Deep Purple - Bananas (2003)

Tracklist:
1. House of Pain
2. Sun Goes Down
3. Haunted
4. Razzle Dazzle
5. Silver Tongue
6. Walk On
7. Picture of Innocence
8. I've Got Your Number
9. Never a Word
10. Bananas
11. Doing It Tonight
12. Contact Lost

Deep Purple has gone bananas – 7,4/10

I remember I used to buy Bananas in the store because I thought the front cover was funny. The cover is a perfect definition of the album itself: it’s a funny record. I doubt Deep Purple were in a serious mood when they wrote these songs (with the exception of some). There’s an overall relaxing atmosphere and songs with an uplifting mood. Especially when you take a look in the booklet and see Ian Gillan having to restrain himself from bursting out in laughs, Steve Morse looking very funny in the camera and the whole band having dressed themselves as tourists in a warm land, you can see the light atmosphere on the album reflecting in the bands attitude.

Where Abandon was a record that had an uninspiring balance between hard rockers and blues rockers or ballads, Bananas is one record full of the bluesy stuff. Though the riffs are not the most original and vocals are not what they used to be, the songs sound very spontaneous and relaxing. There is no “Child in Time” or “Hush” on here to make this album become a masterpiece, but this release does not aim to become the next masterpiece, and I think Deep Purple have chosen this more relaxing style on purpose on their journey to retirement. They no longer try to surpass albums like Machine Head, Perfect Strangers or Stormbringer. This is a vacation CD, recorded by a band that likes going on vacation. There are songs that make you believe you’re walking on an island full of banana trees like “House of Pain” and “Razzle Dazzle”, there are very inspiring ballads with at times even gospel influences like “Haunted” and “Never a Word” and there are songs with a more serious approach like “Sun Goes Down” and “Silver Tongue”. Overall, I don’t think there are abominations on this album are anything like a weak song. This album is built with all the songs as necessary bricks. Let’s go a bit more into details.

The album opens with the light “House of Pain”. The relaxing riff we hear is not the most original one, but gets us in the perfect Banana-mood. We also have Ian Gillan give a high scream at the beginning, giving us a false idea about his voice still being good. On the rest of the album he does not pretend to sing high, like on Abandon, but stays within his safe range where he sounds good. The rest of the opening song is quite funny actually, hearing the backing vocals echo Gillans ‘back to the house of pain’. “Sun Goes Down” begins slightly more serious, with a great Hammond intro by Don Airey, and then results into a more serious riff. Highlight of this song is the verse just after the interplay when only Gillan and drummer Ian Paice are playing. Gillans vocals really shine there. Next we have a beautiful ballad with gospel-esque backing vocals in the shape of “Haunted”. It’s really something new for Deep Purple to have a song like this, but the theme is beautiful and Gillan performs well. One of my favorite songs from this album is “Razzle Dazzle”. Despite the somewhat odd title it does contain a great relaxing blues rock tune, making you feel surrounded by bananas. Also this riff is not very original, but I really like the outcome of it. We continue on a more serious note on the rhythmic “Silver Tongue” and on the slow bluesy “Walk On”. When the guitar intro to “Picture of Innocence” begins we are back to the relaxing part of the album. This guitar intro solo is really great and the song that follows after it also has this laid back feel to it. Especially the chorus is notable with its raving vocals and lyrics.

As we hear the somewhat troublesome intro to “I Got Your Number” we are surprised to hear a riff that heavily reminds me of the music in the old pc game Blake Stone. Probably and hopefully just coincidence though. The chorus of this song is of the same level of the intro and somewhat hard to grasp, but the bridge and the solos totally makes up for it. The gentle ballad “Never a Word” takes the level of seriousness slightly upwards with a very relaxingly gentle instrumental first half. The second half of the song features Gillans falsetto voice and he does a great job there. Then there’s the title track “Bananas”. By the time you’ve reached this song you’ll be totally convinced that Deep Purple have actually gone bananas. The main riff is happy, just like on “Razzle Dazzle” and “House of Pain”, and the verses feature some rock ‘n roll influences and a harmonica playing fills. They implemented an odd time signature though and that’s probably what attracts your attention first. As far as I understood the lyrics are about nothing. Then there’s highlight “Doing It Tonight”. I think most will discard this song as being ‘unoriginal’ or ‘not Deep Purple’. The riff is indeed not the most original riff ever created, but the outcome of the song is delicious. The verses, the solo and the main theme... I love it. All seriousness has faded from this album and one more glimpse at Ian Gillans picture in the booklet will make us realize what Bananas really is: a record by a band that is making music solely for fun. The album is nicely closed by instrumental “Contact Lost”, featuring a beautiful gentle guitar solo by Steve Morse.

So this album is relaxing, fun and light. It’s a great album to just play while you’re doing something. It creates such a light atmosphere that you just get totally happy after listening to it. For the full experience a legal copy of the CD is recommended, since you’ll have the pictures and the funny front cover. If you can accept all that I said in this review, then I’ll recommend this album to you.

Strongest songs: “Haunted”, “Razzle Dazzle” and “Doing It Tonight”.

