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“The perfect blend”
The Highway Star reader Mike Nagoda reviews =1.
Oh my freaking god… I haven’t felt this way about a Purple record since I heard Purpendicular, Steve Morse’s first outing with the band, which was released in ‘96, which I first heard over twenty years ago when I was in my twenties (I’m 38 now, in case you’re keeping track!).
=1 is the perfect blend of the Blackmore and Morse Eras. With this record, Deep Purple have hit a home run and have struck gold for possibly the third or fourth time in their career, which is something very few bands can pull off. It is the perfect balance between the riff driven, driving hard rock of In Rock and the complex, prog based world of Purpendicular. Rather than go track by track, I’d like to say something about each of the band members and their contributions to this amazing record.
New guitarist Simon McBride brings back the urgency, energy and riff based rock of Mk 2 while maintaining the complex prog era of Mks 7 and 8. He is fresh kick in the arse – punchy, in your face, take no prisoners! His solos just GRAB you, just like Ritchie did, and I am so glad that kind of energy has returned to the band! He is also happy, complex and thoughtful in his playing style, just like Steve was, and is truly the best of both worlds!
And, I am glad to see that he asserted himself in the studio and that thankfully Bob Ezrin was not able to curb his enthusiasm for flurries of notes in his amazing, AMAZING guitar solos!! And did I mention he has feel and taste for days?? You’re damn right he does!! Simon McBride is that perfect blend and middle ground between the aggression, gusto and drive of Ritchie Blackmore and the thoughtfulness, joy and complexity of Steve Morse, and is the absolute perfect guitarist for Deep Purple at this time. How lucky are they to have him in what is probably the final chapter of their long and great career!
Don Airey is a force to be reckoned with on this record, and I love that he makes a statement by having so many Mini Moog solos (no Hammond solos until Portable Door, which is track 4 on the record – a bold move, and I love it!!!) and puts his own stamp on the record! And when the Hammond does show up, it howls, and Don absolutely goes for the jugular with his solos – my favourite Hammond moment is the utterly BONKERS passage at the end of his solo on Lazy Sod, and it very much reminds me of passages Jon Lord would improvise live with the band, and it brought a huge smile to my face!
My ONE complaint for this record is that sometimes, the Hammond isn’t distorted enough, and the organ solos are a bit low in the mix over all. It’s funny – during the Morse Era Ezrin albums, I always felt Don was too high in the mix, and Steve wasn’t loud enough, and now I feel Don needs to come up a touch and Simon down a bit in places.
Aside from this, and too much compression in the mix overall (I’m not a fan of Bob’s production style/sound, but that’s a matter of personal taste and is frankly irrelevant to how freaking good this record is), these are my only criticisms!
Roger Glover is strong and dependable as always, and gets some nice moments with a few nice bass lines towards the end of the album Ian Paice is roaring again and finally gets to let loose in so many spots, and even gets a great drum solo on this record – something we haven’t heard since Space Truckin’ on Machine Head!! Finally, Bob Ezrin has learned that Deep Purple cannot be contained, especially the mighty rhythm section of Mr. Paice and Mr. Glover, and has stepped back and allowed the band to really cut loose! The rhythm section is thunderous and rocking again, at long last!!!
And then there’s Ian Gillan, who is sounding his absolute best in thirty years. I love the pseudo rapping he does in places, especially on the opening track, Show Me, and while his age does show, he is singing with so much ferociousness and gusto here, that age matters not! And yes we even get some screams full of raw, Gillan energy!!!!
He is also singing higher in his register than on the previous Ezrin produced albums, and I for one am impressed – I was worried the most about Ian’s vocals, given that he is now 80 years old, and out of all the band members, he has impressed me the most! On I’ll Catch You, he gives what may be one of the finest vocal performances in his entire career – I literally had chills running up and down my spine, what an immaculate performance!
The songs on this record are fresh, punchy, and in your face, with a grand return to the riff based, hundred miles an hour energy that Purple are known for. The first three songs – Show Me, A Bit On The Side and Sharp Shooter – are a relentless assault and do not let up in the best way possible. There is not a bad song on the record – they’re all incredibly strong, and the best songwriting the band has put out since Purpendicular!!!
Simon McBride has brought a fresh shot of life to the band, just like Steve Morse did in ’96, and because of it, the band has produced their best record in the last 30 years, if not the last 40!!! This record is the perfect companion to Purpendicular and In Rock, both of which gave the band new life and fresh blood, and are my favourite two Purple records. =1 now joins them, tied for the #1 spot in my books because of the fact that I can’t tell which of them I like more. That, I think, is the best compliment I can give this record.
