WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE

Although not as strong as the proceding, legendary album Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are is a decent follow-up. The album is more similar to Fireball than Machine Head, not only by the variety in the songs, but with many of the song being about women (Woman From Tokyo, Mary Long, Smooth Dancer, Our Lady) like Anybody's Daughter, Strange Kind of Woman.

Woman From Tokyo was a big hit in America, and continues to get airplay. Mary Long isn't a particularly memorable song, but sort of serves as filler like other Purple albums. Super Trooper is an average heavy DP song. Smooth Dancer is a nice uptempo song that gets the album moving forward.

Rat Bat Blue, which used to start off Side 2, is more of the more progressive tracks. Based around a cowbell jam melody, the song goes back and forth between different accented riffs. Place in Line is another bluesy song, often favored by Blackmore and Gillan. The song shifts to a faster tempo for good effect. Our Lady is kind of bland, so the album kind of ends on a weaker than normal note.

All in all this isn't a bad album. It might take some getting used to, but it a must for any classic era Deep Purple fans.