE album appeals to you then you are in for a treat. The album is particularly strong in the songwriting department and will truly tinkle your ivories with riff and after riff reminding you of the good old days however this album is not without its flaws. My main gripe is with the horribly compressed production which sounds too flat and tinny for its own good. Perhaps they were trying too hard to sound authentically retro but ultimately this is the biggest impediment for enjoying the album despite the great tracks. Ultimately this is a decent comeback album that follows the direction initiated by 2013's "Now What?!" with a return to bluesy hard rock with that classic keyboard sound but for an album that is released in 2017 i would expect a more robust engineering job in the studio even if the final desired product was to be as 1972 as possible, i mean even albums FROM 1972 sound better than this. As for the music itself, i personally think this is the best DEEP PURPLE album since 1984's "Perfect Strangers" as i've always found the three decades of material that came after to be fairly stagnant and well,,,, boring! INFINITE finds DEEP PURPLE realizing they needed to move away from their less than exciting experiments they've engaged in and revert back to what they have always been the best at, namely crank out the classic keyboard driven hard rock gusto that made them a household name in the first place and with INFINITE they more than prove that they don't need Blackmore or Lord to revisit those glory days.

3.5 but i can't seem to let myself round this one up

'Infinite' is the twentieth studio album by legendary act Deep Purple; it is more than impressive how these people are still creatively active, and not only that, how they are still capable of putting out such great albums. For the Deep Purple fan, this album is truly a celebration of the classic hard rock sound, still containing this variety of influences that they have always displayed. It must be mentioned, of course, that the main reason for their musical renaissance is the collaborative work with legendary producer Bob Ezrin, whose touch on this very record is quite prevalent, as it can be hard, but it is also quite a necessary one.

The band present ten new songs and some bonus ones, that might have been recorded way back, I do not really remember the bonus tracks' story. And it doesn't really matter, as the tight production and straight-to-the-point songwriting really hit home on this 45-minute classic-style record. Hard rock intertwines with blues and prog - this is the best way, in my humble opinion, to describe the latest Deep Purple albums, on which Gillan, Glover, Paice, Airey, and Morse show that they still have it!

Opener 'Time for Bedlam' is a really intense song, reminiscent of the epic nature of the early 70s Deep Purple output. 'Hip Boots' is an energetic classic-sounding number, just like 'One Night in Vegas', another strong indication of the ceaseless rock energy that these legends carry. 'The Surprising' is the proggiest one without any doubt, great instrumental work, especially from Airey and Morse. It seems like 'Infinite' is a tiny bit more guitar-oriented, unlike the previous release, which was certainly Don Airey's domain. The rest of the album is also quite good.

All in all, it could be said that Deep Purple are just having fun, enjoying themselves, and rocking out - what else could they be doing at this point of their band's history? Well, still creating great music that people can appreciate, with Gillan still a witty word-forger, Paice still a beast, Glover still a groove-king and the 'new members' still sounding fresh.

I guess it seems appropriate that Deep Purple would name their 20th studio album "Infinite" as it seems like their tenure might go on forever. Yes there have been line-up changes with musicians coming and going. In 2017, however, it seems like the line-up has stabilized as it has remained the same for several years now, though the album output has slowed a bit. With all of the live shows and studio sessions however, the band was feeling quite comfortable together. With a mix of old DP veterans and some impressive musicians that had replaced the DP staples such as Blackmore and Lord with Steve Morse and Don Airey, the band quickly adjusted to be able to convincingly play the classics, compose new songs that remained true to those classics and incorporate the styles of both Morse and Airey. This album would prove that this line-up was great, though some of the attempts to "update" their sound to the current sounds are a bit weak, overall, the songs are quite enjoyable and impressive.

DP is one of those bands that sparingly used progressive traits in place of their brand of blues-inspired hard rock pretty much through their entire career, so it should be no surprise that the progressive level is not present on most of the tracks here. The one exception falls right in the middle of the album and is called "The Surprising". This is most apparent in the instrumental section of the song with the cool riffs which include playing around with meter changes and goes from a nice hard-rock section to an ambient section. Then there is a bit of a reggae turn with the blues- tinged "Get Me Outta Here" where Gillan really shines.

On this album, the band also plays around a little with some nice effects. "Time for Bedlam" is the song that uses this quite well with some vocal effects applied to Gillan's vocals here and there and some nice songwriting tricks, but they still manage to retain the excellent expected instrumentation exchanges between organ and guitar. Don Airey proves he can do the Lord-style playing quite convincingly. Gillan's spirit also shows through with "Hip Boots" and Morse gets to show off during the instrumental break. There is even a level of soulfulness in "All I Got is You" which stands on its own and allows Airey to add in his own keyboard styling which fits in quite well on the album.

Yes there are lots of positives here, but there are some weaker tracks which really aren't that bad, they just don't stand out as much among the better tracks. Examples of this are "One Night in Vegas" which has some nice piano rock'n'roll chords and a bit of humor in the lyrics, but the track tends to get lost on the album. "Johnny's Band" is a fairly typical rock song about a rock band, not bad, but totally predictable and a bit less impressive, and this is followed by another standard track that contains no real surprises in "On Top of the World". On this latter song, Morse sounds like Morse, not someone else. However, there is a spoken word section on the last half of the track with an ambient base that just doesn't work.

"Birds of Prey" holds both predictable tricks and some less predictable ones (at least for DP). On one hand, it's become expected by this time on the album that when Gillan's vocals come in, the intensity tends to falter, and that happens a few times too many on this album. That is it's greatest fault. But the use of Airey's own style (not Lord's this time) and the unexpected minor to major chord change during the Morse solo (which he follows to the end of the song) make this track a standout. The last track is a The Doors cover "Roadhouse Blues". Gillan doesn't try to outdo Morrison here, and that is good. But the band handles the main riff (which I'm glad here that they retained that), throws in a harmonica and more piano honky-tonk style blues to carry out this cover quite well.

With a combination of some great albums and some not so great ones released since 1990, you never know whether you can count on each release to be great or not until you hear it. With this album, the band seems to fit together well and try some new things which sometimes works quite well and other times doesn't. But, overall, this is an enjoyable album that both convincingly reminds fans of the past but also keeps from being stale by trying new things. It seems this line-up does this better than it did in the latter years with Blackmore and Lord, who, even though they are amazing musicians, had a hard time stretching the boundaries beyond their usual sound. This is a case where if the band wanted to continue on into infinity, maybe some drastic changes were needed. In any case, this is a fun album and for the most part, a pleasure to listen to. It's a 3.5 star album that can be rounded up to 4 stars in this case.