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“There’s a magic space”
The Highway Star reader Marcin Karski reviews =1
We have it in our hands, at last! The craved, the anticipated new Deep Purple album. And, boy, oh boy, what a joy it is, indeed. There’s a lot to cover on it, so let’s do it in a bit of an unusual way.
What’s UGLY about the album?
The cover. With the brand of Deep Purple being in its 56th year – this sleeve (you can’t call it artwork, can you?) is downright lousy, a cringe-feast. I mean, come on, I ain’t no pro designer (although I’ve done plenty of fan-artworks for records over the years), but for a few bob I really could come up with something that would be interesting for the eyes of the listener – and still carry the message that the band intends to put in the title.
At least some style in the choice of font, at least some purple colour to it. This is just OMG so bad. But at least with the events unfolding – it proved to be about the worst aspect of the release.
What’s BAD?
The choice of leading single. Portable Door proves to be the worst track of the whole album, sounding like a cover band attempt to rewrite Pictures of Home, but with far lesser effect.
Only the solos in it are good and engaging, the rest qualifies for an unmemorable B-side. Luckily the next choices proved to be far more premium shots at Deep Purple receiving radio play again, without the tracks losing a hard rock identity and integrity. No sell out there!
I can’t help having a few production issues with the album. The drum sound is really weird on some of the tracks – hisses to my ears like in a badly compressed mp3 file – up to the point where I’m really checking in my own hearing, but hey – I play it from the original CD! What’s going on?
Some instrument plans feel also weird – a few of Don’s organ solos are under-mixed in the soundscape, in other places guitar or vocals are strangely upfront. Compared to Martin Birch’s book of rules in producing a pristine sound for DP – the sound of the record is messy and unnatural in places, and it hasn’t been that weird since Rapture of the Deep.
The band is of age, so they can have issues with clear hearing, but you do work with young engineers in the studio (as seen on the documentaries) – do they suffer hearing issues too?
There are two brainfarts in production too, that really raise my eyebrows, anytime. The segue between Pictures of You and I’m Saying Nothing. Such a beautiful piece of music is used as a bridge to another song without any logical connection or development of an idea! It just sounds as somebody would have messed up the running order of the tracks in the mix. Not to mention losing such a beautiful peace not worked out into a classic Deep Purple track.
The other one is the lone record’s fade-out on Now You’re Talking. Easily among the best tracks of the whole record – the cut-down is there and it sounds like Bob and the bunch have stampeded in panic over the fader and made it irretrievable after final mixing.
Why not let the soloist go even more mad over the closing section of this splendid Mad Dog like rocker? Lack of conclusive but well thought solutions makes this a true WTF moment during the listening.
NEUTRAL / SO-SO area?
There are few more moments that make you think why the songs – while being mostly from solid to splendid – aren’t allowed more space for improvisation. Like in A Bit on the Side where Simon is stretching the strings low and rowdy for the first time. Gillan takes over, but the purple instinct of play almost screams – let loose there, let it build, give him time to stretch and play some!
It really was of a concern that most of the 13 tracks on the record tick around the 4 minute mark on counter, like someone is trying to trim Deep Purple into a song band, instead of staying true to their let loose and go mad reputation from the heyday. It did not come out all that bad in the end, but the tracks like those mentioned above that make you think were restrained by force to lack space and letting loose, which even Morse’s era deployed splendidly at times.
Now how about the GOOD THINGS?
The sound of the new line-up. There will be a battle of cheap shots between die-hard Morse fans, who are clearly bummed with the fact that the band didn’t want to retrieve Steve’s position after his family situation unfolded, and those for whom it feels that Simon’s coming as a permanent member to the band – Deep Purple sounds like Deep Purple again.
Sure, Si is not a wizard and guitar visionary on the level Steve Morse always was and will always be. But he’s an islander who fits the other four Brits – and it’s telling loud and clear in the way they mesh together. Simon has a grit and raunchy in his playing that a hard rock guitar requires, and for the DP sound it’s a must have. The chords need to have the low bottom on long sounds, the swagger and the buzz must happen from time to time. He can apply the bite and the danger that Steve – in all his strive for precision and progressive flavour – was ditching down well since 2013.
Few would argue that it’s a step back in musical credibility for Deep Purple, but actually it’s not a regress. They are not supposed to be pioneers anymore – as “Classic Rock” noted – nobody expect from them another Purpendicular like style curveball. It’s the return to the sound that makes them so engaging to a hard rock ear, just as it always was in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. And as you see it by now in other reviews – it’s a more than welcome return to the fold for many of the listeners.
