RAPTURE OF THE DEEP

I feel it is better than Bananas, better than Abandon, better than Purpendicular better than The House of Blue Light, and as good as Perfect Strangers

I would even say it can be compared to some of the stuff the band recorded before 1984.

This does not mean however, that it will revolutionize today rock scene or that it will be regarded as a milestone record. No. Simply because Deep Purple play classic rock 'n roll and today if you want to be on top you have to be trendy. But as we need good classic jazz, good classical music, or blues, we also need rock' roll.

And Rapture of the Deep brings a lot of damn good rock n' roll.

Why I think it is so good?

1) It is very well produced. The record has this live feel to it. The band plays spontaneously, it seems, it really reminds me of Perfect Strangers record in this respect. It has more organ sound which I missed on Abandon and Purpendicular.

2) No fillers and plenty of memorable songs. I love 9 out of 11 songs, I like the other two. Of course not all of them are so immediate as the title track or Clearly Quite Absurd, but if you give them a chance they will grow on you - even songs like Don't Let Go ( what a great organ solo - it reminds me of Jon solos from the 70's - in terms of the sound)

3) great stuff from Morse and Airey. I have never before heard so many good duels, and solos. Especially organ solos (I'm talking about Morse era now)

As I said there are many gems on this album though they are not so obvious from the start on

The obious ones are of course: 1) Rapture of the Deep - a great song. full stop. 2) Clearly Quite Absurd - oh what a fantastic ballad they have produced!! Damn, I had tears in my eyes when I listen to it. It is not only about the melody, it is also about the Airey - Morse stuff towards the end of the song. 3) Before Time Began - simply unbelieveable. And so surprising. This is progressive hard rock. Shame they would never (never say never) record the whole album in this vein 4) Junkyard Blues - just listen to the solos. Breathtaking 5) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye - great rocker, great stuff from Ian Paice 6) MTV - fantastic singing by Gillan, fanatstic lyrics, and very good solos 7) Back to Back - great swinging chorus and what a surprising solo from Don!

I will not review the rest of the songs though all of them are really good.

Great album by the great band.

Congratulations guys. At last!!!

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