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Review: Far better than inFinite
=1 reviewed by The Highway Star reader Mike Whiteley.
After listening through my laptop speakers for a week, the CD/DVD arrived three days ago, now two full listens thru my stereo.
Show Me – Pretty poor opener. The descending, repeated riff is almost as irksome as the one in Throw My Bones. Moog synth solo shows up in the early going. That sound grows more and more irritating as the album goes on.
A Bit On The Side – “Goin’ to Rosa’s Cantina”. Best song on the album. Paicey rules.
Sharp Shooter – A good riff wasted on a fairly tepid tune.
Portable Door – Two months later,I still like it.
Old Fangled Thing – Interesting bridge, not much else. Likely to be skipped more often than not.
If I Were You – Akin to Clearly Quite Absurd. IG’s bkgd/vox at the end should’ve been a Hammond solo instead.
Pictures of You – A pleasant song. Very singalong chorus. It’s too bad the lovely atmospheric coda went absolutely nowhere. A chance for a proper segue ignored.
I’m Saying Nothin’ – Cold Intro. Pretty lacklustre.
Lazy Sod – Rockin’ and fun. DP does ZZ.
Now You’re Talkin’ – The tune should have built to a crescendo a la A Day In The Life. Another missed opportunity.
No Money To Burn – Don’s solo sounds strangled and like someone’s chuckin’ razor blades at my ears! A certain skip.
I’ll Catch You – Owes a nod to Wasted Sunsets. Did the album need a second ballad? Pick one or the other, por favor.
Bleeding Obvious – An attempt at an epic closer. It sticks out like a sore thumb from the other 12 tracks. One of these tunes is not like the others! Before Time Began + The Surprising + YYZ + Tom Sawyer.
Why did Bob Ezrin choose to wedge in the sleepy “… all adds up to 1” interlude?
A forced fit, to my ears.
As for the overall record, far too much synth from Don. Thankfully, no barroom honky-tonk piano! Yeay!
Simon’s riffs are generally very good. The only one that’s likely to stick in my head is A Bit On The Side. His solos are good as well, until he gets too “widdly-widdly”.
Gillan’s not pushing his voice too much. He sounds comfortable throughout.
Glover’s got a bit of a growl in his bass tone.
Paicey seems laid back and swingin’ as has been the case on all the Bob Ezrin-produced albums.
How does =1 add up? 7/10 on a good day. The advance singles were well chosen. Far better than inFinite. Won’t get as many repeat spins as either Now What?! or Whoosh. Not sure how memorable it will be in three-four months. It may grow on me a bit more. Even if it doesn’t, I’m thankful to have a new, proper DP album in 2024.
The DVD – I like behind the scenes stuff. A 7/10 for that too.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Fair review, I personally like Don’s synth solos a lot. Synth solos can sound like a guitar solo, they have a different quality to piano or organ solos to my ear. Tony Carey’s fluid yet very rock synth playing was always the high point on Rainbow’s Rising to me (his organ playing was rather unremarkable). Also always liked Manfred Mann’s synth soloing with his Earth Band, out of fashion as it may seem these days.
I’m more at 8/10. Don’t mind the presence of two ballads at all. An album without at least one ballad is like a garden without a flower (= variation of Chinese proverb: “A family without a daughter is like a garden without a flower.”)
PS: The riffs on Show Me and Throw My Bones are among my favorite more recent DP riffs, horses for courses! 😉
September 3rd, 2024 at 21:53A good review indeed & I agree with most of the songs being judged that way. Although with Bleeding Obvious I do think the middle ‘sleepy’ section suits the song, as it gives it a nice interlude of sorts before launching back into the song itself. Definitely the best song on the record for me. I do agree totally about the albums opening song being a poor one, not a good way to start an album. Portable Door should have been the opener. I think I gave the album 6.5/10 from my memory, so 7/10 on a good day is rather a good way of putting that. DP need to go to the longer song format if they attempt another ‘new’ album. Take their time in the writing process & also do a instrumental or two. Cheers.
September 3rd, 2024 at 21:58Is this review for real??? very poor review if so.In my book and as a semi professional drummer, and long time Deep Purple listener, = 1 is in the best 6 records the band has EVER released. A stellar “Classic” in evry sense
September 3rd, 2024 at 22:33I submitted this review around a month ago. I honestly thought that it was lost on the cyber sea.
September 3rd, 2024 at 22:52Show Me has come up a step,but I stay pretty firm on my overall thoughts.
The album could be shortened by about 3 tunes ( No Money To Burn,I’m Sayin’ Nothin’,Old Fangled Thing). A good record, all told.
