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A lot to say, yet absolutely zilch to prove
Blues Rock Review reviews Splat! in absolutely glowing terms:
As AI inexcusably blitzes a forgettable culture of monotonous mediocrity, Deep Purple auspiciously land with a balls-to-the-wall Splat! to the good old days. This is what you call ‘musicality’ kids. If a band that spacetrucked and highway starred in the 70s can still produce songs this energetic and euphoric in their 70’s, there lies a greater hope that rock ‘n’ roll can keep sticking two fingers up to those vociferating for its obituary.
Rather ironically, this conceptual record explores the end of humanity. But not in the dire, terminal apocalyptic flaunt its oddly, onomatopoetic title suggests. Instead, it dissects the transformational finale of humanity, with frontman Ian Gillan envisioning it as a metaphor for our race metamorphosing into a metaphysical state, similar to butterflies.
Continue reading in Blues Rock Review
Clash review is more subdued, and it ranks the album 7/10:
This shouldn’t really be happening. Rock tends to be a young man’s game, but Deep Purple are – somehow – igniting competition with group’s almost a quarter of their age. With each member ranging between 78 to 80 years old, ‘SPLAT!’ – their preposterously titled 24th studio album – is a turbo-charged return, a heavy rock onslaught that touches on different facets of their lengthy career, while still breaking new ground.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
My initial impression of the album is, alas, mild disappointment. Arrogant Boy and Diablo are atypical; Guilt Trippin’ is more representative. There are riffs, but few songs that begin in classic Purple style with thundering riffs. One of the songs is almost poppy, and there are other songs that have passages in major scales that are too jolly (to use Ian Paice’s perfect term) for rock.
I would love to know, though I doubt we ever will, who contributed the main ideas to the songs. But my guess is that Roger contributed less than usual, and Simon, and especially Don (whose solo work is often excellent), more. There are fewer riffs in blues scales, and more in harmonic minor scales. The liner notes don’t credit Bob Ezrin as a songwriter (as they have done with recent albums) but merely as an arranger. And there are fewer irritating Ezrin mannerisms in the production than in previous albums produced by him (e.g., awful endings, talking, super trebly vocals, choirs-of-angels backing vocals).
But the soloing is excellent, and I need to get to know the songs more before rendering a final judgement. The album was advertised as heavy. And there are parts that are heavy in a traditional way: thundering riffs in blues scales played with a rough guitar tone. But it is also heavy in a different way–everything is mixed together, and there is some musical complexity that needs unravelling.
If the album recalls the Mk. 2 era at all, then Fireball is the album it most resembles. But it mostly resembles the pre-Ezrin Morse-era albums.
July 4th, 2026 at 14:18Even a sardonic old bugger like me cannot help but be moved by the album going down so well almost everywhere – very heartening.
=1 was to me a good, promising album, nothing world-staggering, but I felt good about the direction the band was going and that Simon would be the right fit (it took utmost self-discipline on my part to ignore the Gary Moorishness in his tone, that had already bothered me with John Sykes no end; I can’t help it, I simply dislike Moore’s guitar style (never mind his yelping), it’s not percussive enough for me, I prefer Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower or Johnny Winter anytime of the day).
But this new album has now taken the roof off! Je suis extremely pleased with it, and with all due respect to Lil Simon, I think Don Airey is these days DP’s strongest instrumentalist. I never thought I would say that, but I like the stamp he has put on the band.
In terms of energy, SPLAT! is in any case very reminiscent of the Don Airey Band’s last outing.
July 4th, 2026 at 16:41Finished my initial listen of SPLAT!
First, all this PR about returning to the classic sound of the Machine Head days is purely that, PR rubbish. There is no resemblance at all. And it shouldn’t. No way decades on they will have similar sound.
Second, Ian G breaks the all time lyric record with more words and phrasing than any Purple record before. Maybe any two combined! It’s like he opened his portable door and couldn’t keep the words out. That said, there is great music and riffs here, just lost in the words sometimes…
My suggestion for a resemblance to the former greatness? Cut the number of tunes on the album. There are 13 on SPLAT! Maybe down to seven, no more than eight. And make each tune at least five minutes! No tune on SPLAT! is five minutes. So longer songs and MORE DON, MORE SIMON! Their work on SPLAT! is top notch.
July 4th, 2026 at 20:03I like the variety the more songs bring – you can always extend them live.
