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![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice2.jpg)
Cracking album made even better
Get Ready to Rock‘s review of Rapture of the Deep remix is chock-full of most superlative terms, going as far as calling it “release of the year”.
The opening track ‘Money Talks’ is a great start, the new mix showcasing a hard and crunchy guitar, and Don Airey’s inner Jon Lord shines through on the Hammond organ, and the middle rhythmic break shows some great work from Gillan. The title track has an eastern influence. Then there’s ‘Clearly Quite Absurd’, a well crafted fine pop/rock song of the gentle kind, but each member is still able to show off.
A cracking album now made even better, and a bonus disc with some demo recordings, a must for any fan.
Read more in Get Ready to Rock.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Where were all these people when the album was initially released to muted response? And the band then took a 7 1/2 year hiatus from even reentering the studio (almost as long as the period between the1976 Mk IV split and the 1984 Mk II reunion!)?
Not that I’m complaining, but these days everything DP do seems to be bathed in a warm and benevolent nostalgia light. Better late than never.😎
September 9th, 2025 at 00:37It’s a great album. If it had been produced and packaged properly 20 years ago, it would’ve gotten the love it deserves. Now, maybe it will
Roger Glover outdid himself with the remix and re-sequencing of the songs. It may be the second-best Deep Purple album with Steve Morse on guitar behind only ‘Purpendicular.”
This was the album where Airey seemed to feel comfortable to assert himself for the first time on a DP disc.
I felt Ian Gillan’s vocals were sharp and the lyrics quite good.
September 9th, 2025 at 03:11With this new mix I get serious Purpendicular vibes.
September 9th, 2025 at 08:27I’ve always liked the music on this album. Great songs, great playing from all. But now when I’ve heard this remix the music really hits as it should have in the first place. Very very enjoyable remix. I feel the need to play it again and again. It has become obvious now that ROTD is one of the DP classics. Forgotten gem, not forgotten anymore.
September 9th, 2025 at 09:59I love Glen’s vocal range but I like him the least in this grunge sound..funky grunge.
September 9th, 2025 at 10:15I love him the most when he’s surrounded by the guys from BCC or Scandinavian musicians.:)
PS
Another great man has gone.. thanks for the great music RIP Rick Davies, vocalist and keyboardist of Supertramp
I’ve always loved “Rapture of the Deep”. And I love “Purpendicular” too, but… I’ve written about the album “Abandon” many times here.
September 9th, 2025 at 11:24I think it’s one of the most underrated albums since Steve joined the band.
In my opinion, it’s the most exciting hardest rock album by Deep Purple since “Man in Black” left the band. And the closest to what Purple was before..
I think it didn’t get the love because it seemed a bit simple maybe a little poppy and not sounding more like Deep Purple, at least to my ears. I haven’t heard the new remix yet, but i am liking the reviews it is receiving.
September 9th, 2025 at 11:51I am still waiting eagerly for my copy of the new remixed ROTD. By all accounts it seems that the album is finally getting the love it deserves. I always thought it to be a fine Purple record, much stronger than the other Morse-era albums up to that point (pre Now What?!); but was always troubled by the muffled sound of Gillan’s voice and the dulled sound of the instruments. The new improved sound will win ROTD lots of new fans, I am sure.
September 9th, 2025 at 12:55I’ve always liked this album since the first time I listened to it, the first edition. I don’t understand these improvements that weren’t present in the first production. Couldn’t everything have been done this well the first time?
September 9th, 2025 at 14:14Apparently I’m the only one who criticizes this remix because yes, it resurrects Morse’s guitar and does justice to Gillan’s voice, perhaps – rightly – it tones down Don a bit (even if here the emergency is just right), but from my point of view it does a horrible job on the bass (evidently Roger and I and other THS users have different ears) and above all it worsens the mix of poor LittleIan, as if he hadn’t already been penalized enough in the mixes of the last 20 years!?
but for me, hearing a little more guitar in the foreground isn’t enough to say that a remix has come out well!
I would like someone to explain to me in concrete words how they can say that the bass sound is as good, if not better than the original mix.
September 9th, 2025 at 18:50#6 pacuha:
I absolutely agree, Abandon is the album of maturation after the experiments of Purpencular, the only one with a clearly hard rock sound, the only one with a consistently high compositional quality, varied, not repetitive and full of never boring melodies.
Purple with Morse never reached that level compositionally, even if Bananas is not bad because it departed from the “canon” in an atypical way, something that subsequent albums did not do again.
