Deep Purple - Now What?! (2013)

A month before Black Sabbath released their much-anticipated 19th studio album 13, Deep Purple released their own 19th album entitled Now What?!. Of course, I don't think Deep Purple's newest was as anticipated and I don't think it has made quite the same splash. But I don't think you should just write off this album because it doesn't grab the headlines. Black Sabbath certainly deserve to have a number one album with 13 and I'm there cheering along with everyone else, but I don't think folks should sleep on Deep Purple's album. 

I've already done my Deep Purple list and while I'd keep the order mostly the same with the exception of maybe dropping Rapture of the Deep a few spots and raising Perfect Strangers a few spots, I don't really have any issues with the list. It's close enough for government work. But where would Now What?! fit in? I think it would have to be top ten. I love Purpendicular and this album is easily their best album since that one, but I'd even go so far as to say it could be even better because it feels more like a Purple album than Purpendicular. The past few albums have been really good for showcasing the virtuoso talent of Steve Morse, but Now What?! is a good showcase for the modern Deep Purple as a whole. Ian Gillan's vocals sound better than they did on Rapture of the Deep and the band sounds much more energetic as well. With rocking songs like Hell to Pay (listen to Don Airey and Steve Morse play off each other while Glover thumps that bass!), Out of Hand, and Uncommon Man (listen to that intro!), it's easy to see why Purple (throughout most of its incarnations) has stuck around all these years: they just have that ability to craft listenable songs. 

Above and Beyond has a decidedly Led Zeppelin-esque intro and then Steve Morse starts an AC/DC style riff and then Ian Gillan and Don Airey bring it home in a fitting tribute to the fallen Jon Lord. 

Of course, the album as whole is dedicated to Jon Lord and you can hear that Don Airey really brings it on this album. It's a fitting performance on a fitting tribute.

But, let's face it, this album is all about Vincent Price. I really dig all of the songs to a certain degree, but Vincent Price is the best song they've done since Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming. That choir background and the eerie horror movie sounds as the guitar plays... and then Ian Gillan starts singing. There's a reason it's the last song on the album, folks. Listen to this song if you haven't yet. It's worth buying the album for (although I don't approve of you doing so because the other songs are good and worth listening to, but if you did then I wouldn't blame you). 

Naturally, this album isn't Deep Purple in Rock and it doesn't have a Smoke on the Water type of hit on it, but for this album to tank out in America... Man, sometimes I think I should move to Germany, after all. The album even charted higher in France. And if France can put it in the top 25 then why the hell can't we in America? 

Some people have no shame.