If I was to choose between the visionary and progressive leanings of Purple sound versus their classic rollicking hard-rock, that maybe isn’t breaking new grounds BUT is straight-in-your-face turn-it-up-loud and head bang – I want the latter. And I have it in freight train wagon quantity on that record, which I just love.
Any AMAZING things out there?
Oh man, there might be too many to list it out properly. The band is tight and does sound reinvigorated in a way that they were not since Now What!?. It’s such a great thing to happen upon the guys (bar Si) almost knocking doors of the age of 80.
The songwriting is strong, it may not trash the rock tables upside down, but it’s really been a while since 2013 that on a Purple record 8 of 13 tracks were belters and the remaining 5, while being workman-like or not cohesive – are still at least in parts engaging (Sharp Shooter, Portable Door, I’m Saying Nothing, Money To Burn, I’ll Catch You). The last one – while Gillan’s vocal delivery is beautiful, really falls too much with compositional aspects into a Gary Moore tribute song. [Editor’s Note: Wasn’t this section supposed to describe the amazing things?]
If I Were You – I’m unconvinced with the bridge-chorus part – it’s really tacky by numbers and doesn’t sit well with the wonderful leading motive by guitar and excellent closing part with echoing vocals emphasizing the title! I would add there a longer section with guitar keyboard solos employing the echo / delay / speakers left-right roll-over repeats. So it’s a very strange to taste mix of uninspired bits and genius rolled into one song.
Pictures Of You and Lazy Sod are splendid takes of melodic rock, that will bite your head through the ears and keep you humming them for days and days. This is perfect balance between sounding accessible but not commercial, whilst not losing an inch of the style or integrity. Marvellous, they saved the hopes for glory after the unconvincing 1st single.
Show Me and A Bit on the Side are the best opening two-punch since A Simple Song and Weirdistan, convincing, engaging and oh-boy so rolling and tumbling with swagger and delivery.
Solo spots just kill (and Don makes a great use of Moog synthesizer on this record, not restraining himself to Hammond only). Gillan finally sounds uncaged and sinister again in his vocal deliveries (lovely story of Charlene) and Simon really blows out the powder barrel on the latter with his solo, applying some nasty sounds along with classy licks there.
The other big kick favourites are Old Fangled Thing – sweet mix of Things I Never Said / Lazy shuffle feel with dodgy riff – the soloists chasing themselves like the happiest dogs on the playfield and Gillan again with his “so fucking what!” attitude and screaming just once more his head off. Gotta love it.
Marvellously stunning Now You’re Talking, the stomp, the drive, the energy threatening to throw you off the road, balls to the ground. Again badly under-developed with the space to let the soloists loose – but when they have their bit to kick in – oh, boy, do they deliver in spades. I so wish this was played live with giving Si and Don a chance to go crazy on it. They have the rapport together – they had it for more than decade now.
And last but not least – the proggy kitchen sink of Bleeding Obvious, where you almost feel like 5 songs are crammed into one. Starts a bit like Rush’s Tom Sawyer outro, but then it goes like a real roller coaster of ideas, hinting with the Eastern ways to the oriental pomp of Rapture of the Deep.
Extra mention must go to the most beautiful Ian Gillan vocal delivery of entire album. In the very middle of Bleeding Obvious in the bridge, there’s a magic space where his middle to low uber-melodic voice harkens back to his best days – showing us in full glory why his throat was and still is a golden egg of the British hard rock. The track is so crammed with bits, pieces, changes and rollups of ideas, that you almost feel it should blow apart at the seams, but ultimately it holds up and delivers like very few Purple prog-bombs before (I still love Before Time Began folks!). That’s so g’damn rewarding!
The record ends and the silence is killing you, you do want to spin it on again. And it really didn’t feel that good, engaging and enthralling for more than a decade!
And that, I think is good for a conclusion. The album isn’t without its faults and issues, but as a whole it stands oh so tall and strong. It shows a band confident, tight, with bold attitude, (hey Graham! See the mushy peas are ON!), sounding like they new found a formula to please themselves with the new stuff while not missing to excite and please their long time followers at last. And that makes me super happy for them.
As well as I’m so happy that the hype stimulated around the release and the way the world receives the new sound and material is so embracing and enthusiastic. Who deserves it better than them? Sure, there will be critiques and moaners of a closed Morse era, but if that’s a new one to come, I dig it, a lot.