I agree about “Show Me”. When “The House of Blue Light” came out, I couldn’t how believe how bad a song “Bad Attitude” was. It was the first DP song I ever disliked. I hated it with a passion: horrible vocals by Gillan. But “Show Me” has taken the mantle as the worst DP song ever. A historically bad vocal by Big Ian. He does great on the rest of what, otherwise, is an excellent album. How “Show Me” ever got beyond the editing room floor – let alone as the first song on ‘= 1’ – is beyond me. I hate it when Gillan talk-sings, like on “Anyone’s Daughter.”
September 3rd, 2024 at 23:00I disagree about it being “too synthy.” Love Don Airey’s solos throughout. The “razor blade to my ears” comment is idiotic.
September 3rd, 2024 at 23:06I liked the album better than Mike did, especially Show Me which I love. But I agree that Don’s synth solos have me wishing he was playing the Hammond.
September 4th, 2024 at 02:51Yo,
What a cruel but completely honest review…And simply goes-to-show no-one will ever be pleased !
Interestingly, I just listened to “InFinite” through my Logitech 2.1’s, & can’t believe how good that album is…Great songs, & in a superb order that flow really well together…Possibly the most unintentionally LZ sounding effort from DP, but that’s simply IP powerfully cruising through everything in a general 1/2 time like Bonzo used to. When compared to “=1”, “=1” is more upbeat, but both are musically superb imo. Great stuff.
Peace !
September 4th, 2024 at 06:18“A masterpiece” is to go too far in my opinion (if Im allowed to have one..) its a very good album but not a masterpiece, if it would be a masterpiece it would just as good as In Rock and Machine Head..and its not and never will be..
Cheers!!!
September 4th, 2024 at 13:59Wait, wait, wait … It’s in moments like this that I wonder whether social media isn’t the absolute gutter-worst invention of mankind since dynamite/gun powder.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/05614d4f60af0ed58c3d9184cd814bef/tumblr_o2cuomohQC1qdjpm4o1_500.gif
Mike W submits an in-depth review of =1, he doesn’t like everything (nor does he need to), but he’s measured and obviously tries to be fair. His views may still not be yours though.
Next there are all these unwarranted attacks on him: “idiotic comment”, “poor review” and even “review from an idiot” (that posting has meanwhile been thankfully removed, I’m a great fan of censorship if people can’t behave, this isn’t X here …). What the fuck?! I’m happy to hear anyone’s view on the new album, whether I agree or not, and if we can’t exchange our differing opinions on DP Family products here without calling each other names or being otherwise insulting, then where?
Don’t act like morons, I know you’re not.
Public decorum rant over.
September 4th, 2024 at 15:25Hi Wiktor,
September 4th, 2024 at 15:31Of COURSE you are entitled to your opinion !! Don’t let a few negative comments about my review dissuade you from participating here. THS thrives on opinions…..even unpopular ones.
I agree about the synths, prefer the hammond sound, would love to hear the hammond insread of the synths. On the other hand I like Don’s synth playing more than Jon’s. But Deep Purple’s sound for me always was hammond based- The hammond for me was and is still more important than the guitar, it defines Purple’s sound.
September 4th, 2024 at 16:08It’s interesting James @5 that you liken Bad Attitude to Show Me and dislike both. I never made the connection, but I probably like both for the same reason. When I first heard Bad Attitude, I was impressed by how menacing and full of rage it sounded. One of the best 80s tracks of DP to my ears.
September 4th, 2024 at 16:25Thank you, Uwe. @10
September 4th, 2024 at 19:17Great review very honest. I must’ve listened to it 20 times by now and I can’t get too excited about it. Bleeding obvious is the best track followed closely by a bit on the side , love the double bass drums. I am a drummer and I got tired of all of the shuffle beats on this album. There must be eight out of the 13 tracks. Bananas, rapture, and slaves and masters and =1 are at the bottom for me. Just my two cents worth.
September 4th, 2024 at 19:50I’m not such a purist as to say that I always and only want to listen to the Hammond, it would be like saying that I always and only want to listen to Ritchie with a Strat, Marshall, distortion at maximum without pedals and that’s it!
There’s a world of sound beyond this, and I think the synth gives colors that the Hammond can’t have by its nature.
finally I think Bad Attitude is a great 80’s commercial hard rock song, unfortunately it doesn’t have the same sound as Perfect Strangers, but it’s still a great song, which by the way was also very effective, and fun to play live for MKII (even if it didn’t have much glory, but probably because they themselves wanted to forget the HOBL chapter soon)
September 4th, 2024 at 20:16I do think Don Airey does ok with the synth playing as it gives a more varied approach to the music. As long as it sounds good & nothing like the 80’s synths. Rather than play all Hammond, that then becomes too much the same & also too much like a ‘tribute’ to Jon Lord all the time, for want of a better description. Every musician has their panache & Airey as we know is a more progressive player, so that usually means more variations & diversity. A bit like Grumpy Rick, he wasn’t a Hammond master (he sure can play one though) but he has his Moog preference & other keyboards. Cheers.
