I'm buying a copy of this next week, but I've now heard it all the way through. WOW. Best album they've done in years. Seriously. I'm going nto do a full review in the next week or so after I've had a chance to listen to it a few more times, but I'm really impressed. I was listening to Rush's 'Clockwork Angels' a while ago and thinking "wow, these guys are still finding stuff". With this one, it was, "wow, these guys are finding new stuff, or stuff they haven't had in decades". It is really good. Guys who are amazingly at the top of their game. Big kudos to producer Bob Ezrin, I suspect. Check it out! Album teaser: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePb78Ont8Ts[/yt] All The Timer In The World: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxPhHRDJ4TM[/yt] Hell To Pay: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sAe7XW9WGE[/yt]
Yeah, they're still a really great band. I was a huge Steve Morse fan long before he joined DP or Kansas. Back in his Dixie Dregs & solo days. That said, I miss Blackmore as a rock guitarist, especially in this band. And nobody can really quite replace Jon Lord. What I've heard of this album, it reminds me of House Of Blue Light, which wasn't one of their best, even though that one had the MkII lineup.
More is technically a better guitarist than Blackmore and Don Airey is probably as able as the late Jon Lord. However, without their very distinctive sounds, I don't think of it as really being Purple. I saw them touring about 10 years ago when Lordy was still in the band but the new stuff was greeted with polite indifference at best. There was a 'Classic Albums' doc on the other night about the making of Machine Head. Now that was an album. I had to find the CD and whack it on in the car after watching the doc.
Both of you are correct, in that DP isn't quite as good as MkIII, but this album goes a long way to redress that. One of my complaints about Morse, fine as he is, is he's a bit widdly-widdly. Here he gets down and crunches, more like Blackmore but still very much his own stuff And Airey has to bear Lord's legacy, but he's starting to step out into the light more here. The thing I like is here we're hearing genuine Mk VIII, inventive, powerful, its own beast, its own creation, with all band members writing the songs like the old days. Dare I say it... it's a little more prog than straight ahead rock. These are good songs. I rate this ahead of the last couple, which I thought were okay to fine, and I rate it ahead of 'Blue Light'. I can see this being a high rotation on my playlist kind of album.
^ You know MkIII had Coverdale & Hughes, right? Another version that was it's "own beast" and great in and of itself. And obviously Morse & Airey can't, and shouldn't, try to be Blackmore & Lord. I like that it's Airey in fact. He's been around a long time, including a couple latter day Rainbow albums. He a great keyboardist.
^Whoops, my bad! Mk II (and IIa) of course. I was a Mk III fan, 'Burn' is a great album. 'Stormbringer', with minimal Blackmore participation, not so much, though I like 'Hold On' and 'Soldier of Fortune'. And 'Made in Europe' has its moments. The real problem with Mk III is that egos began to get in the way, and the problems they went through at that time (drugs etc).
I listened to Burn today. It's a bloody great album, not least of all the title track and Mistreated.
Really like 'Sail Away' as well. 'Burn' I think is one of the great unknown rock songs. That and 'Comin' Home' from the Mk IV album (very underrated, but not really DP).