#8 DeeperPurps:
September 9th, 2025 at 19:01every point of view is sacred, but I’d like to know how ROTD (with some really soft sounds) can be more powerful than Abandon
I remember that when I listened for my first time Wrong Man, I remained ecstatic! Wonderful piece full of power and big Big Ian..♡
September 9th, 2025 at 19:56Gillan said something about …Purple records seem to have a habit of maturing ….and , he was right !
September 9th, 2025 at 20:44This is brilliant…same treatment for Bananas too please
@ 5 – good on you Ivica for mentioning Rick Davies from Supertramp. Unfortunately he has been ill for the past decade, may he rest in peace. I watched a few live clips of him with his local band from about two year or so ago. It was good to see him out and about and playing and enjoying himself. A dramatic artist in many ways was Rick. Bloody Well Right and Crime of the Century are two wonderful powerful songs. Supertramp were wonderful back in the 1970’s. RIP.
September 9th, 2025 at 21:39Rapture was a great album at the time, albeit with the worst production of all their discography, and it’s a superb album now, newly remixed, but, the best or second best from the Morse’s era? IMHO I don’t agree. ROTD sounds much more DP than Bananas, and it was a return to the right path as well as a solid and better album than Bananas, but I think (again, MHO) that Ezrin albums are better, the band took a step ahead (and, somehow, resurrected, after long 8 years, when everything seemed to be almost over). The trilogy NW, InFinite and Whoosh! are the best since Purpendicular (NW maybe even better, for me).
But of course, it’s great that Rapture now be so well reveiwed.
Cheers.
September 9th, 2025 at 23:10Uwe
September 10th, 2025 at 10:24This is a very interesting topic. Where did you hide it?
Yeah album sounds better and the sequencing is better but I still think the songs are lame. It was a turd effort by the band IMO and you can’t polish a turd.
September 10th, 2025 at 14:06Pacuha, what topic do you mean? Not sure I understand.
And I have to side with CN @17 on this, while sonic quality has improved in leaps and bounds and the sequencing (which used to be real weird originally) is more inviting now, the songwriting is often a bit on the throwaway side … Maybe the band – devoid of a recording contract – had its mind on other things.
ROTD wasn’t awful, just lackluster and underwhelming, it’s now thankfully noticable better, but it is still at the bottom heap of the Morse output if nothing to be ashamed of:
– Purpendicular was vibrant with newfound creativity and therefore infectuous, there is more enthusiasm on this record then on the previous four ones with Ritchie put together,
– Abandon was dark, dense & determined with proggish influences that worked well,
– Bananas was something different and in places even poppy and
– the three Bob Ezrin-produced albums (or four if you count in TTC) have a certain general cohesion and warm ambience to them though Infinite is for whatever reason no collection of songwriting masterstrokes (with a few exceptions here and there) either.
But I’m still happy that the belated sonic makeover of ROTD has worked so well.
September 10th, 2025 at 17:04It took 7 years to record the next album – the reason for that is ROTD is crap. Remix it, mess with it all you want. I played it just the once and binned it.
Just dismal
September 10th, 2025 at 18:24Played it a couple of times when it first came out, and then shelved it because of the muddy compressed production.
September 10th, 2025 at 18:26Got the new remix a few days ago and can’t stop playing it. I’ve got no idea why some people are critical of the drum and base sound. You can actually hear the individual bass notes and the drums are much clearer- the two combined give a much better low end to proceedings as well. IG vocals are better mixed, and not so upfront, and both Dons and Steve’s contributions have been teased apart from the overall mush that they were previously in to a really well defined sound where you can hear everything being played. Steve’s guitar in particular has benefitted and sounds terrific.
For me, this now rates just behind Pupendicular as the best Morse era album, from being the worst.
And yes please, if Bananas can be rescued the same way, that would be great.
I freaking love this record now.
I thanked the music gods when I learned it was getting a remix, and had tears on my eyes when I heard the first couple of singles. It’s wonderful, it brought the music to life.
I can’t put in words my disappointment when I first heard the album 20 years ago. I remember thinking that if it’s to put out rushed, dull-sounding crap like this, then better to not release anything at all (which is what they actually did for 8 years, before NW?! rehabilitated DP’s credibility with me). But today that wound is finally healed.
RotD is now 3rd in my Mk7-8 rank, following NW?! and the glorious Purpendicular in 1st.
Goes to show that botched mixing jobs should warrant incarceration; they’re just another form of murder.
September 10th, 2025 at 19:04I received my copy of the new remixed ROTD and have gone through it three (3) full times now and it is tremendous. Gillan and Morse are way forward in the mix, the sound is bright and crisp. The whole album is so cohesive the way it flows from one song to the next. It is a very fine Purple effort, and I stand by my original assessment that it is the finest of the Morse-era, before 2013’s Now What?! which is even better.