If you have not heard this record, it is, my own mixing preferences aside, a perfect record, and a home run in every way. Deep Purple are back in the most glorious way possible, and have produced quite possibly one of their best works with =1. If you haven’t checked it out, or you left during the Morse years, please, get off your arse, and listen to it now – you won’t be disappointed, I promise you! It’s an absolute masterpiece! If this is to be their final record, what a hell of a way to end their career!
Well done boys, well done. I knew you had it in you, still. I’ve been waiting for this record for years, and all I can say is that the wait was damn well worth it! All I can say is, thank you: you’ve all brought back the smile to my face when I first heard you when I was 19 years old listening to this record, and I felt like a teenager again, grinning from ear to ear. Thank you so much, for everything you’ve given me and the rest of us over the years.
All I can say is, you’ve done the almost impossible and struck gold again with =1, which is no small feat. A job very well done, indeed!
Favourite Tracks: All of them!!!
Rating: 10/10
Mike Nagoda
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Well done, Mike, nice perspective looking at the record from POV of each of the masters’ input. We seem to share the opinion over the mix balance issues and the bitting compression feel, but the performance is top-notch in many places and that’s what would count in the very end. I myself wouldn’t go as far as putting “Equals One” on the same level as “Purpendicular” but you’re right about the assumption that with passing time this will be one of the cornerstone LPs of Purple catalogue. And it’s great to feel about it like this.
July 21st, 2024 at 17:37Oh my, there we have it, Mike has uncontrollably fallen in love! 🥰
It’s a complex disease largely uncharted in its many serious repercussions. No one is safe. 😑
July 21st, 2024 at 20:22It’s a pity that I live in a country where mail doesn’t arrive so quickly. Great review Mike, especially considering how much you love Steve (I do too).
July 21st, 2024 at 21:00nice review, well done!
starting to read your reviews the fact that comes out is that Purple with the legendary Steve were falling asleep in the compositions, while now they have awakened more creative and stronger!…it’s the reality inside every note of the new songs.
July 21st, 2024 at 22:48I completely agree with the reviewer: the fertile offspring of In Rock and Purpendicular. For instance, the unapologetic and raw aggression of opener Show Me reminds me of Speed King (track 1, side 1 on In Rock). I suspect Simon has applied great musical intelligence to the question of respecting the legacy of his predecessors without crude imitation or pastiche.
I could admire and enjoy the three previous Bob Ezrin albums, but this is the first one that thrills me. It’s what I’d been hoping for, but had never expected to hear–full, even maximum, Purple. It feels like the gloves have been taken off. And I don’t hear any of the “touches” that Ezrin added to its predecessors–the talking, the sound effects, the strange endings–which were not to my taste. I wonder whether the boys put their collective foot down.
July 22nd, 2024 at 00:16Mike has definitely been to the lolly store & has eaten far too much sugar etc, whew, 10 out of 10. In my world in which I do try to keep things in perspective, no album is a ten out of ten. There are plenty of nines & even a few at nine & a half. There is alway something that could or should have been done & that is the way it should be, we are all humans after all. The new DP album is rather good in places, a good effort from all. However in the grand scheme of things, time will tell where it stands. Each to their own as we often say. I also do think back to the covers album Turning to Crime. Even though that was completed in ‘trying’ times & also to keep them busy etc, it had me wondering. Are DP stumped perhaps & possibly looking at something else. Some new energy & influence. It is all coincidental & now hindsight kicks in & it could easily look like that. It is just the way things have evolved with everyone in DP. Time waits for no-one as we know. Cheers.
July 22nd, 2024 at 01:08Yo,
Mike Nagoda said…
qt.”This record is the perfect companion to Purpendicular and In Rock, both of which gave the band new life and fresh blood, and are my favourite two Purple records”…
Hmmm, I wish that damned mail-man would hurry-up…I’ve been cranking-up “Rapture of the Deep” all day in anticipation…
Peace !
July 22nd, 2024 at 13:07Everyone:
Thank you for your kind words – Macgregor, your comment about me having far too much sugar has me laughing over here – but honestly, I was like a kid in a candy shop listening to this record, so I think that description perfectly describes how I felt upon listening to =1 for the first time.
The songs have only gotten stronger for me upon repeat listens – Herr Uwe is correct, I have fallen completely in love with this record, and that’s ok!
With respect to Steve and his legacy in the band, I think he was absolutely the right guitarist for Purple for 28 years – without him, you wouldn’t have gotten all the prog influences to come forward, for the band to even continue existing, and this record would not be possible. He was what Purple needed at the time – and now they need Simon McBride. Both Steve and the band are happy where they are in life, and if they’re both happy, then as a fan I’m happy too!
