![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice.jpg)
We listen to the new album, part 3 =1
The fine folks at earMUSIC have kindly allowed The Highway Star to review Deep Purple’s new album =1 ahead of its July 19 release date. We’re looking at a couple of songs per segment, and this time we’re opening with a full blown ballad replete with strings and painful lyrical conflict.
6 – If I Were You – opens calmly with a melody line from Simon McBride underpined by Glover’s signature choice of barely there yet superbly supportive bass notes.
Then we drift into a smooth and laidback ballad. At the forefront sits Ian Gillan’s sentimental voice with possibly the album’s greatest and most gripping vocals yet. Sounding both gentle and tormented in the here whispered there yelled delivery, Gillan’s voice is very much on the ball yet also displays the patina texture of 60+ years of experience. There’s a sturdy fragility here that carresses your ears in much the same way a beautifully aged and smoothly planed plank of oak receives the touch of your fingertips. Delicate, grained and strong.
Ian sings over a relaxed backing with Airey’s swelling Hammond chords creating a blissful atmosphere, and by the second verse we’re joined by the soothing sounds of a string section.
McBride turns in his best Steve Morse likeness on a melodic and gentle solo that slowly ascends to a beautiful climax. The tight band provide very classy backing while still letting a few fun details slip through – but always only so much as to support the song.
Towards the end, the’re an instrumental theme section with only backing vocals adding a lovely touch, then building up to a masterful crescendo ending.
The lyrics are worth a study. Your guess is as good as mine. I guess.
You hit me where it hurt
Left me face down in the dirt
You hit me with a cheap shot
Took me down, never gave it a thoughtI never saw it coming, especially from you
Right out of the blue
If I were you
If I were youAnd now you wanna make up
Put aside this little shake up
I don’t know what else there is to say
It all belongs to yesterdayLove and betrayal
Are not the best of friends
Getting back with you is the last thing on my mind
Without that feeling that goes against the grain
It can never be the same againIf I were you
If I were you
Why think of something when my blood runs cool?SOLO
Love and betrayal
Are not the best of friends
Getting back with you is the last thing on my mind
Without that feeling it goes against the grain
Can never be the same againIf I were you
If I were you
I’ll think of something when my blood runs cool
If I were you …
7 – Pictures of You – was the deceptively catchy second single off =1. You will all have heard it by now, and it offers an entirely different slant on McBride’s Purple with its super melodic delivery and tight backing. At first, confusing, then developing into a slow grower that by now just rests easy on the ears.
It chugs along quite nicely before getting a little bit busier and slighty funky during the bridge, ending in a manic laugh from Gillan as McBride and Airey take it upon themselves to embellish the riff even more.
Then, after another chorus, the mood suddenly intensifies and we drift off into a classically inspired, quiet, emotive and moody ending. Very beautiful – and it could have gone on for much longer (perhaps live?) – but suddenly we’re taken right into the next track.
8 – I’m Saying Nothin’ – Gillan exclaims the title, and we’re into a mid tempo groove with a thick and relaxed swagger. The songs is heavy with intent, sports a smartish delivery with colourful synth effects and layered vocals, all to pleasing effect.
The song feels loose, the band feels live and we’re together with them in the same room.
The bridge sees a subtle change of feel, then a break and go off into a wringing, dirty guitar solo from McBride who trades licks with Airey’s airborne fingers in a manner which really reaches out and grabs our attention.
A couple of interesting chord changes finish the solo, and we’re back with Ian Gillan. In terrific form for the final verse, he gets bitchy on the words, spits them out with disdain while claiming to not be saying a word, his lips are sealed – before the song comes to a boomy, sudden ending.
Possibly the least excellent track on the album yet, but the band’s effortless efforts still display an incredibly high standard.
Did you catch the brand new promo video for track 9, Lazy Sod? Someone at EarMUSIC let it out, and we found it on YouTube – yet it seems to only appear at infrequent intervals. Keep looking.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
How I have erred in my wavering faith, St Rasmus!
https://64.media.tumblr.com/7c6fffb15db9edfa3c03d674fadd9b1a/a13f0ea44ff5bd96-05/s540x810/3a20cdca8a2279f0c49cc22ef0de64762235334c.gifv
The lyrics to If I Were You could very well (also) apply to a certain banjo player we all know. They sure indicate that Big Ian really isn’t the forgiving type.