Besides, people’s views re the length of DP songs in the 70s are clouded with nostalgia, on Stormbringer three songs are below 03:30, five are below 04:30 and only Hold On is a little longer than five minutes – duh! On CTTB, two songs are around three minutes, four songs are four minutes or less and only I Need Love, Ode to G and You keep On Moving last longer, with only the instrumental breaking the six minute mark by ten seconds.
Some of you must be mistaking 70s Purple studio output with albums by Rare Earth or Iron Butterfly where one song would take up a whole album side. 🤣 Thankfully that wasn‘t the case with DP studio albums and MiJ‘s Space Trucking side was always the side I heard least. And dare I say: That kind of instrumental song extension was perhaps better done on Miles Davis‘ Bitches Brew, he didn‘t just alternate between A and G.
July 5th, 2026 at 00:03@ 4- many audiences enjoying ‘zoning out’ Uwe. It isn’t all about how many chords etc. Plus the fact that certain era’s and artists captured and provided that experience for fans. That was their strength at that time. Twenty minutes or so for Space Truckin’, wonderful that is. I bet the Japanese audience thought as much too, not to mention other folk all around the world. Plus it gave Ian Gillan a chance to go to the pub and even Ritchie could have enjoyed tipple or two with Ian. It could also help to be ‘in the zone’ at certain times. Attending a concert is or was supposed to be a bit of escapism. Regarding one side of an album for a song. It could have been longer, what about Jethro Tull with one song for the complete album, Thick as a Brick. Not that Tull ever performed all that in its entirety, or did they? They usually had it in an abridged form of about 12 minutes or so from my later 70’s experiences of live recordings. Cheers.
July 5th, 2026 at 08:31It is an improvement on =1, and Gillan is pushing himself at times and sounds better for it (also some wonderful lyrics). I do sometimes wish that Paicey was let off the leash (that leash being a click track, something he doesn’t like, which can restrain his performances). My only gripe, and it is a minor one, is Don’s continued tendency to overplay. Great musician, but, as Simon has said, Don is competitive, and if the guitar features a fast picking section (eg. Arrogant Boy), then Don feels the need to match it. Clearly, a wonderful keyboardist, and I have thought that having spent many years as a session musician Don relishes proving himself, and sometimes I find the flurry of notes jarring.
July 5th, 2026 at 09:59#4 Uwe:
In Perfect Strangers only KAYBD and PS are over 5 minutes long, then there are 2 songs under 4 minutes.
In THOBL only Strangeways and Mitzi are over 5 minutes long, then there are 2 songs under 4 minutes
July 5th, 2026 at 10:04#6 RB:
from the words of an old interview with Lord, I understand that it was Paicey himself who started using the click in the 80s, and Jon said that LittleIan was the drummer who in the 70s “took the most risks ever”, while with the click he started to take much fewer risks, but it was his choice.
You’re right about Don, it’s always been the criticism I’ve made of him in his previous albums “less is more”, but in this album his work is truly exceptional, 360 degrees
July 5th, 2026 at 18:03Hey Folks! Remember how around every new album release we did a roundtable and fantasied about the preferred set list for the tour? Time to do that for “Splat!”. As of now – though the album dropped – still nothing beyond the 2 singles in the set. Let’s hope it changes! Here’s my “fly at it”.
0. Intro Tape – Bach
1. Knocking At Your Backdoor – 7′
2. No One Came – 6′
3. Lazy Sod – 5′
4. Splat! (with bass solo!) – 6′
5. Jessica’s Bra – 6′
6. Sacred Land – 6′
7. Don solo – Lazy – 9′
8. Simon solo – Arrogant Boy – 8′
9. Nothing At All – 5′
10. Bloodsucker – 5′
11. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming – 7′
12. Pictures of You – 5′
13. Rapture of the Deep – 7′
14. Smoke on the Water – 7′
E1: 15. Highway Star – 7′
E2: 16. Hush / w Don-Simon duel – 8′
90 min main set, 15′ – encores. Hopefully realistic. What would YOU project?
July 5th, 2026 at 20:13Some of the songs on this album could’ve easily fit at The Battle Rages on or Perfect Strangers. Again I wish they could have left a couple of songs out and extend some of it. Beautiful!! It’s a grower. Crank it up people inn the car!