September 4th, 2024 at 21:26I think your review is spot on. It feels like some Purple fans have lost any sense of Purple history. I think one of the YouTube reviewers likened Show Me to Highway Star – I think they have lost their minds. Show Me is awful as an opener and not really that great. 3 synthesizer solos on the 1st 3 songs – “Earth to Don Airey- come in”. A Bit On the Side is their best song screaming for a low register Hammond solo and he throws in a synth solo?
When a band changes key personnel the initial album makes a statement- a personality comes through: In Rock/Burn/Come Taste the Band/ Purpendicular/ (even Bananas). This album has no distinct personality. Fairly generic with Ezrin providing no inspiration whatsoever. I can’t get the awful Show Me out of my head.
September 4th, 2024 at 21:40@10 The connection is simple, Uwe: Both songs are horrible album starters and the worst songs on their respective albums. That “Bat Attitide” song was the primary reason the album flopped. People heard “Bad Attitude” and figured the rest of the album would be lousy; that’s why it flopped compared to how well “Perfect Strangers” did. Bad Attitude is just the same beat over and over and over throughout the whole song, with Gillan talk-singing through most of it. No variation in beat whatsoever, other than a decent solo by Blackmore.
September 4th, 2024 at 22:01Reviewer Mike Whitely, I fully understand your initial reaction to =1…..it is almost a carbon copy of my reaction to it upon first listen. My initial disappointment did however dissipate after subsequent spins. =1 is definitely a grower! I do think that “Show Me” is a fine opener. “A Bit On The Side” probably is the strongest track. “Bleeding Obvious” has lots of charms. I’m still not warm to any of the ballads, nor New Fangled Thing. The rest of the album though is quite solid. My prayer for a future album would be a lot more guitar soloing by Simon. For now, I give =1 a solid 8.0/10.
September 4th, 2024 at 23:28Random comments:
One of Paicey’s great strengths is playing a shuffle, not many drummers can do that as well (I never liked the hamfisted way Cozy Powell did it sans any swing), I never grow tired of him doing it. Purple are in general a very good shuffle band, it’s part of their telltale style. Of course I am writing this as someone who also digs Status Quo – the concept of “too many shuffles” is therefore a thoroughly alien one to me. 😂
Jon lived and died for the Hammond, by his own judgement he didn’t think he was as good a pianist as a Hammond player. I think he was fine with a synth, but it wasn’t his home instrument. That the first three songs on =1 all feature synth solos is probably just a coincidence/an oversight while deciding the track sequence of the album. In any case, I like synth solos, there is something slinky and liquid in how they flow.
Don was never as natural a Hammond player as Jon, he just did it too and he had to do it more when he joined Purple because it is part of their signature sound. In the early Noughties I still found his playing a bit stiff and technical, but he has come a long way since then. But he’ll never sound like Jon who had that “gifted sloppiness” in his playing – Keith Richards on keys as I always say. With Don I believe they found the best guy to follow Jon.
September 4th, 2024 at 23:41I very much like Bad Attitude. The song & lyrics are a great way to start an attitude driven album. THOBL has plenty of that on it & as I have stated before, so much MKII material seems to thrive on a bad attitude at times. Not a bad review at all below, all be it with a few typo’s. I can see a link to a review of the Yes album Big Generator there, not sure if I need to be reminded of Trevor Rabin & Chris Squire’s sad attempt at AOR. Cheers
https://www.classicrockreview.com/2012/10/1987-deep-purple-thobl/
September 5th, 2024 at 05:31I agree for most part with the review. I could have skipped and left at least 3 songs out of the album and favor more “meat” for the other songs. A Bit On the side definitely is the winner of this album. Don synth playing doesn’t bother me one bit. I wish Bob could push them as they have become very complacent since after “Now What” but i know they will not “reinvent” that wheel and feel comfortable with him.” Show me” is that kind of opener that has a lot of charm, but I cannot get the damn thing out of my head of the last 2 months now.
I don’t get the hate towards Bad Attitude, one of my favorite’s songs but i can understand it as that song and album falls victim to that 80’s production style back then and I would have loved for a remix of that album to which I’m very biased because i grew up with that album and my first LP i have heard from them. I worn the vinyl out to death playing it on heavy rotation.
September 5th, 2024 at 14:54James @19: Agreed, Bad Attitude sounded mean and nasty, perhaps not the best way to start an album (I didn’t think that TBRO song was a good way to star the TBRO album either, they should have chosen Anya), they could have picked something more uplifting, especially since THOBL is a very varied album.
