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Flair, swagger, and panache
The new album Splat! is technically still a few hours away, and it seems like everybody and their dogs are reviewing it.
There’s no theme here per se, but Gillan does populate the songs with cautionary tales and characters falling from grace, some reflection on aging and tongue-in-cheek macho posturing (“I’m a sophisticated man with the emphasis on fist”). He also laces tracks such as “Diablo,” “The Only Horse in Town” and “Jessica’s Bra” with vivid cinematic detail. All of this speaks to a band that’s still in fierce form and decidedly in rock as it nears its 60th anniversary. The battle is raging on — for now, and hopefully for some time to come.
The greatest compliment that can be paid to SPLAT! is that it never feels like an album made by a band simply going through the motions. Instead, it sounds like five musicians who still believe they have something worth saying. It may not rank alongside Machine Head, In Rock, or Perfect Strangers, but it comfortably sits among the strongest albums of Deep Purple’s later years. In an era when many classic rock bands rely almost entirely on nostalgia, SPLAT! proves that Deep Purple remain a creative force rather than a museum piece.
4.5/6
Brace yourself, because what the band delivers here is a rousing set of rock music where McBride sometimes lays down searing riffs, then Purple perform blues-inspired tracks just as they did in the 1970s, and at other times the band even manages to sound a bit poppier and sometimes a wee bit more proggy. And the interplay between Airey and McBride: it’s absolutely spot on! Not only do they know a thing or two about how to create a fascinating combination of their instruments, it seems they’ve added to the recipe and, in their own quirky and headstrong way, added a dash of laid-back flair and, at times, swagger and panache.
The primary impression here is one of tons of energy, enabled by Bob Ezrin’s glistening production and a widescreen mix that gives space to the various elements. Purple rarely let up on this album, switching between their trademark organ and guitar flurries for all the world like they haven’t been doing it for decades. Gillan doesn’t make the easy error of lapsing into unwarranted nostalgia or reactionary bitterness, either, although there is a song about the evils of AI, inspired by his struggles with an internet Captcha. The Lunatic was partly inspired by the banning of that word by the powers that be.
The musical textures aren’t uniform, though: a high point comes when Airey lets loose with a Stevie Wonder-style clavinet solo on the title track, itself based on a sinister, Dear Prudence-alike descending chord sequence that adds a nicely spooky touch. Splat! is a blast from start to finish, and whatever’s in the water at Purple HQ, we want some.
Where Splat! ultimately improves on =1 is that while compounding the impression of a new, improved Mark IX Purple (freshness, concision, engaging narrative lyrics seasoned with Gillan’s sometimes surrealistic wit and imagery), it’s also laced with unmistakable echoes of Mark II and III. Of Splat!’s 13 tracks there’s barely a stumble. Jessica’s Bra with its laboured titular pun is possibly a wee bit too 20th-century for its own good, but hey, who among us isn’t? Elsewhere it’s only a succession of highlights: Arrogant Boy is a compelling second cousin to Highway Star, Diablo as gloriously mad as a tree, and Splat! itself an irresistible groove.
In many ways, Splat! captures the very best Purple one could possibly expect to hear in 2026. Pretty good cover as well. They’ll go far.
Thanks to David Black for the heads-up on Record Collector.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
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