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“Rapture” – One month later

For about a month ago, I wrote a review about Rapture Of The Deep. Since then, I have listening a lot on the album and I still enjoy every minute of it. It’s hard to pick favourite songs, since every one is really good. If it was up to me, Deep Purple could play the whole album live, but as Ian Paice said in the interview I did with him, “they need to translate into live songs”.

Benny Holmstrom



35 Comments to ““Rapture” – One month later”:

  1. 1
    Milan says:

    I´m still listening to it everyday and I plan to make a longer break once the excitement wore off to gather some new excitement after that break.

    Still I´m waiting for the excitement to wear off though. No sign of anything like that happening too soon as of yet.

  2. 2
    Stefano Bigi says:

    After one week of listening I think that Rapture of the Deep is definetely one of the best Deep Purple albums, of all times.
    If we group the DP albums in groups of three or four represemting “homogeneous” phases of their history (Mk I; Mk IIa; Mk III + IV; Mk IIb + V + IIc; Mk VII + VIII) I think that the band had never reached such a pinnacle.
    This is a very encouraging background for the beginning of the next phase.
    Stefano

  3. 3
    Rich says:

    Rapture “one month later”?? Heck, I still have to wait until next tuesday to hear it!! 🙂

  4. 4
    Ady says:

    I’ve had the album for six days now and I can’t stop listening to it. One of the reviews on here said it’s the best DP album for 30 years and I think that pretty much sums it up, it’s fantastic.
    I also think ‘MTV’ is far too good to be a bonus track! People who buy the regular edition will miss out there.

  5. 5
    Rob says:

    i’ve been listening for a month, i still can’t stop. this is a classic purple album.
    Rich the 1st time i heard it i wasn’t sure but after the 3rd time your hooked and it doesn’t fade its just one of the best.
    i hope they play as many as possible live…bless ’em.

  6. 6
    Klas Ivarsson says:

    One of the best album……..maybe the best !! So much going on in every singel song !! Can´t stop listening !

  7. 7
    Arnaud says:

    Sure ,one of the best !!!!
    I think Don Airey is fantastic on this album.
    Very difficult to choose one song !!!
    I can’t stop listening….

  8. 8
    Tobben says:

    “Money talks” is the best opening track since “Knocking at your back door” !!!

  9. 9
    André Citvaras says:

    Hi! Rapture of the deep was released today (Oct/29) here in Brazil! Next week (Nov /01 and 03) they will play a concert at Credicard Hall in Sao Paulo.

    Cheers!!

  10. 10
    Mike Eriksson says:

    Hello guys. I´ve been listening to this record for about a month now and my conclusion is that this really is one of the best Deep Purple records ever. With several standout tracks they really have succeeded this time. My favourits are Money Talks (very strong opener), the title track itself (classic Purple), Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (should be great live if they have a go at it) and Before Time Began. Ian Paice is back in a way that is so great to hear and I tip my hat to Michael Bradford for getting this performance out of him and down on tape. Also, Don Airey is absolutely great on this record so we have no need to miss dear Jon anymore at this point. This is a great lineup. MIKE

  11. 11
    Chadie says:

    The Album is absolute Great. I think it is the best album of the year.
    For me the best song is: Clearly Quite Absurd.
    I wrote about the Album here:
    http://chadie.typepad.com/dojo/2005/10/deep_purple_has.html

  12. 12
    Nick says:

    Hello everyone,

    I’ve been listening to RotD for two weeks now and I must admit that these guys still rocks! Since the great Purpendicular, I keep on saying to myslef after each new album “this one is so good, it must be that last one, so the story of Purple will have a happy ending!!!” But the guys keep on going on the road, recording in the studio and writing awesome stuff! Wrong Man, Rapture of the Deep, Clearly Quite Absurd are already classic songs to me. Yep, this is a hell of a good album. I still have some problems with the sound quality, especially the way the vocals are recorded, but overall, what a pleasure to have new tracks from DP. Thanks guys!

  13. 13
    Michael Møller Nielsen says:

    Hi there.
    I think RotD is a great record, mayby it will grow to Purpendicular size, but:
    I really don’t like the cover. I think it is boring, and it does not give you any interest in hearing the music at all. I, m afraid this will leave the record stricktly for Deep Purple heads.
    And another thing: I think it sucks to make the record in 3 different versions. That is not a nice gesture to the fans.
    Cheers from Denmark

  14. 14
    Daewon Lee says:

    Among the 3 different version, Japanese one (limited ed.?) will be released at Dec. 16, 2005.