That said……Fla76 @ 11. You make an excellent point, and at your prompting, I dug out Abandon and took it for a full spin…the first time in several years. And yes, indeed it is far better than I remember giving it credit for back in the day. I had already burned a few of the tracks from it onto my Ipod several years ago, but this fresh listen gave me a new appreciation for some of the deeper tracks. I can say that it could become my favourite Morse-era album with a few more spins.
So where does that leave me now….this conflicted feeling between which one is better….the melodic flowing ROTD versus the dark driving Abandon. Both have their merits, their charms. Both bookend what I consider the nadir of the Morse years…..Bananas. Maybe that’s why I am so partial to ROTD….I saw it as Purple redeeming itself after that particular low point.
September 10th, 2025 at 19:31#18 Uwe:
I absolutely agree!
#22DeeperPurps:
I can only be pleased that someone re-evaluates Abandon in the Morse album ranking, even if I consider it far better than Purpencular too, for me Abandon is to InRock for the MKII and to Perfect Strangers for the MKII bis
The overall quality of the songs has never been matched by any other album of the Morse era.
September 10th, 2025 at 21:54I have ordered it but as usual apparently Denmark is so far away that it takes any carrier weeks to find my address 😄
September 11th, 2025 at 08:49Well never mind, I look so much forward to the instrumental part. Have heard it’s really great too 😍
I think that AbandOn is one of the hardest rock from DP. I love this album, one of the best about me. Very powerful and also here Paice in great (not only in ♡7thHeaven♡..woooowww!!).
September 11th, 2025 at 09:23@23
September 11th, 2025 at 11:04I am with you 💪
Rapture is a phenomenal album, still the best one recorded with Steve for me. I’m really glad there will be a decent remix.
September 11th, 2025 at 12:47Uwe,
September 11th, 2025 at 13:15I’m just curious where you would rank Abandon in terms of album quality after Blackmore left and how much you appreciate that album, which in my opinion is the best. Cheers
Pacuha, it has grown on me, I prefer Purpendicular for diversity and Now What?! for songwriting, but Abandon, even if somewhat brooding, is close. Seventh Heaven, Watching The Sky and Fingers To The Bone are all remarkable.
September 11th, 2025 at 15:321°abandon
2°bananas
3°the rapture..
4° purpendicular
These are my favourite
With Morse.
I’d like to mention
September 11th, 2025 at 18:17Infinite but it’s not a homogeneous album. For example, “Johnny’s Band” is a wonderful hard R&B blues piece, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the album.
AndreA
September 12th, 2025 at 18:45This is my choice.. too..
@30 -AndreA – that would be my ranking as well.
For the reunion era, adding in the Blackmore records, would say:
1° perfect strangers
September 12th, 2025 at 23:082 °abandon
3 °bananas
4° rapture
5° battle rages on
6° purpendicular
7° hobl
8° s+m
@32
September 13th, 2025 at 19:13Oh Skippy! I like your top.
Perfect Strangers is a myth.
The title track will be the song of my funeral.
My relations know that..
I intend to come back via the rear once I’ve kicked the bucket, so I’ll have Knocking At Your Back Door played … 😎
September 14th, 2025 at 00:06@33
AndreA, ohh man I’m with you there!
September 14th, 2025 at 06:18When I die I want people to rejoice (be stum Uwe 😄) instead of mourning.
My favourite funeral track will be ‘Woman from Tokyo’ and of course ‘Strange kind of Woman’
And you know what, then I’ll pay, in advance of course, a man all dressed in black, standing away from my family and friends, but close enough for everyone to see him, and no matter what the weather is like, he will be holding an umbrella and looking mysterious.
And if someone talks to him, his only response will be: ‘ohh you can see me!’
😄
(Sorry for the silliness, I’m on vacation and have a dangerous amount of time on my hands 😂)
@35
September 14th, 2025 at 08:33Oh Karin😅
let’s do it together, it could turn out to be a nice deep purple 🍻 🎊 💜
Sometimes journalists just have to suck it up. That’s life…
September 14th, 2025 at 10:35@36
Alright then!
If I die first, you show up as the mysterious umbrella guy that whispers things to people, to make them run screaming away!
Should you die first, of course I’ll do the same 😄
@34
September 14th, 2025 at 10:38Uwe 😂
Do you mind live on?
Whether some part of me consciously survives my biological demise or not is a philosophical question that I haven’t yet fully answered for myself yet – either outcome is ok I guess, but for a definite legal assessment please contact me after I’m dead – at my usual hourly rates!
