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Bananas
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Reviews of Bananas Interviews New album stuff Related sites Imaginary reviews |
My, oh my. When they say EMI has decided Deep Purple's new album will be a priority release it means this: I was taken to a conference room at EMI Greece, and left alone to listen to the advance CD, which is watermarked (so they'll trace it if it appears on the net). They won't give a copy to anyone for the time being, perhaps they'll let some slip a fortnight before release (August 24). Record labels do this with artists of the stature of, say, Metallica. Good news. :-)
Immense sound, great orchestrations: female vocals, harmonicas, pianos, synths, effects, but all done very tastefully, it's definitely Deep Purple. Progressive Deep Purple. :-) Don Airey is possibly the star of the show, he provides the most varied keyboard sound on a DP record since The House Of Blue Light in 1987. I don't think there's any Jon on it, at least I couldn't detect any. Don gives it some classic Hammond sounds and solos, though. Steve sounds like Steve - and like Blackmore in places. Roger is all over the place, a huge presence, Paicey is God, and Gillan is in very fine voice with lots of variety singing-wise. There's 4 songs (Walk On, Never A Word, Doing it Tonight, Contact Lost) that sound like nothing DP have ever done. Is this good? Yes it is. The CD opens with House of Pain, which is a very catchy, classic mid-tempo DP song, sort of like Bad Attitude but better (Oops, there goes another THOBL reference), with screams, guitar/organ trade solo, harmonica solo, in short a great live song. Sun Goes Down is slow-to-mide tempo, very heavy with a fat hammond intro and "treated" vocals. Razzle Dazzle is very commercial sounding, great funny lyrics, with a honky tonk piano solo. Silver Tongue is a "typical", angular Morsey riff with a great call-and-response vocal bit. Walk On - a slow blues, one of the absolute highlights of the album, delicate bluesy guitar, piano and organ to the fore, and some INCREDIBLE singing. This cries out for a 20-minute live version with jams. Pictures of Innocence starts as a shuffle and develops to an Almost Human-like tempo and feel, fantastic lyrics, incredible organ solo, one hell of a song. Never a Word you'll hear and won't believe your ears : it's possibly Episode Six, could be The Byrds, even the Beatles! I can't really describe it, it's a great song that will stick in your memory and you'll hum it for ages. What a vocal performance! The title track Bananas is a fast, aggressive song which reminds me a bit of Cascades, the lyrics are amazing, even referring to Alice in Wonderland at some point. The solos you'll have to hear to believe! It goes a bit baroque towards the end, and Gillan plays it out with some tasty harmonica. Doing it Tonight is funky as hell, with a sort of a jerky rhythm pattern, agressive lyrics and vocals. Great song, but too short... ....as is the case with Contact Lost. It's approx. a minute and a half, an instrumental with plaintive guitar that sounds unlike anything Steve has played in his whole career, I think. Again I can't really describe it, but even if you didn't know the circumstances after which it was written, you'll be moved to tears. I was. On listening to the CD, I caught myself quite a few times standing up and exclaiming "YES!!!! This is Deep Purple! Well done!". And that's all I can say, really. What a band... Rog, if you're reading this, congratulations to all six of you, mate, this is fantastic. August 24 is so damn far away... :-(
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