Whoosh!
Artist: Deep Purple
Review: Joe Viglione
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Deep Purple
WHOOSH
Produced by Bob Ezrin
Deep Purple has the full album up on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBzBwYhHpqLLuCjQ2WZ3Pkz2p7qE3fGPj
"Throw My Bones," the first single off of Deep Purple’s 21st
album, Whoosh, is classic DP and as you dig deep into Whoosh you'll find the band delivering an amazingly consistent set of material. Song after song you feel a youthful energy from the classic rockers, and a polish that gives the album the feel of a major onstage production. Had this been released at the end of the '70s it would have been a multi-platinum monster.
Take a random track, the still-photo images of "Man Alive" (which can serve as a title track with the word "whoosh" instilled in the grooves at around the five minute mark.) 1,544,262 views since May 1, 2020 - let me spell that out for you - One Million Five Hundred and Forty Four Thousand, Two Hundred and Sixty Two views from 5/1 to 10/14, when I'm finally finishing up this review, five months later. The album impressed me the moment I started the hearing process, but months later it is truly majestic and masterful.
"And the Address" is sublime with a big Don Airey organ sound coming out of my right speaker, rugged Steve Morse guitar in the left...which is interesting because this update from Shades of Deep Purple, their first sojourn, gives a taste of life after Richie Blackmore and the late Jon Lord on guitar and keys, respectively. For those hardcore fans, of which there are many, who are about to throw exclamation marks at me for having the nerve to explain instrumentation keep in mind, many of our readers don't follow the groups like the rest of us obsessive/compulsive collectors do. The inclusion of the Ezrin-produced "And the Address" is actually key for longtime followers of this ensemble. From album 1 to album 21 we get to compare notes...a quite enjoyable thing to do as both renditions are superb - and get a feel for how the group still has its essential element from the Tetragrammaton days in 1968 to the brave new world of 2020...dare I say it, fifty-two years after! With drummer Ian Paice as the "soul survivor," to quote the Stones.
The original "And the Address" launches like some space-age rock tune, with a splash of their "Hush" hit record sound, and bits of Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes and even a dash of Sky Saxon's Seeds flavored in there slyly. So you fast forward these five plus decades and get the Ezrin produced take, the enormous sounds condensed and less experimental, more like a straight ahead display of musicianship in the fun environment of a very well constructed instrumental.
"Dancing in My Sleep" changes style...and it is this quasi-reinvention of Purple ...not too distant from their core sound, but being playful with their enormous fan base and stretching the Deep Purple envelope. It starts out spacey and goes orchestral, all within the confines of hard rock. Not that this is new territory for the boys, they just do it in a more pointed way this time around.
"No Need to Shout" opens with an Ozzy Osborne flair, a mix of Purple/Ozzy sensibilities.
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We interrupt this review to give you some background information on "And the Address"
"And the Address" from Shades of Deep Purple
Associated Performer, Vocalist, Organ: Jon Lord Associated Performer, Vocalist, Bass Guitar: Nick Simper Associated Performer, Guitar: Ritchie Blackmore Associated Performer, Drums: Ian Paice Studio Personnel, Engineer: Barry Ainsworth Producer: Derek Lawrence Studio Personnel, Mastering Engineer: Peter Mew
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"The Power of the Moon" and "Remission Possible" give the album the science fiction rock theme that the cover art promises, but make no mistake, this is not your daddy's King Crimson or early Pink Floyd, this is Purple creating an outer space passion play of sorts. With Bob Ezrin at the helm you might think Pink Floyd's The Wall and Lou Reed's Berlin, or perhaps Welcome to My Nightmare and you'd be spot on. This being Bob Ezrin's third project with Deep Purple, you can put it on the bookshelf next to the aforementioned Alice, Lou and Floyd classics. It more than makes the grade.
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from the publicist:
Whoosh! marks Deep Purple’s third album produced by Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd). The first -- 2013’s Now What?! -- charted at #1 in five European countries, as well as Top 10 in over 15 countries worldwide. Cementing itself as one of their most successful albums, inFinite, released in 2017, broke chart records the band accumulated over their 50+year history. With chemistry this electric, it only made sense for Deep Purple and Ezrin to collaborate a third time.
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One of the most important rock bands of all time, Deep Purple has built a legacy that is nothing short of immeasurable. The band continues to evolve and elevate the possibilities within hard rock, which is fully displayed on Whoosh!
“When the Deep Purple falls
Over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to twinkle
In the night…”
-Ian Gillan
Whoosh! is available for pre-order here.
