WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE

After releasing a string of terrific, groundbreaking records, Deep Purple came out with this dud. It is SO hard to believe it followed such a masterpiece as Machine Head! In my early teens there were only two bands I was totally fanatical about: Yes and Deep Purple. And yet I still remember how disappointed I was when a friend lend me a copy of Who Do We Think We Are. I tried very hard to like it, but to no avail. I gave the LP back to that friend after a week and never heard or talked about that album again. Until a few weeks ago when I heard the 25th Anniversary Edition.

Again I am glad I didn´t buy it. Ok, it is not a total disaster. Rat Bat Blue, Smooth Dancer and Woman From Tokyo are ok, they have some nice parts, the latter being the only one I can say I fully appreciated (the slow middle part is quite good and unusual for Deep Purple). But nothing here is even close to what they had done before. It is a typical case when you notice they are excellent musicians playing very well a very weak material. No inspiration, no good hooks, no passion. A very burocratic album and Ritchie Blackmore had every reason to disowed it in public as he did at the time (´crap´).

The extra tracks add little to the original edition. I liked Painted Horse and I suppose the extended First Day Jam is ok, but that´s about it. Their incredible chemistry was gone and the result sounds like a bunch of leftovers tracks from the previous works put together . A real shame, the weakestt thing DP Mk II ever relasead. Small wonder that line up broke up soon after this LP was out. I can only recommend Who Do We think We Are for collectors, hardcore fans and completionists.