Bring it on boys, and while you’re back in town – keep it up! And yo! Hey, yes, you! Do yourself a favour and crank the old-fangled thing up loud and proud!
Marcin Karski, © 2024
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Finally an objective review, not just oh, ah, great 😉
But I remember Marcin from the Polish fanclub days and I know what he is capable of. Well done!
For me this album is too long – they should cut it down to the length of one old LP, then it would be a great album. And so there are too many weaker moments, and unfortunately the genius is missing…
As I wrote earlier – IG has to have a brilliant guitarist next to him to show genius. It doesn’t matter if he’s in conflict with him or likes him – the important thing is that this guitarist forces him to do it. There have been 3 such guitarists in DP, and my namesake (;-)) is great, but not a genius.
Greetings from Wieliczka!
July 21st, 2024 at 15:18Thanks for your kind words Simon! I think it’s important not to be blinded by the hype and see things clear. I like what we got a lot and I feel great that finally I have it like this (it wasn’t a case for long time with previous albums). There are always things that can be improved. And you’re right about the friction factor working as a benefit for the result with Gillan. Still I think that the days of guitar geniuses on hand in large numbers are over – so better to have an adept guy who really fits, blends styles and YET manages to kick the old tarts in the butt a bit. He did it here and you hear it. Genius it isn’t – but it is effective and that’s what counts. Energy spill is tangible. We will crave for that at our 80 too, I can tell you😅🤭
July 21st, 2024 at 18:53Good review. Thanks. If I may to contribute: less Gillan, and more space to the band could have done better.
July 21st, 2024 at 21:46Marcin,
July 21st, 2024 at 22:29Great review i agree with your perspective. One difference would be that I have I will catch you in much higher regard than Old Tingled Thing or whatever the proper word in the title is. I keep forgetting it.
excellent review,
you too, like me, noticed that in a couple of songs Gillan’s voice is mixed really too high compared to the rest of the band!… whether it’s a mistake or whether it’s intentional it’s truly terrible!!.. .I couldn’t believe my ears, so I’m not crazy!
I beg to differ on the opinion of portable Door: it is very true that it is very similar to picture of home (they could have at least found a different riff, right?) but as the first single to recall the past, it fits perfectly!….and then at least they play Portable Door live and stop making pictures of home, which we’ve heard for the last 20 years!
July 21st, 2024 at 22:40Yo,
@1…
It’s an old-school double-album / cassette…The more the merrier !
Hollera jasna…
Peace !
July 21st, 2024 at 23:15I think that Simon is the MVP on a very good DP album. It’s heavier and riffier than anything since Blackmore. The guitar solos are very good while serving the song and working well with the keyboards. It’s clear that Don & Simon developed chemistry in their past projects.
Back in the day the album would have 7 songs and if 4 or 5 were good then the album was great. This one has 13 songs and I really like 10 of them. Look forward to hearing some of these live in a few weeks.
July 21st, 2024 at 23:30I agree with the too many vocal songs & no instrumentals or extended passages. Which as we know defined Purple in so many ways. Gillan’s voice in the mid to upper register is not my favourite these days. Age catches everyone eventually, especially rock music vocalists singing hard at certain times. Still grand though is Gillan in the mid to lower range. Regarding the short song formula, maybe they thought that gives them a better chance at a hit single? Bob Ezrin is there don’t forget & if he could manipulate Roger the dodger Waters back in 1979 to create a ‘hit’ single, anyone can. I don’t know about the ‘heavier & riffier than anything since Blackmore’. Purpendicular & even Abandon to my memory are heavy & riff laden in places. Cheers.
July 22nd, 2024 at 00:37Good review! I have to admit that this is better than the past 2 LP ‘s, not including the covid flop. I was blaming Ezrin for the non expansion of playing but that has been put to rest on this LP’s material. Is this better than Perpendicular? Nope. Abandon, maybe. But it is better and stepping in the right direction. The keyboard and guitar are starting to blend again! Let’s hope longer song’s show up soon. Either live or in studio.
July 22nd, 2024 at 01:45I was also disappointed with the DVD. I was hoping for something like they did with Infinite with insight into how the album was made. Instead I got another boring documentary about touring, setting up stage etc. Not worth chipping up extra £7 to me.
