Deep Purple/Infinite(2017)

 

Mikey Ladano has to be the biggest Deep Purple Fanboy I have ever known. The dude loves his Purple so when this album dropped in early April of this year I knew Mikey in his review would give Purple’s latest Infinite a fair shake!

Mikey raved on about it even reviewing a couple of the singles before the actual album dropped! He was invested in this album Huge. I commented that the track Time For Bedlam was pretty good. But to be fair I thought I would wait for Mikey’s review of the whole Purple Meal Deal of Infinite to see if i would purchase it myself!

When the album was finally released Mikey reviewed it and raved about it so I took the plunge a few days later and purchased it myself!

Before I go any further I like the cover of that Ice Freighter carving it’s way thorough the Ice and making the DP Logo. Very bright looking!

Actually this is my first Deep Purple purchase of a new studio since 1996’s Perpendicular which featured Guitarist Steve Morse making his Purple studio debut replacing everyone’s favourite Loose Cannon Man In Black Ritchie Blackmore.

I guess you could say I was long overdue to hop aboard the Purple Tour Bus and give it another go!

Boy…Am I glad I ever did!

“Time For Bedlam”
“Hip Boots”
“All I Got Is You”
“One Night In Vegas”
“Get Me Outta Here”
“The Surprising”
“Johnny’s Band”
“On Top Of The World”
“Birds Of Prey”
“Roadhouse Blues”

Ian Gillian/Ian Paice/Don Airey/Steve Morse/Roger Glover along with producer Bob Ezrin(Alice Cooper/KISS/Pink Floyd/Hanoi Rocks) have put out a real fine piece of Hard Rock that delves into the sound of there 70’s past but have also made it sound modern as well basically a mashup of the 70’s and 80’s with an added touch of keeping it current!

Time For Bedlam begins with a Gillian like chant almost hypnotized if I say so myself and before long the boys in the band fire up behind him and this is a good straight ahead rock track. Guitarist Steve Morse and Keyboardist Don Airey lock in together and Ezrin does a great job at keeping the mix of the guitar and keyboard from not overpowering the other. The chorus here is the money shot! Great opener! Must also mention the one line Ian sings which is ‘Sucking my milk from the venomous tit of the state’  Is Tbone writing lyrics for Deep Purple?

So we delve back into the time capsule and put our Hip Boots on and this is a swampy like Purple N Jam tune. Love the lyrics to this one.

You can bury me up to my knees in shit
Or anything else… I don’t mind a bit
You think I’m gonna drown but you’re wrong
‘Cos man I got my hip boots on

Hip Boots just sounds like a total Jam tune as I had mentioned and I just love the laziness feel good vibe it projects….

Purple open All I Got Is You with that eery creepy like Hammond Keyboard Sound that we have heard for years but don’t be fooled as the song picks up the Paice(ha) and propels the song forward with tons of Morse and Airey Guitar/Keyboard mashing up throughout this song and the album as a whole!

One Night In Vegas is a great song with a ton of fun like Gillian lyrics where basically he was  snapped up on drink in Las Vegas met a girl went to the chapel had no recollection of this happening and they are still together 30 years later! True story? Dunno but a great tune with some nice riffing by Morse.

Drummer Ian Paice’s drums sound awesome at the beginning of Get Me Out Of Here.  Ezrin once again let’s the boys get to it and this is one of those tunes that has a decent pace to it with the keys and bassist Roger Glover producing a huge wall of sound but make no mistake when I’m listening to this album I don’t think of it as I’m hearing a bunch of old guys playing rock. No sir! I’m thinking it’s a bunch of old guys creating new Rock!

The Surprising leads off with some real cool 6 string picking courtesy of Mr Morse. This song  eases of the Purple Gas Pedal a bit but Paice and his drums keep the song moving forward. Hey,I have no squabbles about slow songs but I hate slow like mush tunes like many act’s get sucked into but as long as the drummer fella keeps the beat moving  forward.  I have no problems whatsoever!

Now here’s a cool tune called Johnny’s Band. A song that is written about a dude named Johnny and the fella’s in his band which would be Bill/Pete and Benny, Johnny’s Band in the lyrics of this song hit the top than hit the skids(like so many do!) but Johnny keeps given ‘er even though he’s playing the clubs. Cool interplay between Steve on guitar and the vocals of Gillian on the chorus!

On Top Of The World has a pretty cool groove to it and thats because Airey knows how to add space to let Morse soar on these songs on guitar.

Time for a psychedelic like stomping tune that’s called   Birds Of Prey. This song is out there, kinda trippy but  enough oomph to not make it a wimpy  waste of space. This track has Ian and the boys out there to  and heading into infinity and beyond. Basically loading up and going Space Truckin!

Roadhouse Blues. Yup this is The Doors cover from decades back and you know what! I love this cover of it. Tons of harmonica/tons of guitar and tons of musical swagger shown in Roadhouse Blues. Here’s a little tip for you folk’s out there reading this…’Yeah, keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel!”

The iTunes version I purchased has 4 added bonus tunes.  Paradise Bar/Uncommon Man/Hip Boots(demo)/Strange Kind Of Woman(live)

What a great record in the year 2017 from The Deep Purple Fella’s! It’s cool to see a band with about 50 years of history being able to cook up a batch of great rock tracks.

Steve Morse totally rules on this album as he plays flawlessly not overdoing it with a whole bunch of  wanker fest wang bar diddle daddle look at me soloing! Nope! Than again Morse has never been that kind of 6 stringer! Everything about this album is solid…Songs/Musicianship/Singing/Production. It’s all here!

This album is worth the dough folks!