  15. 15
    Here comes the flood - a weblog about music by Hans Werksman says:

    The Highway Star: Deep Purple blog

  16. 16
    Heimdall says:

    Come on guys… even though there are surprisingly many great songs here, there’s also a lot of filler; “Girls Like That”, “Back To Back” just to name a few. A shame since so many other tracks are so damn great! Well I guess you can’t have everything…

  17. 17
    Rich says:

    Finally the day is here! I will be purchasing ROTD later today…

    It also happens to be my birthday, so today is a very, very good day!! 🙂

  18. 18
    Carl says:

    I tried to buy the CD today in Dallas 30 minutes after Best Buy opened and both copies were already sold!!!!
    Danm that!

  19. 19
    Daewon Lee says:

    I also listened to ROTD yesterday. It rocks hard!
    At the end of first listening, I felt strongly that Don Airey finally settled down and got his own voice in the band. Yes, I believe that any guys in the band have not compelled him to be an another Lord. But Don was seemingly in the shadow of Lord in the previous album, BANANAS. But his second effort (ROTD)in the band shows that he follows his style freely and mixed beautifully with the holy vibe of Deep Purple. It results in somewhat different sounds and songwritings in the new album. The beautiful harmony in “Clearly Quite Absurd” just tells it.

    All the songs are really great. Especially, Final three songs of “MTV”, “Junkyard Blues” and “Before Time Began” knocks me out. It’s the appearance of New Deep Purple, finally to be independent of their 1970’s legend.

  20. 20
    Joe says:

    Great songs on this cd! Let’s all call the local radio stations and get Deep Purple back on the air. Especially in the U.S.!

  21. 21
    Chip says:

    Wow. I liked Bananas but this is just so much better. The only filler track, to my ears is Back to Back. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, ROTD, Money Talks, Junkyard and Before Time Began are exceptional songs. I agree with Joe. To borrow a phrase from Jim Rome we need to “bang our local monkeys” at local radio stations. But we need to request the same song if something like that is to work. Kiss is the shortest of the songs….what say you?

  22. 22
    Joe says:

    Thanks Chip. The band must have worked really hard to create such a great cd. If we, as fans, want to show our appreciation, then we need to do a little work of our own for Deep Purple. I am not sure what is happening in other parts of the world but the music industry in the states keep feeding the listeners very poor quality music. The good stuff never gets heard anymore and it is time to change that! Keep calling in to the radio stations and requesting Deep Purple!

  23. 23
    Chip says:

    Joe, but if we are going to make a concerted effort it should be to back a particular track. RQA is tame enough to make some formats. Several songs would be warmly received by any rock fan worth his salt. I wonder what the “single” DP will be promoting?

  24. 24
    Joe says:

    Chip, great question. I was also wondering what would be considered a “single”. I don’t think DP view themselves as a “single” type of band so maybe the single will just “happen”. I suspect that if you asked 10 people about what to request, you could get 10 different titles from Rapture. I like the heaviness of and humor of Wrong Man and I think it would “fit” the formats of the stations I have contacted but I really like Before Time began and ROTD. (I liked this CD from the first listen.)

  25. 25
    blackmore on says:

    Looks like ROTD is going to be a great album for dp.. bit to early to say just yet though. Like it a lot this far anyhow.

  26. 26
    Robert Daems says:

    I have received Rapture of the Deep one week and a half ago now. I can’t stop listening to it. (I just have to get my hands on the bastards that have stolen my cd-player out of my car !!)
    Every song is good, this album is the best Deep Purple record since Perfect Strangers, and I think it is even better that PS.
    I now am playing it in my computer, just noticed something strange: I see the tracklisting in Media Player and behind every title the name Waite, John is shown…? Do others experience that as well?
    Anyway, this record has to get some airplay on dutch radio. It really has, we only hear Smoke or Child in Time sometimes (and not often enough!) It’s time to hear the New Deep Purple.
    I hope I’ll rock like this when I’m 60 !!!

  27. 27
    Chip says:

    Inoticed the Waite, John thing too….what’s up with that? Also something about the CD odd. I live in the US. They are selling the version of the CD with MTV here. Thought it was supposed to be a bonus track.

    After 5 days of almost constant listening of ROTD…..

