Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
As thank you notes go, The Purple Album is arguably one of the finest of the lot. No need to content yourself to putting a few acknowledgments on the sleeve notes, if there is time, then re-record, re-imagine the past and really say cheers, really say thank you with open arms and mean it. For David Coverdale the past is a very important place, he acknowledges that without it, his long and abundant career would never have taken off in quite the same way. For Whitesnake, for David Coverdale is the long and respected thank you, deserving a place in any Rock fans armoury.
There are those who find it easy to knock such icons, they dismember the past as if it doesn’t matter and they are willing to take ill deserved pot-shots from the safety of the keyboard. For David Coverdale and Whitesnake, those pot-shots sail harmlessly above the heads, they do no damage and in certain quarters they are easily defended against as the man and the music truly do the talking.
The Purple Album is not just a thank you to Deep Purple, it is a conversation piece, an exchange of ideas across time and dialogue with the historic. It is the hand shake that perhaps many fans might have thought impossible and the reconciliation between two era’s of one man’s incredible life.
The songs on the album are taken from the Mark III and Mark IV period of Deep Purple’s extensive back catalogue, a period in which they went from pioneers of the Heavy Metal to the sound more keenly associated with the David Coverdale era; a period which saw the music really begin grab hold of different parts of the senses and the brain and which laid the foundations for the history yet to come.
If David Coverdale calls the songs on the album an homage, then it is one that is done with sincerity, as should be expected, but also one that feels as though there is a kind of worship, a trip down memory lane where devotion and reverence are kings and the realisation that after nearly 40 years at the very top of his game, still able to pull audiences in with the smooth talking songs, David Coverdale is still pretty much a prince amongst men.
The tracks Love Child, The Gypsy, Mistreated, Might Just Take Your Life, the excellent Soldier of Fortune and Lady Double Dealer are a huge testament to the Mark III and IV period of Deep Purple but also it gives credence to the fact that above all else, music, the chance to bring something to the lives of the music fan has always been inside David Coverdale.
There is no doubting the passion, there is no argument to be had, the dissenters will always find a way to knock down a door or two but for Whitesnake, this first studio album in four years, is one that really adds to the purple patch of Rock music.
Ian D. Hall