PERFECT STRANGERS

Mk II's return in the mid 80's was delivered with a fine album,yet almost completely apart from that wonderfull hard rock made more than 10 years earlier.What we have here is a very heavy and dangeroulsy close to generic colection of songs,with precious few highlights.

Two tunes in this album are priceless(although they could hardly hold less resemblances to the early 70's material): the opener Knocking At Your Backdoor and the title track,Perfect Strangers.Those are possibly two of the best rock compositions written by the mid 80's,but there are contraditions:first,Deep Purple had to change radically in order to survive.With Iron Maiden roaring it's heavy brilliance all across the world and late prog bands extint/changed,the band simply could no longer play extended jammings on Strange Kind of Woman and expect excited responses(unfortunately).I also imagine a delicate balance must have been demanded in order to please both egos,Gillan and Blackmore,so there's really a radical change in the music here,going heavier and straighter.

That worked out marvelously for the aforementioned compositions,but it just gets plain boring at times,as there are hardly any other highlights.If you're expecting anything close to Machine Head,there's a serious risk of total dissapointment.The 70's were over,and unfortunaley so was a good share of Mk II's creativity as a group.The direct follower House of Blue light,however,would present a much worser result,so it's better just grab on the qualities of Perfect Strangers and enjoy a nice heavy rock album with no greater expectations.