Label: earMUSIC
Release date: May 1, 2020
Producer: Bob Ezrin
Genre: Hard Rock
The Deep Purple legend rolls on, more than fifty years in, with their latest single “Man Alive”, the overture to their upcoming twenty-first studio album “Whoosh!”. The newest single from the unbreakable hard rock champions features two new tracks, “Man Alive” and “Throw My Bones”. The two are tied together by standout orchestral arrangements from keyboardist Don Airey, which aren’t exactly a common trait of the modern-day Deep Purple.
In that respect, “Man Alive”, mostly thanks to those standout symphonic arrangements, is a pleasantly experimental surprise, one that will especially thrill anyone who wants to hear a few prog rock elements from Deep Purple. To everyone’s surprise, it’s not a hard rock wrecking ball or a track that hits you right off the bat, but an eclectic creation that, besides the symphonic touches, packs quite a few unexpected time changes and even, for the first time in the band’s history, spoken word from singer Ian Gillan, while Steve Morse’s guitar solo is one of his most interesting in the last twenty years.
Even “Throw My Bones”, which is rhythmically and arrangement-wise a somewhat more ‘traditional’ Deep Purple song, is spiced up with heavy orchestration. Further proof that most Deep Purple members, Morse excepted, have ‘long since stacked seven decades on their backs’ comes from the new lyrics, which no longer revolve around femmes fatales, assorted village and town oddballs, and various episodes from the band members’ lives, but have become far more socially aware and at times even apocalyptic.
The new single “Man Alive” announces that the creative muse is far from done with Deep Purple, even after the ‘The Long Goodbye’ tour, which signaled that retirement wasn’t far off, and after their induction into the controversial ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’. Unlike Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, the other two members of the so-called holy trinity of hard rock, who have long been enjoying a well-earned retirement, Deep Purple have no plans to hang it up as long as there’s even a speck of creative drive left in them and as long as the songwriting and instrumental chemistry among all members of the current lineup works this effectively. Everything points to “Whoosh!” being one of the most interesting albums of the current incarnation of Deep Purple, if not of their whole rich career.
by: Peter Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Man Alive
2. Throw My Bones
Line-up:
Ian Gillan – vocals
Steve Morse – guitar
Don Airey – keyboards
Roger Glover – bass
Ian Paice – drums