July 3rd, 2024 at 02:52Uwe, I’m not sure it is about the banjo player.
And now you wanna make up
Put aside this little shake up
I don’t know what else there is to say
It all belongs to yesterday
Don’t think the banjo player “wanna make up”!
July 3rd, 2024 at 09:55Yo,
2 & 2/7 weeks to go yo !
Peace !
July 3rd, 2024 at 10:05Thanks Rasmus !
Can’t wait to hear the ballad, Gillan is always incredible on that type of songs, I wish they/he record more of them.
And I can’t see the connexion with RB neither.
July 3rd, 2024 at 11:22My attension this time is not so much on another song from the coming album I´ll wait for the release of the album. No my attension is on the picture of Gillan and Glover..two old men with glasses talking about the songs lyrics..and then I look at my wall where there is a picture of Deep Purple from 1971..two young men at that time..but after all these years they are still at it!!
July 3rd, 2024 at 13:49Cheers!!
I think Ritchie has been wanting to make up – in his own slightly underhand and not always immediately recognizable way – for a long time, he’s been sending signals (that regularly shatter at Big Ian’s post-hurt-fortifications). One thing you can say about Blackmore is that he doesn’t bear grudges all that long (that is IG’s department), to him his DP days are now a distant memory bathed in a warm nostalgic light and all past strife has become hazy. He’s done well and so have DP.
And that is why, lieber David, exactly the lyric snippet you quoted let me to think of TMIB. I thought “that sounds so like Ritchie!” But who knows, I don’t profess to be the High Priest of Exegesis in Big Ian’s cavernous temple of lyrical might.
July 3rd, 2024 at 13:52Yo,
Who the heck is this guy Ritchie ???…And why are we discussing him ???…
Are we talking about some fellow who lives in a castle dressed like a gnome ???…
Spinal Tap indeed LOL !
@6 said…( regarding DP’s now Hobbit / Orc )
qt.”His DP days are now a distant memory bathed in a warm nostalgic light and all past strife has become hazy. He’s done well and so have DP”…
ROTFLMAO !
Peace !
July 4th, 2024 at 00:22I am not sure why some think the lyrics are autobiographical? Could be talking about anyone. Cheers
July 4th, 2024 at 06:10@8: Beacause with all artists, people seem to think everything they write has to come from their personal experience. If this was true, Dio would have had some really interesting experiences in his life. Also, DP fans like to squeeze in the IG/RB dispute into every little thing that concerns the band. I think these things take up way more time and space in the minds of the fans than it does among the ones actually involved. 🙂
July 4th, 2024 at 09:22Svante, you don’t actually mean to say that Dio did NOT have a pet dragon, did NOT do forced labor on a tower building site in Babylon, did NOT liberate green-sleeved damsels in distress, NEVER drowned a priest, FAILED to join an assassination squad against royalty and NEVER climbed that silver mountain? What a friggin’ fraud.
But Lady Starstruck did exist, she was a Ritchie stalker, you can’t take that away from me too!
And don’t you dare doubt the existence of Mitzi Dupree! It gets personal then. There is organic life between ping and pong.
July 4th, 2024 at 12:20Mitzi Dupree is 100% real. I’ve got a newspaper clipping of her being prosecuted somewhere in Canada.
July 4th, 2024 at 15:20Got my first couple of listens to the full LP. In a word… WOW!
July 4th, 2024 at 15:22@ 10
Well Uwe, The art of painting is the most abstract form out there, but Gillan/ Glover lyrics has gone above and beyond in the recent years. I mean take “ Loosen my Strings “ From the interview Of , Who would’ve thought that this song lyrics is done from the perspective of the guitar talking?! As much as Would like to Fantasize and draw conclusions Some of the songs are literally the story of their lives: Smoke on the water, Ted the mechanics
July 4th, 2024 at 20:26Uwe those ping pong balls you seem to be obsessed with are obscuring your ‘vision’ it seems. Freud would have good a client there me thinks. Cheers.
July 4th, 2024 at 23:21