SHADES OF DEEP PURPLE

And this is where it all started.

With Rod Evans on vocals, unlike the later albums, "Shades.." brings something different to the table for fans. A softer, more engineered sound, with similarities to bands like cream and Vanilla Fudge.

When starting the album you're greeted to a minute strange, ambient noises. Eventually the track kicks off. For what it's worth, "And the Address" is a groovy, fun instrumental, although a minute could be cut off both the start and end. Next up is the hit single "Hush". And I must say, it's incredibly catchy, but alas, it's a cover, although a good one. The instrumentation, from Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore is very enjoyable here, although it's not heard as much, as this is a fairly polished and manafactured track. "One More Rainy Day" is a fairly well written song, although nothing special, serving as filler material for the album. But once again, Jon Lord's work here shines through. The final part on Side 1 is "Happiness/I'm so glad". The "Happiness" part is an instrumental that is just short of three minutes long, which I'd say is inferior to the first instrumental "And The Address", despite being more varied and more akin to more developed progressive rock. And finally, "I'm So Glad", a song which I feel is half baked at best, with a real lack of creativity in the lyrics, although you must give it some slack, as it's a cover of an old blues song (and before Deep Purple it was done by Cream). At 3:40 to 4:20 roughly, really shows Blackmore's skill, and I quite like some of the drums from Paice, and the keyboards from Jon Lord, which I'd say is somewhat similar to the work of Tony Banks on Genesis's "In The Cage" (Although Banks is on another playing field).

Side 2 opens up with "Mandrake Root" which is a fairly well made track (somewhat similar to "The Changelling" by The Doors\0. The main melody sounds like a slowed rendition of the opening track, which is very noticeable if you're paying attention. Eventually the track devolves into another instrumental of the same nature to "Happiness", and eventually, a listener is bound to get bored of the overdone amount of instumentals. "Help" is a cover of "Help!" by the Beatles. And it is excellent. It is beautiful and brilliant, turning what's normally a fast pace song, into a slow ballad of sorts, and for me, it's brought a new appreciation for the song, and is the definitive version of the song. The way that it picks up after the first "Won't You Please Help Me", is just beautiful, and on the album this is Rod Evans best performance and most suited song, the emotion he puts on his voice is an artistic wonder. Then the part at 3:50 is also an actually well done instrumental, unlike the previous which practically cut of a song. "Love Help Me" is a pretty good pop-rock song, and is fairly catchy, not nearly as much as hush though, and it somewhat makes me think of the beatles mixed with the ramones. To end it off, "Hey Joe". And it opens with the best instrumental of the album by a long way, although the singing section is nowhere near the quality of Hendrix's rendition, more on par with Love's.

Also, the outtake "Shadows" is good, but nothing to fuss about

For me, Deep Purple's first effort is ok, but it's not there best work. It is however, one of only three Psychedelic in Deep Purple's discography, and not the worst.

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