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Shows its age
Riff magazine reviews the new album =1, not without some criticism. We (well, most of us) will have to wait another week to see for ourselves how valid those concerns are.
New guitarist Simon McBride meshes with the band well, as expected for someone who’s been touring with them for a few years, and the songwriting remains solid. The band simply set the bar too high with Whoosh! In 2020 Deep Purple didn’t sound like a legacy act. Those songs were fresh and fit seamlessly with the output from the band’s prime. But =1 most definitely feels like it was made by a half-century-old band.
A big part of the change is Ian Gillan’s voice. On single “Portable Door,” for example, the guitar and keyboard solos remain very good and the drumming feels roughly the same as it always has, but the vocals suffer. That’s not a knock on Gillan, who turns 80 next year. The aged delivery is not a bad thing, either. Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series is some of his best work not despite but because of the changes in his voice. But the songs need to be written with that in mind, which doesn’t seem like something the band is used to yet.
Read more in Riff.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I think that review really tries to be fair. But by his own admission
“Daniel is a diehard Oakland Athletics fan, and will one day follow Metallica on tour.”
the writer is a Metallica head and, realistically, Purple are not in the business to appeal to modern day heavy metal enthusiasts. There might be no heavy metal today without DP, but the paths of the genres separated decades ago.
And a bit of nostalgia is for a bunch of geezers this old quite ok. Conceptually, the key component of the DP sound, namely the guitar/organ interplay, stems from the late 60s/early 70s and no one remotely interested in the band wants to see that given up. It’s Purple’s DNA.
July 14th, 2024 at 22:42Well I have quite opposite view. If anything the whoosh was more pedestrian. Gillan voice is shaking here and there but current attitude is more up to it…. And 1 seems to be much better album then the last one…
July 14th, 2024 at 23:26Does the album sound too 70’s or 80’s compared to the latest ones with Morse which were more modern? Optimal!
July 15th, 2024 at 04:52“The band just raised the bar with Whoosh!” In my opinion, Woosh is not a hard rock album and bears very little resemblance to the DP sound. I think it’s the worst Purple album. Based on =1’s songs, the new album promises to be much better than this one. Real Deep Purple.
July 15th, 2024 at 11:35What? Not sure what this gentleman is listening to!
July 15th, 2024 at 14:58From what l heard Gillian sounds damn good( and once again cerebral )for his decades.
Whoosh was great – this seems to be more gritty.
Wish we would quit being teased – send me my copy!
💣 🎶
July 15th, 2024 at 18:56https://youtu.be/naBrUcidAwI?si=CvY6p047Dg0IPJeK
4 day to wait!
As far as I can tell, Ian Gillan’s been sounding the same throughout the last four releases or so.
Agree with the reviewer that Whoosh sounded fresh. It’s a great album.
From the three =1 songs released, I really enjoyed Pictures of You — very unique song compared to the existing Purple catalogue. Looking forward to listening to the whole album on Friday.
July 15th, 2024 at 20:36@4, I think grading Woosh! as the worst DP album is a hard opinion, but.. it’s yours. Mine is that it’s a great album, with lotta smart, risky and powerfull songs like Throw the bones, Nothing at all, step by step, what the what or the simphonic Man alive, with Ian’s grandiose lyrics, spoken with his unique beautiful voice.
July 15th, 2024 at 21:31From what we’ve been hearing so far from the new album – the songs released as well as the ones they have yet played on stage – I’m sure it will be astonishing. I would never, never, NEVER have said in 2013, when Now What?! was released, that they still had 4 more monsters to go, the last one now, in 4 days, in July 2024. It’s just amazing.
Let’s celebrate and enjoy it, for it’s worth.
Whoosh! wasn’t quite as good as Now What?!, but better than Infinite, which wasn’t terrible, just not as good as the other two, the songwriting was more interesting on them.
I didn’t mind Turning To Crime either, but you can’t really compare it to own material albums of DP.
I won’t be comparing =1 to the albums with Steve, it’s the begin of a new era just like In Rock, Burn, Come Taste The Band, Slaves & Masters and Purpendicular were.
July 17th, 2024 at 15:51Somebody plese tell the reviewer ;
July 17th, 2024 at 18:03This is a “Deep Purple” album.
I have to agree with this review
July 22nd, 2024 at 15:02Sorry, people Gillian is Gillian he can’t change the voice that was given to him. And why would you want him to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
July 23rd, 2024 at 11:51