Description

Double album on black vinyls with gatefold cover

While Deep Purple is indeed a different animal with Steve Morse and Don Airey on board, they are a terrific band with or without their previous history. Moreover, it is 2013 and any listener expectations that the group will still be conjuring the magic sound of the early 70s band is a hopeless, and dare I say, silly thing to ponder. I will say that, in my opinion, to carry on without Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore (unarguably the founders and the soul of the Deep Purple sound) the band should have moved forward under a different name. Be that as it may, Deep Purple have released several good studio albums with Steve Morse on guitar and the Deep Purple sound with Morse has gradually expanded organically to include some soulful ballads like 2003’s “Haunted”, 2008’s “Clearly Quite Absurd” and the nearly straight R&B of the wonderful “All the Time in the World” on this current release. These are amongst the very best tunes that have ever been released under the name Deep Purple. “Now What?!” is filled with swaggering gems. As one would expect from DP release, there is a sleek, yet progressive edge to each arrangement. This current line-up is quite bristling with energy, and Ian Gillan sounds wonderfully relaxed and confident on every tune. The production is excellent and captures the feel of a live performance. The songwriting is really solid (“All the Time in the World”, “Bodyline” and “Above and Beyond” are all excellent). Moreover, I love the versatility of the tunes on “Now What?!”, as each sounds unique, yet they hang together well as a collection as well. Both Steve Morse and Don Airey play beautifully throughout, giving each arrangement an elegant touch. This is a great classic rock album!

Track list:
1. A Simple Song
2. Weirdistan
3. Out Of Hand
4. Hell To Pay
5. Bodyline
6. Above And Beyond
7. Blood From A Stone
8. Uncommon Man
9. Après Vous
10. All The Time In The World
11. Vincent Price
12. It’ll Be Me