July 6th, 2026 at 02:00#9 Thorsun:
Here’s my unrealizable setlist:
01 Highway Star
02 Arrogant Boy
03 A Bit on the Side
04 Sacred Land
05 Lazy
06 Mitzi Dupree o Place in Line
07 Speed King
08 Third Call
09 The Only Horse in Town
10 Time for Bedlam
11 The Rider
12 Pictures of You
13 All the Time in the World
14 Perfect Strangers
Encore:
15 Guilt Trippin’
16 Child in Time (with recorded screams of Gillan as a young man and images of BigIan on the Ledwall!)
17 Smoke on the Water
there are a few more songs than their average,
July 6th, 2026 at 15:02i was sorry to leave out Doing It Tonight which for me is one of the most brilliant Purple songs, but maybe it’s not very iconic
@11
Flavio, great set! Albeit a little bit not realistic – if we thing about the age and stamina of our dear geezers. 🙂 Pairing HS and Arrogant B back to back sounds like a fine recipe to kill our 81YOs there on stage immediately. 😛
The concept of “Child In Time” is brave and interesting AND not so much unrealistic – if you think about what Queen+ w\Adam Lambert did. Freddie singing the 1st verse from the back led screen from footage brought chills and tears to the fold straight away – I was there, I witnessed it – immense and dismantling. So I’d imagine that if it would be montage of IG’s Granada TV footage used for this trick – the shivers would be skin-stripping, totally overwhelming. Could be almost difficult to survive! But what a concept. If they stripped down the middle improvisation tempo from 200 bps to the one used originally on “In Rock” – they could pull it off, and Simon would have a chance to score true flight of the guitar kid!
I never was a fan of Doing It Tonight, but I’m generally anti-Bananas in my stance, so that’s only me (although I still consider Picture of Innocence one of the lost big Purple gems no one remembers about. I seem to reckon DP did that DIT track in Katowice, Dec 2003 in the gig and it did have something live to it…
Fine calls, all around!
July 7th, 2026 at 10:07Edit on a truncated phrase from @12: Freddie singing 1st verse of “Bohemian Rhapsody” from the led back screen was absolutely immense and dismantling emotionally, bringing tears to the fold.
July 7th, 2026 at 12:20He he 😆
My ultimate set list would be this: (if I could do some magic and Ian appeared as he was when each song was released and some dead people turned up again 🥹)
1: Highway Star
2: Call of the Wild
3: Hot Line (with Iommi as a guest guitarist 😊)
4: Hard Loving Woman
5: Speed King
6: Lucille (as it was on Made in Japan)
7: Lazy
8: Strange kind of woman
9: Rapture of the deep
10:Perfect Strangers
11: Sometimes I feel like screaming
12: When a blind man cries
13: Pictures Within (and amazingly Jon Lord appears too – well it’s my fantasy list so why not 😄)
14: She took my breath away (Ian and Roger alone on the stage..)
15: Woman from Tokyo
16: Child in Time
17: Wicked Ways (singing together with JLT!) (woah! 🤩)
And extras:
18: Smoke on the water (With Ritchie on guitar, side by side with SMcB)
19: The Battle rages on
20: Arrogant Boy
And then after: drinks in the bar to all of us on HS – including our patient Admin guys 😃
Well, wouldn’t that be nice 😍
July 8th, 2026 at 09:59“I like the variety the more songs bring – you can always extend them live.”
But will they really?
I do expect perhaps A BIT here and there and again the songs staying in the set ll diminish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA4IApGECBA
July 9th, 2026 at 10:54I was asking rather for ideas revolving around the real(istic) circumstances of a Splat! tour – curious about what new items would people expect from a band that’s still a live existing band to do on stage.
The fantasy about bringing back missing people to life and doing “a great gig from the sky” – is something completely different. However, reading everything else here – I’m not particularly surprised by what I was put up by Principessa.
July 9th, 2026 at 13:14@ 14- Karin I am appalled, we all are! No ole Cov’s, sheesh, dragged over the coals at first, then admitting he was ok-ish on a song or two. Now no mention at all, but JLT gets a gig? No Glenn Hughes, no Rod Evans. And if you are talking about “bring out your dead’ he he he Monty Python joke there. What about George Harrison on Lucille, like what myself and a few others here have witnessed. Oh well, it is all a bit unrealistic isn’t it. Nice try. And what about Steve Morse??????????????????????????? You had better get back to the drawing board. Cheers.
July 10th, 2026 at 10:09@16
Thorsun, you are of course right to ask all you want 😁
I just miss out on never have heard the great and sadly late Jon Lord live.