I take from your critique that you don’t like repetitive minimalism then! I think it has its place in music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfvIZyfm6PQ
though not enough to make me bear AC/DC for more than three songs in a row. 😋
September 5th, 2024 at 15:44I’ve seen the guys over thirty times. Respect all the opinions, but ‘Show Me’ is one if my kids (now Purple fans themselves) favourite tracks – they love Big Ian’s vocals on it.
September 5th, 2024 at 18:49I’m guilty as charged. I love Bad Attitude but I have to say I’m not a big fan of the reunion albums. As UWE said Mach II reunion could not capture the original magic though the song Perfect Strangers did albeit with a more 80s sound. I tend to like the songs on Bad Attitude better. There is an extended version on YouTube of Strangeways (why groups don’t put these on the albums is baffling) which is excellent but it could have been a contender if it had more bottom end on the song otherwise it’s really enjoyable
September 5th, 2024 at 19:25While THOBL was my second-least favorite pre-Ezrin LP, next to “Slaves & Masters”…
Never thought “Bad Attitude” was a particularly weak song or a bad way to open the LP.
Just that things went downhill quickly from there.
First heard it in a club waiting for Nazareth to start their set, and it sounded good over the house PA. Just listened to it again… Still holds up fairly well, by reunion-era standards.
Unlike much of the rest of the record.
September 5th, 2024 at 20:59Uwe @ 24 – Deep Purple are an ‘attitude’ band, with Gillan in it still to this day & he has an attitude and a half & good on him for that. That is where so many of his decent lyrics stem from. Blackmore as we all know was endowed with an attitude as well, obviously that was one of the main reasons they both didn’t get on after a while. The first song on an album is usually critical to defining what is to follow, in many ways. The song Bad Attitude sets the album up, Hammond organ intro & then bang, straight into it in a big way. Classic MarkII DP. The same with TBRO title song, a defining track from MKII if ever there was one. Setting the album up, reminding people right from the very beginning that this is who we are? Anya wouldn’t work in that aspect, of course it is a rather good song. Is Knocking At Your Back Door a good opening song for the Perfect Strangers album? It does the job well enough as it has all the ingredients of that MarkII sound to it. Cheers.
September 6th, 2024 at 01:10That keyboard “Church organ’ sound intro on Bad Attitude would be a DX-7 or something wouldn’t it. Unless Lord did a Rick Wakeman & went to a cathedral somewhere & recorded it, but it sort of sounds like a synth sample to me. Before Uwe tears me apart for not doing my research correctly. I do fear it is too late though. Cheers.
September 6th, 2024 at 02:19I did/do have a love/hate relationship with HOBL.
I to today loath Call of the wild, it made a joke of them like Rogers BANANAS cover did for that album.
Bad Attitude and several others on HOBL are excellent but played in 80 s style and wrongly produced.
Can an AI approach salvage this classic, adding extra HAMMOND , old fashioned RB and Paicey like they returned to between 90 and 93? A better/different singing Gillan?
DC is already putting in HAMMOND on rereleases on stuff he released after Lord left the band.
We all know and appearantly as well Lord was missing in the days since 87.
Bad Attitude and the other standouts really came to life on stage.Gillan seemed to sing different, much better, higher…
My Nurnberg 87 attendance was worth the price for seeing them like that.
Pity after a long story, days of misery, also during the depressing foggy day at the festivalground , I was so tired already when DP came on I noticed they were doing great but also wished for my bed(…)
September 6th, 2024 at 21:47bad attitude, unwritten law, mad dog, strangeways, hard lovin woman dead or alive are songs linked together as were all those of Perfect Strangers, and if the whole album had been like that, it would have been another masterpiece of MK II bis.
the paradox is that mitzi dupree is also a great blues, spanish archer is super adventurous and sometimes it seems to me one of purple’s masterpieces but these two do not blend with the other songs,
September 6th, 2024 at 22:05black & white is played great and has a great chorus, call of the wild is a nice commercial song from the 80s, but in my opinion these songs all sound distant from the main line of the album.
To number 3: so you are a semi professional drummer, who cares?? That doesn’t make your opinion about the album more important than anyone else’s. Everyone’s opinion is equally important and, as for being a long time Purple listener, I think most of the people that post here are. They’ve been my favorite band since 1973 but I don’t think the album is that good!! Cheers!!
September 8th, 2024 at 13:42@5 ‘The House of Blue Light’ offers a mixed bag (could do with a remix, along with ‘Perfect Strangers’), but I ‘ve always loved ‘Bad Attitude’ and enjoyed Gillan’s vocal deliver on it, so much so that I used to sing it over 30 years ago in a band I was in. Still as they say, ‘horses for courses,’ there’s no right or wrong, just preferences.
September 9th, 2024 at 03:11