July 22nd, 2024 at 08:01Of course Steve wrote riffs too, even great ones – but they came from the brain, not from the gut where Ritchie’s, Tommy’s and Simon’s originate(d) from! The one notable exception in the Morse era was a number written by Big Ian and Michael Bradford without any input from Steve:
https://youtu.be/3NHTnYS8mMU
Steve was an artist on guitar, not Mr Raunch, that just wasn‘t in him. Alex Lifeson wouldn’t have stood a Canadian snowflake’s chance in hell auditioning for AC/DC either.
July 22nd, 2024 at 13:49@10 hey Cisco.
Sorry what the touring crew does is boring to you!
July 22nd, 2024 at 15:07Lots of people are actually very interested and there’s great feedback to the documentary.
I see it’s the same people on this site over and over again posting negative tripe. Boring clowns 😂
Great review Marcin – glad you could be a bit more objective about it than I 😉
The fade out at the end of Now You’re Talking also threw me for a loop – but it was so minor, I forgave it.
To be honest, Bob pulled the same stunt on Whoosh – so when it happened here, I thought, “Again, Bob?” and shrugged.
If I’d been producing, I’d have had the band end the tune at the height of the crescendo/build up and left the listener hanging, begging for more, but that’s me…
At any rate, stellar review mate! Well done!
July 22nd, 2024 at 15:59@Mike Airey
Since you accused me of posting “negative tripe” in the past, any examples? I am sorry my opinion offended you so much that you immediately felt an urge to call me a clown. It doesn’t say much about me, it says all about you.
In the future I will try to comment only in a positive manner so that I don’t offend your fragile soul.
For those who can read with understanding. No, I didn’t like the documentary – I didn’t have to. I watched hundred films like this and they are very repetitive. Since this is a new album I much rather watch the making process, Ezrin’s input etc.
I am glad you enjoyed it Mike, and certainly I will not call you names for saying that.
July 22nd, 2024 at 17:24@4 Tomek, thanks! We’re mates in purple faith but never losing the observation sense. And we can differ beautifully in seeing things, while not testing our friendship.
@5 Thank you Flavio (? – I hope I get your name right?). Of course it’s your right to differ in Portable Door. To me it’s just a bit lame and lazy to copy yourself that blatantly – not that it hasn’t been done before, Ritchie was stealing his own ideas between songs too. But it hurts here more in the context of the album, where it’s overall good and often inspired. At least they played it with conviction.
@ Gregster – where did you nick “holera jasna” from?🤭for once you made me laugh
@ Wormdp, Mike – thank you, review good or bad doesn’t work without the readers
@ 12, cheers Mike – it was actually great to see you in the documentary! And although I’d also fancied some footage from writing of the album – the touring insight into your work was good! Oh, and what a joy to see your Dad to throw off-the-cuff Focus track on organ at some point! “Sylvia”… I had a Focus phase recently on my playlists – so that was so cool! He can just throw like everything into the kitchen sink. And that’s why, his Emerson the 2nd aspirations apart, we love Don dearly! 🤠
July 22nd, 2024 at 17:39Lieber Mike, now that you’re here, what happened at Schloss Salem to Roger’s bass sound? The man at the mixing desk really struggled. The last time I heard Roger’s bass like this – ie with unbearable mids eq’ed in which drowned out the rest of the band – was in Mainz 2011 on the orchestra tour, ironically also an open air. It ruined the gig at the time and was physically painful (and I’m steeled from Motörhead gigs!).
For the record: I’m a bassist myself, Roger’s live sound is regularly top notch (if a bit hifi for my taste) and very well audible without stepping on everyone else’s sonic toes + I am cognizant that many bass sounds via PA systems suffer from too little mids, so you hear that scooped sound with presence and sublows and very little in between. But Roger’s mid tone was extreme that night, squashing everything for the first threes songs and getting only gradually better thereafter. New bass or backline rig? I was amazed that it went on for as long as it did, it was that, uhum, bleedin’ obvious.
Your dad played a nice keyboard solo. Love his synth work.
July 22nd, 2024 at 21:08Best review so far.I just want to add one thing,all the songs are made to get bigger live.We’ll see.
July 23rd, 2024 at 06:57Yo,
@15 asked…
qt.”@ Gregster – where did you nick “holera jasna” from”?
My babcia, vte pyerron-jasne !
Peace !
July 23rd, 2024 at 12:11Thank you Thorsun:)
July 23rd, 2024 at 15:24In respect of Portsble Door I don’t have a problem with similarities or stealing or inspiring but do it convincingly. But for me also Portable Door is like bit too blatant in delivery even if you look some other tracks there.
