Deep Purple - Splat!
by Kevin Wierzbicki
Don't spend too much time being concerned with where the title of Deep Purple's latest album comes from. Just know that the long-running classic rockers have another winner on their hands with
Splat!, a set of melodic hard rock that on occasion harkens back to their early days. In fact singer Ian Gillan has said about the record, "I have to say, now we are very much back in with material that is compatible with "Highway Star," "Smoke on the Water" and "Lazy," the dynamics the balance and the fun of the music we made from '69 to '73. Where we are now with this incarnation of Deep Purple feels very much like a "now" version of Deep Purple as it was in the seventies." And that notion is hard to argue with. With the solid lineup of Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Don Airey and Simon McBride, Deep Purple here shows a rock 'n' roll gravitas that only comes with decades of experience. The album starts out on a fast and furious note, choogling like crazy on "Arrogant Boy" where McBride's guitar work meshes nicely with the rhythm and organ highlights from Airey; it's a cool blues rock groove that powers "Diablo" while "The Rider," a tale of how riders (contractual documents that specify what must be provided to bands for concerts) get a little (or a lot) out of hand and that rocks along to a hook-filled melody. God only knows what was the inspiration for "The Lunatic;" for sure the song, especially thanks to Airey's keys work, sounds like vintage Purple. It is Airey's organ work that pushes "The Only Horse in Town" too; the cut is crafted for hard rock radio, a place where Purple has spent plenty of time, and the sing-along nature of the chorus makes the song a no-brainer for airplay. Fans reading the track list before they play the record may do a double take at "Jessica's Bra," wondering if that's a typo or if there's something spectacular about Jessica's undergarment that makes it song worthy. Well, it is a typo, but not in the song title. Gillan sings about Jessica's Bar, where a misprinted sign calling the place Jessica's Bra hangs behind the bar. Mostly the song singles out some of the unique denizens of the dive and those who visit such places on the regular will recognize some of these characters from Gillan's descriptions. And about that song title, "Splat!," the title track, is the album's final offering. Rocking along to more Airey organ riffing and Glover's bass, the song is a funky look at how sometimes things don't work out, "I look into the future as we splat against the screen." See I told you not to worry about it! Good rocking throughout from this much-loved institution.
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