Deep Purple – DEEP PURPLE***

Chasing Shadows/Blind/Lalena/Fault Line-The Painter/Why Didn’t Rosemary/Bird Has Flown/April

The eponymous third album was the last from Deep Purple with the original members. With the introduction of their classic line up on their next studio album the group would enjoy a huge surge in popularity. (US:162)

“Quite nice psychedelic and progressive rock, with some slight blues in it as well. Not that much of a Deep Purple sound. Rather variable music, ranging from totally creative to rather boring, so the standard of the material is not the best possible.”

“The original band's last album. The musicianship is excellent, but no solid songwriting. Few of the songs on this album will be familiar to anyone. Deep Purple had at least developed an identifiable sound - there are elements of British blues and psychedelia, and also classical music in Jon Lord`s organ playing.”

“Deep Purple's worst album, by far. They were mostly uninspired, giving no hint that they were about to explode into glory on their very next release.”

“Even more diverse than their earlier two, this one is inconsistent and patchy at best. They do continue to explore new corners of this burgeoning genre, and this one experiments with Lord's classical inclinations, as well as providing some twelve bar boogie blues, and some heavy stuff too. The final release featuring this line-up.”

“This record is much more 60s sounding meaning it is quite psychedelic in parts, also progressive, classical and some bluesy elements added to the hard rock/proto heavy metal. Even if it doesn’t sound like what came later, it still has those elements which were instrumental in the creation of metal music.”

“A very underrated album. Probably in large part because it has nothing in common with the proto-metal sound they would perfect on the following three albums. But in its own way, this is just as good as those that would follow. It shows a different side of the band. Instead of loud chugging metal riffs we get blues jams, psychedelic tinged songs, and moody progressive rock. This style actually shows how good they are as musicians, just as good if not better than the later heavy stuff. It's not a masterpiece, but the songwriting is very consistent, and there aren't many covers.”