Rating: NN
I’m not sure who’s buying new Deep Purple records in 2005, but if you’re out there, good news: they still sound the same. No desperate attempts to contemporize by enlisting some hotshot producer who promises a Linkin Park sound, no attempts to “get heavy” in time for the next Ozzfest. Just big rock riffs and Ian Gillan bellowing something about women stealing his money (see Money Talks and Girls Like That). Fans might not dig the personnel changes, with Steve Morse replacing guitar god Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover replicating the keyboard tone Jon Lord used circa Highway Star, and Gillan’s thinly veiled jabs at a music industry not returning his calls in MTV do sound a bit sour, but his operatic vocals still have power.