    Money Talks is the best opening track on a DP release since PS. What a groove. Lots of interesting little touches….just a great song.

    Wrong Man reminds me of Silver Tounge. A good groovy rocker.

    ROTD is brilliant.

    CQA is the best DP ballad since SOF.

    THe last 4 tracks (KTG, MTV, JB and BTB) are excellent. The best reunion era stuff by a long shot.

    GLT and Don’t Let Go are better than average songs but dont stand up to the rest of the material.

    Why Back to BAck is there is beyond me….hate the syth lin in the middle of the song and the lyrics say throw away song.

    8 great tracks….2 ok tracks 1 not so good song…

  28. 28
    Carl says:

    I read that 2500 copies of RotD were sold in the USA during the first week. For what it is worth, I finally found a copy at the 4th store I stopped at on the first day of release. The first 3 stores were sold out! Of course each store only had 2 copies delivered…imagine the sales if they got 10 each!

  29. 29
    Chip says:

    Yeah I went to Best Buy and they had 2 copies in the back….but noone could find them?!? FYE had 2 copies but the first one I bought didn’t work right….(it skipped on every track so I took it back and got the second copy….

    No promotion in the US yet. Hopefully they’ll be a concerted effort to get some promo (maybe a spot on Leno or Letterman) There’s a lot of good songs on ROTD.

  30. 30
    Andrew Vines says:

    Some thoughts: (might someone answer?..)

    1) Is “Hard Loving Woman” really good enough to be remade once again??? I mean “Girls Like That”, which IS EXACTLY the same tune (I enjoyed singing their lyrics one instead of other 🙂 )

    2) Nine years gone since Purpendicular, but Steve plays much the same thing! Having a signature is good, but why repeat? Just compare:

    “Girls Like That” to ’69
    Rapture of the Deep to Ted the Mechanic
    and much etcs.

    Airey is absolutely brilliant on the record, and the whole thing is very strong though.

  31. 31
    Barrie says:

    As previously mentioned here, I’m not all that crazy about the album cover. It’s very soft and subdued, not much like the musical content found within.
    RotD has been played on local radio here, but one tune I believe should get air play is “Wrong Man”. I’ve expressed my thoughts to local radio via e-mail, which is what we all can do. DP is creating some of their best music yet, and it’s time radio got that message out to the masses.

    Cheers, Barrie.

  32. 32
    Joe says:

    I agree that “Wrong Man” should get air play. (One can’t help the foot tapping with this song.) I have also been requesting that the local stations play this song. Keep bugging them!

    Joe

  33. 33
    Rich says:

    OK…I’ve been listening to ROTD for almost a month and a half now (daily) and I must say this is a very, very fine album. I really don’t know if it is “proper” to try to compare it to previous albums, but it is “special” with a capital “S”. I can’t find a song on it that I dislike…

  34. 34
    Mats K says:

    I think “Rapture” is great in places and the good stuff is better than what´s on “Bananas” Unfortunately the album also contains a couple of sub standard songs that should have been left off completely! I´m thinking of “Girls like that” for example. Another thing that amazes me is the running order. All the good stuff is placed on the back end of the album, why?? Anyone into Purple, or who might consider buying the album and walks into a record store I´m afraid will turn off after the first 3 songs (which are among the weakest) and think they´ve lost it.

    From “Rapture” and on, it´s a great album songwise and their strongest with Morse together with “Purpendicular” (apart from a few moments where they seem to be running on empty). It´s also Gillan´s best album since “The house of blue light” where he was great. The albums weakest point though is the production. I seriously thought that “Bananas” was a pile of rough mixes that accidentally (on purpose?) had slipped through to the mastering studio. Now we know that Bradford might be a nice guy and a good producer for the band, but a pretty lousy engineer, cause “Rapture” suffers from the same bad production.

    Ian Paice (best living rock drummer on the planet), deserves to get a decent drum sound (listen to the beginning of “Kiss tomorrow goodbye” and you´ll know what I mean, most bands record demos today with very simple equipment that sounds a lot better), I can´t understand that the guys accept this! Please guys, get a producer and engineer that´s on par with the band, just to get you the great sound you need to support your many times awesome songs! How did you record Machine Head and Who do we think we are…??? Those albums still sound amazing 30+ years on.. 7/10

  35. 35
    Chris says:

    Great album, great band. Can’t wait for the US tour.

    PS

    Come to Florida!!

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