And as I’ve never been to a live gig with Purple, I often feel left out when you talk about bits and pieces of the concerts in here.
Well, never mind, because in October and November I’m taking back some of the missing pieces 😃
“I’m not particularly surprised by what I was put up by Principessa.”
July 10th, 2026 at 12:41– I’m happy you weren’t disappointed ☺️😉
#14 Karin:
really shocking!
July 11th, 2026 at 00:12Are you sure you didn’t drink some Akvavit instead of tea?
It’s a very particular setlist, I would dare say unique!
@17
“Karin I am appalled, we all are!l
– well well well MacGregor! You talk with everyone in here! I’m impressed 😃
And about my fantasy list… oh my 😁
Of course I would have loved a lot more people, on my fantasy list 😉 but had I named all the others, you had been nagging me about how long that fantasy concert would have been – I can never do anything right with you 🤓
I tell you one thing: no going back to any drawing board, not in this insufferable heat ☺️ (yes, I might be sarcastic, I’m well aware of the unbelievable temperatures all over 😥)
Btw: you saw George Harrison in the memorable concert! That I would have loved to see, and hear 😍
July 11th, 2026 at 05:33I have seen, of course, the “memorable” photo after the concert 😎 with some 🧦 involved 🫣
@19
Fla76:
“Are you sure you didn’t drink some Akvavit instead of tea?”
– oh there are so many wrong assumptions in that one sentence I almost don’t know where to start 😁
First of all dear Flávio, I do not drink tea 😝 yuck!
https://youtu.be/yNgUAtIQjPM?is=0i0u8teRChTHAr20
(Especially 0:30)
Only if I’m feeling really ill, and if I do that I will make some coffee anyhow 😄
Coffee is the real, raw elixir of life:
https://youtube.com/shorts/ShNmpUaUufI?is=YqaC66mKVbRjuudv
Und Kalter Kaffee Macht Schön…
Second:
Akvavit is known to be ‘the water of life’ in my little country. But I don’t like it at all.
No, if I am enjoying a little ‘avec’ it is this kind:
https://youtu.be/uzaVxDQ6Dk4?is=SDaRxFJ2YTVx-O0L
Or maybe this:
https://youtu.be/JIrVUMcMyRo?is=qA_Z4svd5cvtyzqR
And alcohol aside: what is shocking about that setlist? 😊
MacGregor seemed to think I lacked a lot of former Purple people, but then the setlist would have been too long.
No, I find it perfect.
However, at Facebook, where I spend too much time already, I saw this:
https://fb.watch/IhTTp2xNNc/?
Hopefully you can see this.
If not it explains how Ian wouldn’t sing songs made for other vocalists – and a grand concert was turned down because it wouldn’t be for the music alone.
What a man! Yeah, I gladly repeat myself:
WHAT A MAN!
July 11th, 2026 at 11:19Turning down money 🤩💜🙏🏼
Well finally two songs from HIBL turn up on a dream setlist, nice. They did Hard Lovin Woman on the tour but Call of the Wild only a few times. I always liked that pop number. But I do like the album a lot anyway.
July 11th, 2026 at 20:51@22
Thank you Max 🤗
Well, I would have loved to be at that concert…
I have been searching for ‘Hard Loving Woman’ in concert footages, but the only one I have found is this, rather poorly recorded I have to say:
https://youtu.be/ibAn3LdDP74?is=qqzIqhBw6sTe3inN
And it’s played too fast to my liking. But the guitar solo is very nice 👍🏼
Yeah, HOBL is one of my favorite albums too.
Oh found this too:
https://youtu.be/p3xy7gzc4As?is=gVBekgvchLd6imS4
Even worse quality ☺️
Ha! Found yet another:
https://youtu.be/U2XEv9_ANE8?is=UJwQlvk3KDozgOFy
It’s like that number is coming out of nowhere now, but difficult to hear his opening words.
‘Call of the Wild’ is a brilliant, happy, completely Joie de vivre song. Cannot be in a bad mood if I listen to this 😃
I often wonder what are the criteria for a song to make it on the list?
July 12th, 2026 at 12:23I have seen a lot of set lists, and it often puzzles me that they leave out so many wonderful tunes.
Of course ‘Highway Star’ is a given, also SOTW, but in their back catalogue there are gems they never seem to play in public.
Maybe it is the management that decide? Or is it Ian?