Deep Purple
THE BATTLE RAGES ON

Well, the guys didn't want to continue to mine the same vein and collect money on commercially successful catchy melodies. Turner was sent far away, Gillan was brought back, so the recorded album turned out to be quite good. Not bad, but not good enough. Gillan and Blackmore started squabbling again, each pulling the blanket over himself, as a result of which Ritchie didn't "survive" in the group even until the end of the tour, loudly slammed the door and revived Rainbow (though not for long), and Joe Satriani played in his place at concerts. As for this album, the most memorable things on it are: the opening "The Battle Rages On", with excellent catchy riffing and lyrics about how humanity still hasn't learned to do without wars (it's quite possible that this is also about the conflicts within the group itself); the beautiful "Anya" with a gypsy-style guitar intro, which is not surprising since the song is about a gypsy Anya (why not Aza?) from Hungary, and a great romantic atmosphere (although it is not a ballad); the energetic "Time to Kill" with a chorus that stays in your head for a long time about how everything has its time; the heavy rhythm and blues "Ramshackle Man" with a great guitar solo and harmonica playing; and the impressive "Solitaire" with distorted vocals and lyrics about the desire to get rid of loneliness. The other themes are less memorable, although they still give a hundred points ahead of the products of many other bands that have a very vague idea of ​​​​what melody is. These are the hard rock'n'rolls "Lick It Up" (not related to the Kiss song of the same name) and "Talk About Love" on a love theme, the fast "A Twist in the Tale" (about a girl for whom the lyrical hero has stopped feeling love) with some perversions with vocals, as well as "Nasty Piece of Work", reminiscent of something from DP of the Coverdale era, with a good organ lining, and the mid-tempo "One Man's Meat" with memorable vocals. Blackmore's departure, of course, upset Deep Purple fans to the core, but already on the next album the guys showed that the new guitarist Steve Morse copes with his task perfectly.

This is an album that could only be good if the band's relationships were better - Gillan broke the voice, Richie was thinking of leaving - a poor audience interest - annoying for an album that has good but insufficiently elaborated ideas