Deep Purple - Abandon (1998)

Tracklist:
1. Any Fule Kno That
2. Almost Human
3. Don't Make Me Happy
4. Seventh Heaven
5. Watching the Sky
6. Fingers to the Bone
7. Jack Ruby
8. She Was
9. Whatsername
10. '69
11. Evil Louie
12. Bludsucker

Not bad, but not good enough – 6,9/10

After a lot of drama and the departure of original guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple managed to deliver a quite successful album in 1996 known as Purpendicular with their new guitarist Steve Morse. Whether its follow-up is a good album is hard to say. Abandon is a bit of a transition record, with still elements of hard rock to be found here, but with the laid back blues rock gaining the upper hand a little. I say a little here because it’s not as dominant as on 2003’s Bananas yet. This makes Abandon a good record, but quite far from memorable.

The whole band does seem to be in shape. Ian Paice’s drums sound very clear and powerful, Jon Lords Hammond sounds very clear, Roger Glovers bass sounds very solid and Steve Morse’s sound is really cool and his solos do impress me. It is Ian Gillan however who sometimes is to blame for a song to fail. Ever since the reunion of Deep Purple in 1984 his voice has been declining. Although at times he sounds clear and cool, on songs like “Almost Human” he really sounds hoarse and tired. His high notes are also not what they used to be and that really should encourage the man not to try and hit them anymore, like he does on Bananas. His vocal performance however is not so terrible that it ruins the entire album. The album starts with a very strong vocal performance, which decreases its strength halfway through though. “Any Fule Kno That” is a really cool opener with a powerful guitar riff and a powerful rap by our beloved Gillan, which he does quite cool. There are solos by both Lord and Morse and they really fit the song. This is a great and unique way to open the album. The fine line is continued for the next five songs. “Almost Human” will be noticed for its catchy chorus and “Don’t Make Me Happy” begins as a cliché blues song that reminds slightly of 70s Deep Purple, mainly due to Gillans vocals in the verses. In the chorus things will get back to the 90s and the whole results in some quality bluesy power ballad. This song is a very good one and definitely stands out, especially the solo. Then there is “Seventh Heaven” with its heavy riff featuring a pinch harmonic which is very unlike Deep Purple. This is one of the more rocking songs on this release but doesn’t really stand out, except for the solo which is being played on a very bluesy interpretation of the hard rock riff.

Then we are suddenly welcomed into “Watching the Sky” with a doomy Dio-esque intro, soon resolving into another bluesy hard rock riff. The verses are being reduced to a gentle ballad-ish part where Gillan uses his falsetto voice a little, and then they explode to the riff again to form the chorus. It doesn’t really stand out, just like “Seventh Heaven”, but it has got its moments, such as the “fury and madness”-part. Last of the enjoyable tracks on a row is “Fingers to the Bone” with a great guitar theme throughout combined with one of Gillans better performances on the album. This song almost has an epic feel to it; the themes on the verses and the chorus are so cool, and the piano solo adds the finishing touch. Now we’re at the end of the row we have a row of three songs before us that just radiate pure boredom with all of them being unoriginal, uninspiring and downright boring. They all have a laid back rhythm throughout, terrible vocals and such lameness. Those songs probably would’ve fit better on Bananas but I’m glad they’re not on there either since Bananas’ songs are still better than this. This is cliché blues to the bone without effort being put into them. It seems they needed some filler material; else this album would’ve been quite good. The titles are also so very uninspiring: “Jack Ruby”, “She Was” and “Whatsername”. Especially the last mentioned title seems really uninspired. I guess it’s songs like these that restrain newer Deep Purple albums from getting high rates nowadays. I mean, if you really want to create music like this then just do it right at once and create an entire album like this, like 2003’s Bananas.

The album ends quite stylish actually. “’69” is a fast-paced hard rocker with really good drumming and a powerful driving force throughout the song. It also has a really inventive solo part. Gillans voice is not too good on here, but at least not disturbing. Then there's “Evil Louie”. This song evidently fits with the three uninspired ones in style, but hey, this one actually has beauty! It starts off in the laid back rhythm like “Jack Ruby”, but somehow this one sounds much better. A good but simple riff, and just before the chorus we have a beautiful instrumental part with the guitar playing beautiful arpeggios. Then the chorus turns out much more powerful than something like “Whatsername”. It seems Deep Purple CAN still do it, but just don’t always have the inspiration. As a last treat Purple decided to re-record the classic song “Bloodsucker”, now entitled “Bludsucker”. This version sounds good and fits well on the album, but the original is a lot better for two reasons. The first is the most obvious: Gillans voice. He takes good care of the lower register part, but the “Oh no no no!” sounds just... not good. I must admit that he does still sound powerful here on his lower register though. The last verse is a bit spoiled, since he tried to imitate the original version where he goes sky high. The second reason is Steve Morse. I think it is very good that he plays his own solo and does not copy Blackmore’s solo, but in the end people want to compare. Where Morse is mostly showing his technical abilities here, shredding like hell, Blackmore used to rely more on his feel in the music rather than his technical abilities. Of course, it also differs on the type of guitarist, but my preference goes to Blackmore’s solo.

After this detailed look upon the album, I conclude that Abandon is a good album, but definitely not good enough. There are some nice songs, some songs sound even great, but there’s nothing truly magnificent. Nothing of the quality they used to have. There is also a disturbing amount of fillers on this album that drastically reduces my rating for Abandon, and makes me abandon this release. Overall, this album is good, but definitely not memorable, and perhaps even forgettable. I recommend this to Deep Purple fans, but if you are new with the band you should check out their Mark II stuff first.

Strongest tracks: “Don’t Make Me Happy”, “Fingers to the Bone” and “Evil Louie”.
Weakest tracks: “Jack Ruby” and “She Was”.