Deep Purple - Bananas

"Have you ever had a rock that just keeps on rolling/ Ever seen a train coming down the track" Ian Gillan deadpans on the first song off Bananas. This tune gives you every single 1970s hard rock cliché at once, as it careens from cheesy guitar solo to cheesy organ solo to cheesy dual organ and guitar solo, with a gratuitous use of the cowbell effect right through the whole track. The song is a bit like seeing your grandmother in hot pants. Things do get better from there on out, though not tremendously so. Deep Purple’s first studio album in five years has new songs that for the most part sound like their old songs, which is not really such a bad thing. "Haunted," however, presents a new template for the band, a Macy Gray-style ballad. Really. The album brims with trademark DP choogling; original members Ian Paice and Roger Glover remain one of the most solid, thunderous rhythm sections in rock. If you can’t get enough of this band’s mountainous sound, with its thunderous organs, screaming guitars, and vocals that veer from ominous to operatic, this one’s for you. --Mike McGonigal Amazon.com

With an album title like Bananas it must be bad

Ok I love Deep Purple if you're talking about classic Purple 60s, 70s and 80s but this is just embarrasing. I went out and bought this hearing all the great reviews about it. People ranked it with classics such as Machine Head so I caved in and bought it. Once I opened the package I saw the band members names and the only original member left was Ian Paice. I didn't realize that John Lord had left. But I played the cd anyway. I have listened to it and the songs are just cheesy and bland and not very Purpleish. I mean if Blackmore was still in the band there is no way he would have let them call an album Bananas but this album sounds exactly like Bananas. The lyrics are bad and the music is terrible. I won't even bother to go by a track by track review because there is nothing on here worth mentioning. Deep Purple really need to hang it up. They get much worse on their next album Rapture Of The Deep. If you're a huge Purple fan and have not heard this then my advice to you is Don't. You will wish you never had. Stick with the great albums, In Rock, Machine Head, Fireball, Burn, Perfect Strangers and hell I eben liked House Of Blue Light. This cd is pure garbage. August 25, 2008

Better than good!

Deep Purple has had some high moments in their career, followed by peaks and valleys in between. The classic Machine Head was their first truly great album followed by Made in Japan the following year which became one of the best live classic albums of all time. But fueding between band members constantly causing line up changes and members leaving and coming back into the band split them up at their commercial PEAK! But they came back with David Coverdale for the FABULOUS Burn album and Deep Purple's second high level was reached. Nobody would have ever expected Perfect Strangers to bring the band back fully commercially, but Purple hit their third peak in the 90's and unfortunatly, internal conflicts caused them to split yet again. By the 2000's, the commercial and hit making days of a hard Metal group like Deep Purple were OVER. But that didnt stop them from putting out Bananas, the FOURTH peak of their career and what an album this is! It should have been the followup to Perfect Strangers and had it been, it would have surely went Gold or Platinum and yielded hit singles on the charts! The songs are so catchy here and the musicianship is outstanding! There isnt hardly a bad songs on the entire album. It easily blows away anything Deep Purple did from House Of The Blue Light on! Part of the style reminds one of their earlier albums, with the vocals of Gillan a bit more refined and the guitar style different with Morse being on board. But the album is no less than suberb anyway. Great drum work, guitar solos, signature organ, and most of all to go with it EXCELLENT songs musically! Who knows if Purple will ever reach another peak like this, but for me I am still enjoying this one! Awesome! February 26, 2008

purple madness

Like most people, I was surprised Deep Purple were going to call their new album "Bananas". That has to be the funniest name of an album for a hard rock band of all time!

Luckily, the quality of the music is up to par with what we've come to expect from the band, so it's quite okay to call the album whatever the heck ya want!

Of course, I can't honestly say the songwriting and the raw energetic power that made Deep Purple so popular and influential in the 70's has returned to full force. No WAY mister! Many of the tunes fall victim of being generic mid tempo hard rock, and while that's not really a bad thing, it's certainly not why we remember the band all these years later.

Every so often the album will throw in some neat guitar tricks and other unordinary musical ideas (slightly unordinary I mean). But it's really not anywhere near the level that classic Deep Purple can offer for enjoyment. Pick up a mid 70's live album to see what the band can really deliver to the world of heavy rock. January 26, 2008

Bananas are good for your health.. and for your ears too !

Very good album from Deep Purple. Amazing to see how good they still are.
I won't comment every songs, simply said, they are all very good.
A very good cd from the first to the last drops ! Recommanded. January 12, 2008

bananas over it

This is relly a great cd. It is definatly the best of the post blackmore era purple,They really show there versatility and don't just rest on there name for this cd.I have almost all of there albums and this one stands right up there with some of the classic purple albums.I thought there better days were behind them but maybe not , You can tell Gillian is getting older but he can still outsing most of todays vocalists KEEP ON SPACE TRUCKIN July 18, 2007

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