@18 Gregster, your grandma must have been Silesian – “pueriny jasne” comes just from right there!
@ 16 Uwe!!! Instead of spamming us with the Roger’s rig details – we should have your review of the album in the section! Go to work, do your deed! Commenting is your forte, but where’s the regular duty?😃😅😉give it to me, now!
@19 Tomek – precisely and to the point, Amigo. They can do well beyond that blatant and it’s in black and white on the rest of the record.
July 24th, 2024 at 09:42Thorsun, I had actually prepared a lengthier first listen review on Monday evening when I finally received my copy and BELIEVED to have sent it, but as nothing seems to have appeared here it must have been (i) either crap (ii) or gone lost somehow. I can‘t retrieve it. And you can‘t repeat a first listen review.
Anyway, so many good things have been written here and elsewhere about =1, I agree with them all! 😂 The things that struck me most about the album were:
– It‘s been ages since a DP album started with as cocksure a guitar as on Show Me, absolutely immediate and infectious.
– I liked the chick backing vocals on Sharp Shooter, more of that in the future please!
– Don‘s synth solos are a joy to hear, he‘s a great Hammond player, but he’s even more expressive on synth. And playing as many synth solos as he does on a 2024 release is daring.
– Simon‘s rhythm guitar is pushy and shovy all over, best DP rhythm guitar since that kid from Sioux City and Boulder.
– It is touching that DP summoned the late Gary Moore from the grave to contribute the guitar to the two ballads. Empty roooooms … Let’s not overdo it, Simon, please don’t scar your face! 🤣
– Simon & Don are the best GORGAN tandem in DP since Richard Hugh & John Douglas!
– I don‘t get all the moaning about Ezrin‘s production, =1 sounds like an album in 2024 by elder statesmen of rock should, warm and organic, not squeaky-clean and hifi (clamoring for that production style is like lamenting that today‘s films do not follow the cinematography of 80s movies – unless they pay homage to them).
– I find the shortness of the gamut of songs kinda refreshing, it makes for a varied listening experience. Not every DP song has to clock in at five to six minutes +. Mind you, old men need to go to the loo sooner + more often. 🤣
July 24th, 2024 at 13:27@17
Thank you Korhan, I’m blushing now☺️it felt good to feel inspired again and belt out a chunk of review like in the old days of yore (and still deliver).
Next: the 17th Oct gig in Katowice feature – I guess. 2 days after London’s David Gilmour residency of Royal Albert Hall, I’m seeing 3 of 6 shows. It will be an interesting experience and a hell of a week for sure between two Fridays!
July 24th, 2024 at 17:37Three shows? Gilmour overload! You‘re even worse than my wife, Thorsun.
Schlesien? All parts of Germany are nice. 😈
July 24th, 2024 at 19:46Lieber Uwe,
Cool assessment of the new album, few strong and valid points. Still disagree about the production though, I don’t think that compression is what our ears need. Just me.
@23 It’s not about being better than anybody’s wife – mind you 😉 and not my life record either, in 2018, when King Crimson descended upon the country – I went for 7 of the 6 gigs they played here and I never regretted a single minute of it. Some acts are so good live, it’s just worth it, period. If I had lived in Bundesrepublic in October 1993 and being old enough – I could see myself going to all of the DP shows on the leg of the tour. You just have some soft spots for certain performers, so when chance comes – you go and see them as much as possible. I like it.
In regards to Gilmour – I hold most dearly my times I saw him before so far (2006, 2015 & 2016) and since I feel like it’s gonna be his last bold shot at performing live – I want a bigger chunk of it. All for the memories of things that are coming to an end and will not be matched in the future.
No trashing you for “All parts of Germany are nice” is pending😈- I know it myself! That’s why I’ll be in Nurnberg and Bamberg in a week for long summer holiday and historic sightseeing.
July 25th, 2024 at 11:57Uwe Hornung
July 26th, 2024 at 13:19Z całym szacunkiem ale Śląsk od osiemdziesięciu lat nie jest częścią Niemiec, jest częścią Polski. Polska przez ponad sto lat była rozebrana przez Niemcy, Austrię i Rosję.
Takie stwierdzenie jakiego użyłeś jest podobne do tego, co się niestety często zdarza że obóz koncentracyjny Auschwitz był polskim obozem, on był niemieckim obozem.
Myślę że nie przemyślałes w szczegółach swojego wpisu.
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