Is Simon a better fit like even Steve says he is? I don’t know about “better” – he’s certainly the right guitarist for the band at this time, just like Steve was in ’94. I wasn’t sure about him at first – I thought he was a bit of a Blackmore clone on first impression, and this amazing record has completely disabused me of that notion. I think I like him almost as much as I like Steve (who will always be my number one Purple banjo player), and definitely much more than I like Ritchie’s playing, so I think that’s saying something! I can’t wait to hear more from him with the band if possible!!
To clarify on my rating – I knew I wasn’t going to like the mix going in because I just don’t like how Bob mixes things, so I knew what I was getting going in, and I put that to the side. The rating is based on the music, musicianship, songwriting and performance – on those things, it’s a solid 10. Purpendicular is probably technically a 10.1 only because I love the sound of that record and much prefer Roger’s production and the engineering to Bob’s, but we can’t have everything, can we?
Thanks again for your kind words all of you – I actually live in Toronto where the album was recorded, and know the studio it was recorded at (I was looking at recording there myself because it had a Hammond – I wonder if Don played it!). I’ll definitely be seeing the boys live when they come to Toronto, and I’ll let you all know how it goes – cheers!
July 22nd, 2024 at 13:30These Canucks are really an over-emotional bunch – get a grip, Mike! 😆
And thanks for making us all feel like on Christmas Day all over again.
July 22nd, 2024 at 15:11Let me put in a good word for Turning to Crime, which I thought was great fun, no more and no less. I was struck by the energy of the playing on it–and surprised because they weren’t in the same room to record it. And the band then still included Steve, so I don’t think the change is all down to Simon.
July 22nd, 2024 at 16:56Uwe: I promise you it’s not Canadians that are overly emotional, just me!
As for making you lot feel like it’s Christmas day again, I think the band did that, not me 😉
July 22nd, 2024 at 17:02@ 4
July 22nd, 2024 at 17:55Flavio, I think you sum it up very well – “falling asleep in compositions”. I mean, whenever Purple get too comfy and safe for long period – the sleaze creeps in to some extent, and so it was in recent years. We’ll do another session,
Steven will come up with something decent, we record it and then we’ll wear his right wrist to shreds with the relentless touring… It had to give out at some point. I must admit that with all our focus now on Simon, I start to feel a bit for Steve now. He’s a Beethoven of the electric guitar, the difference being that Ludwig was losing hearing and Steve is suffering the hand nerves issues (wonder if it’s alike to the case that ruined Keith Emerson’s hand). He’s clearly not giving up, though and I hope that with his return to SMB he’s just happy to be doing what he does best now, being as much happy as he can, given the circumstances. I’d love him to get Flying Colours on again, the fourth album from them would be great thing to have.
Yes, reactivate Flying Colors subito!
July 22nd, 2024 at 20:49@ 12- I am not sure Steve’s hand/wrist issue is similar to Keith Emerson’s problem. A long time memory of Keith’s problem which initially emerged back in the 1990’s was that it was in the forearm area, but perhaps I should do some research before I say anything. Especially if Uwe is reading, I will be drawn & quartered, he he. Cheers.
July 22nd, 2024 at 23:14@ 8 – all good Mike & that description & feeling is something many of us have experienced in life for similar & other reasons. It is a good feeling indeed. Glad you enjoy the album. 10.1 for Purpendicular, I have heard of things going to 11 but that was a volume control from memory. Yes I agree regarding rating on songs etc, good songs are still liked very much even with poor sound quality. It is the songs always for me too. Purpendicular sounds great to my ears. Cheers
July 22nd, 2024 at 23:28Yo,
@8 said…
qt.” I think I like him*(Simon) almost as much as I like Steve (who will always be my number one Purple banjo player), and definitely much more than I like Ritchie’s playing, so I think that’s saying something !… I can’t wait to hear more from him with the band if possible” !!!
Well said ! I suggest more people are in alignment with the above statement than is realized, but are too reserved to speak-out as yet.
Peace!
July 23rd, 2024 at 01:22It was just out of a longing for Steve’s guitar that I listened to myself in parallel with =1 the first FC album. Oh my god… There are no weak moments there! Obviously the styling is different from Deep Purple, but I love it!
The problem with Flying Colours is probably that there are too many term dependencies there, but I would very much like to….
July 23rd, 2024 at 08:52@ 12 -I did a little research, (Uwe, take note) and Keith Emerson’s hand issue was a form of “Focal dystonia & is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary movements or muscle spasms. From over use or repetitive stress and tends to affect musicians amongst others with the curling of the fingers into the palm of the hand”. He did have a early 90’s operation but that only delayed further issues, unfortunately it did return a few times & it was becoming a permanent issue. Something along those lines. RIP Keith.
July 24th, 2024 at 06:30Flying Colrs is sophisticated pop that tries to sneak in as much prog as it can! 😂
And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I really like that band and think that it is a great fit for Steve & Dave LaRue.
July 24th, 2024 at 15:36