RAPTURE OF THE DEEP

After the weak "Abandon" and the mediocre "Bananas", comes "Rapture of the deep", probably Deep Purple´s strongest release since Perfect Strangers! (Purpendicular was close to a masterpiece but no cigar)

The album has a nice, natural flow to it and doesn´t seemed as forced as the last two releases. It´s sometimes hard to believe that Ian Gillan (who just turned 60) can still handle those silver throated screams! Songs like "The wrong man" sound like the Purple we were familiar with in the seventies.

Don Airey really shines on this album and is given lots of room to solo, in fact he has proven to be the perfect replacement for Jon Lord (who abandoned ship after Abandon!)

Being a long time Blackmore fan, I had my doubts (after hearing the two previous releases) if they should in fact continue on at all, but I have to give credit to Morse, although his style is more technical and not as clear as Ritchie´s playing, he really delivers on this album.

The album boasts three classics, "Rapture of the deep", "Clearly Quite Absurd" and "Before time began" with some great lyrics and singing by Ian Gillan, who focuses more on more serious (and thought provoking) lyrics on these three songs. This album is great to listen to on headphones, especially the spacey "Clearly Quite Absurd" which is quite a "mind trip" type song.

Highly recommended!