CD Review: Deep Purple - Bananas

What do Deep Purple albums have in common with Star Trek movies? As any trekkie will tell you, Trek movies follow an odd/even rule, where films alternate between good and bad. So it is with Purple albums. They followed the classic Machine Head with the going-through-the-motions Who Do We Think We Are, the revitalised Burn with the patchy Stormbringer. After their excellent 1984 reunion album Perfect Strangers came the lacklustre House of Blue Light. The followup to the fresh and adventurous Purpendicular was the tired-sounding Abandon. On this reckoning, Bananas should be one of the good ones.

Bananas is also the first album not to feature founder member Jon Lord, who decided he was simply too old for the band's endless touring. His replacement on the keyboards is longtime member of the hard rock session mafia, Don Airey, veteran of many, many bands, including Rainbow, Blizzard of Ozz and The Gary Moore band. For the benefit of those that haven't been following the band in recent years, they retain long time members Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice, plus on guitar Steve Morse, who replaced Richie Blackmore three albums ago after the mercurial Man in Black threw one strop too many and quit the band.

So does the album follow the odd/even rule?

Yes, I would say it does. My initial impression on first listening was that the feel was closer to Ian Gillan's recent solo material that to recent Purple albums. Perhaps this was to be expected in a band now without both Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore. However, repeated listens throw up a lot of parellels with Purpendicular, the first album with Steve Morse, indicating that he had a big input in the writing.

The album has a loose and relaxed feel, much more so than recent releases. It opens with a classic rocker "House of Pain", one of those songs that invites you to turn the volume up as loud as your neighbours will permit. The best numbers are saved for the end of the album, the title track, featuring some very ELP-like keyboard work from Don Airey, and the energetic closer "Doing it Tonight", which deserves to be released as a single. Of course, Gillan's lyrics are as sexist as ever, but what did you expect?

Overall, a good solid album. While it's no Machine Head or Burn, it's still one of the better post-reunion albums, and a big improvement on it's predecessor, Abandon. I hope they play songs like "Doing it Tonight" and "House of Pain" on the forthcoming tour, rather than play "Black Night" for the zillionth time.

The Purps aren't done yet.