Track list:
1.) Throw My Bones
2.) Drop The Weapon
3.) We’re All The Same In The Dark
4.) Nothing At All
5.) No Need To Shout
6.) Step By Step
7.) What The What
8.) The Long Way Around
9.) The Power Of The Moon
10.) Remission Possible
11.) Man Alive
12.) And The Address
13.) Dancing In My Sleep
Vinyl Side Split:
Side A: Throw My Bones / Drop The Weapon / We’re All The Same In The Dark / Nothing At All
Side B: No Need To Shout / Step By Step / What The What
Side C: The Long Way Round / The Power Of The Moon / Remission Possible / Man Alive
Side D: And The Address / Dancing In My Sleep
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| earMUSIC is the international rock & pop label of Hamburg based entertainment group Edel, releasing internationally the works of Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Foreigner, Chickenfoot, Hollywood Vampires, Joe Jackson, Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, Status Quo, Lisa Stansfield, Marillion, New Model Army, Babymetal, Dragonforce, Tarja, Myrath, H.E.A.T, and many others. www.ear-music.net |
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Joe Viglione reviews "Hush" by Deep Purple
Listen to HUSH here: https://youtu.be/E2vxVyosi18
Song Review by Joe Viglione [-]
https://www.allmusic.com/song/hush-mt0002524384
Deep Purple's phenomenal version of "Hush", written by country/pop songwriter Joe South, took the Vanilla Fudge style of slowing a song down and bluesing it up another step, venturing into the domain of psychedelic heavy metal. Covered by Kula Shaker in the 1997 film I Know What You Did Last Summer other versions were recorded by Billy Joe Royal, Gotthard , former Ritchie Blackmore lead vocalist Joe Lynn Turner on his 1997 Under Cover album of song interpretations and even John Mellencamp. But once the tune received this rendition's indellible stamp no one could touch it again, not even the songwriter. South's
lyrics are highly suggestive, beyond Van Morrison's "Gloria", straight into Louie, Louie" territory with: "She's got a loving like quicksand... It blew my mind and I'm in so deep/That I can't eat, y'all, and I can't sleep." Or as Aimee Mann sang, hush hush because voices carried this one right by the censors with Jon Lord's quagmire of thick chaotic keyboard sound meshed with Ritchie Blackmore's guitar. Tetragrammaton Records single #1503 went Top 5 in August of 1968, 4:11 as originally released on the Shades Of Deep Purple album, 4:26 on Rhino's 2000 reissue The Very Best Of Deep Purple. Imagine a fuzz box on the organ in a church cathedral to get the intensity of the opening chords, a sound stolen less than two years later by Detroit's Frijid Pink with their rendition of "House Of The Rising Sun". Frijid Pink, however, couldn't get the intense rhythmic nuances of original bassist Nic Simper and drummer Ian Paice, not to mention Rod Evans haunting vocal. "Smoke On The Water" equaled this song's chart position five years later, and might have made a bigger impact, but there's no denying that Deep Purple in its original progressive pop form was a far more dynamic and literate band. "Hush" remains their most cosmic moment, a truly unique blend of converging 60's styles preferable to connoisseurs of stuff that found itself on the Nuggets compilation lp. This track was conspicuous in its absence.
The Book Of Taliesyn
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Several months after the innovative remake of "You Keep Me Hanging On," England's answer to Vanilla Fudge was this early version of Deep Purple, which featured vocalist Rod Evans, and bassist Nick Simper, along with mainstays Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice. This, their second album, followed on the heels of "Hush," a dynamic arrangement of a Joe South tune, far removed from the flavor of one of his own hits, "Walk a Mile in My Shoes." Four months later, this album's cover of Neil Diamond's Top 25, 1967 gem "Kentucky Woman," went Top 40 for Deep Purple. Also like Vanilla Fudge, the group's own originals were creative, thought-provoking, but not nearly as interesting as their take on cover tunes. Vanilla Fudge did "Eleanor Rigby," and Deep Purple respond by going inside "We Can Work It Out" -- it falls out of nowhere after the progressive rock jam "Exposition," Ritchie Blackmore's leads zipping in between Rod Evans smooth and precise vocals. As Vanilla Fudge was progressively leaning more towards psychedelia, here Deep Purple are the opposite. The boys claim to be inspired by the Bard of King Arthur's court in Camelot, Taliesyn. John Vernon Lord, under the art direction of Les Weisbrich, paints a superb wonderland on the album jacket, equal to the madness of Hieronymous Bosch's cover painting used for the third album. Originals "The Shield" and "Anthem" make early Syd Barrett Pink Floyd appear punk in comparison. Novel sounds are aided by Lord's dominating keyboards, a signature of this group.
Though "The Anthem" is more intriguing than the heavy metal thunder of Machine Head, it is overwhelmed by the majesty of their "River Deep, Mountain High" cover, definitely not the inspiration for the Supremes and Four Tops 1971 hit version. By the time 1972 came around, Deep Purple immersed themselves in dumb lyrics, unforgettable riffs, and a huge presence, much like Black Sabbath. The evolution from progressive to hard rock was complete, but a combination of what they did here -- words that mattered matched by innovative musical passages -- would have been a more pleasing combination. Vanilla Fudge would cut Donovan's "Season of the Witch," Deep Purple followed this album by covering his "Lalena"; both bands abandoned the rewrites their fans found so fascinating. Rod Evans' voice was subtle enough to take "River Deep, Mountain High" to places Ian Gillam might have demolished.
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