But I want to see people smile at my funeral too, my song will be
https://youtu.be/XCvwDjgKPoc
and I want her brilliant lyric “I swear there ain’t no heaven and I pray there ain’t no hell” on my gravestone.
And should I be cremated, of course 🔥 BURN 🔥 will get an airing too!
September 15th, 2025 at 19:41@39
“but for a definite legal assessment please contact me after I’m dead – at my usual hourly rates!”
– via a ouija board?
I prefer people alive I have to say!
Nice songs 😊
September 16th, 2025 at 15:52well, now yes. Now ROTD really sounds like Deep Purple!
September 17th, 2025 at 00:17Lazy
Burn
Soon Forgotten
would be my funeral songs (no, joking, just Lazy).
September 17th, 2025 at 11:47No worries, Karin, I’ll haunt you!
https://youtu.be/LotAru3vJIY
One of the high points of Bananas of which there were quite a few. Steve and Janine in happier days can be seen in the vid too.
September 17th, 2025 at 12:43@43
Yeah, Steve and Janine, such a cute couple 😊
You’ll haunt me? You are very welcome to that 😂
September 17th, 2025 at 18:10I don’t believe in ghosts, but be my guest – so to speak 😅
@43 Uwe
September 18th, 2025 at 11:27Wonderful video 👏
Steve and Janine looked a bit like brother & sister if you ask me! 🤗 Some couples just have that.
Sort of like Mick & Bianca, where everybody said “Mick has finally married himself”. 😂
https://www.lamaisonrebelle.com/cdn/shop/files/mick-jagger-bianca-jagger_800x.webp?v=1755552525
September 18th, 2025 at 13:20That video version of Haunted is quite a bit different from/sparser than the original version with the chick singers and string arrangement!
https://youtu.be/6ZS2pguIRpE
September 19th, 2025 at 12:35Yeah, they mixed the studio version (first half) with a live performance (second half). Here’s said performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVG8lguytlk&list=RDUVG8lguytlk&start_radio=1
EarMusic needs to get the rights for Bananas (the album, not the fruit) and remix it. That and RotD are for me peak post-80s Gillan singing-wise (don’t care much for Toolbox, he was overdoing it).
September 19th, 2025 at 20:36Thanks VD, I’didn’t know that, I thought it was an alternative take or mix. Glorious song.
September 20th, 2025 at 02:01@46
“Steve and Janine looked a bit like brother & sister if you ask me!”
– 😆
I can’t remember if you have any sisters, but I grew up surrounded by four wonderful, caring, loving and obnoxiously teasing brothers, and I promise you NEVER EVER did we look anything like Steve and Janine 😂😂
September 20th, 2025 at 10:25(Yes, we were busy pulling knives out we have thrown ourselves, meanwhile we teased our poor mum 😄)
@48
Thank you VD for that Haunted video 😊
September 24th, 2025 at 04:18Though I must divulge that “Haunted by VD” has an unpleasant ring to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPP1xkgjnA8&list=RDrPP1xkgjnA8
September 25th, 2025 at 13:45@52
Thanks Uwe, for giving us all a dose… of Dr. Hook.
September 25th, 2025 at 22:05@52
“Though I must divulge that “Haunted by VD” has an unpleasant ring to it.”
– 😄😄😄 my sentiment exactly!
Dr.Hook, oh well, I don’t wanna step into that area, but I do need to mention that my darling mum had this saying (when I was a kid and didn’t know anything…) in Danish: ‘din veneriske hankat’.
September 26th, 2025 at 11:48Considering the gentle minds I know are in here in abundance, I won’t translate, but Uwe, ask Edith 😃
Dr Hook, unhampered by obstructive PC considerations, never shunned bringing up the subjects that really count!
https://youtu.be/vFAMyoGS4jY
https://youtu.be/cAk-V8iJQPI
I loved that band. And as that Denmark live vid shows, they could be stoned out of their minds and still retain great musicality.
Which reminds me of a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers gig I saw where the whole band was absolutely shitfaced with Mary Jane, yet played like a consummate (or consuming? 😆) dream and never missed a note. But Tom‘s ganja smile persisted all night and he couldn’t finish a single announcement without falling in some pot giggling with the band joining in.
October 1st, 2025 at 22:45Absolutely great sound. Paice’s drum sound is more realistic- Morse’s guitar powerful and Roger’s bass more distinct. Always was a favorite of mine. Roger now needs to get a hold of Whoosh where Ezrin did everything possible to suck the life out of. The Morse era albums really elevated the composition quality of purple and stretched out the band’s artistic capabilities
October 21st, 2025 at 03:09