Come Taste The Band - DEEP PURPLE***

Comin' Home/Lady Luck/Gettin' Tighter/Dealer/I Need Love/Drifter/Love Child/This Time Around-Owed To G (Medley)/You Keep On Moving

Come Taste The Band was the last Deep Purple studio album for nearly a decade. With three of the classic line up absent, critics dismissed it for its mediocrity and flirtation with a funky sound. (US:43 UK:19)

“Whatever this is, it's not Deep Purple. What we have here is a pale shadow of a once great hard rock band. Come Taste The Band has some good points but ultimately doesn't cut it if you're looking for some serious hard rock.”

“I love Deep Purple but David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and Tommy Bolin are not Deep Purple. Not even close! Ian Paice and Jon Lord must have wished they could wear brown paper bags over their heads. Actually this is not bad rock and roll with some nice guitar.”

“This is completely forgettable safe hard rock that doesn't suck but also doesn't really rock hard enough either. It’s the very definition of an unoffensive hard rock album you'd play in the background.”

“Blackmore has jumped ship and the awesome Tommy Bolin steps in much to the delight of Glenn Hughes who now had a partner in funk to work with. Gettin' Tighter is a great example of this with it's all out funk freak out mid section.”

“Deep Purple hit rock bottom here; this was scraping the very bottom of the barrel. It is tired, uninspired and formulaic paint-by-numbers rock.” “Not bad but far from their peak in the early 70s. Here they sound much more like a funk band with hard rock elements. Bolin and Hughes were the ones to blame in the end and not Coverdale who always had a magic voice. Still a good album, if only for the last two tracks.”

“My hopes were not too high when a Deep Purple album was released without guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore's name attached. Still, as a Purple fan I dared to purchase it, knowing little of the now revered guitarist Tommy Bolin. I quickly found Come Taste The Band as heavy-hitting and well written as any of the classic Purple albums. Bolin's ability to pen a catchy riff equal Blackmore's, and the combined voices of Coverdale and bassist Glenn Hughes never sounded as clear and enthusiastic.”