CD Review
Whitesnake
The Purple Album
Frontiers Records
2015
Review: Joseph Suto
✰✰✰✰
Although the possibility of a David Coverdale/Ritchie Blackmore reunion could not come to fruition, fans of Deep Purple Mark 3 &4 still get a chance to rejoice. Coverdale took his current version of Whitesnake into the studio to revisit his time in Deep Purple with a powerful batch of updated versions. Gems such as “Burn”, “Stormbringer”, and “Soldier Of Fortune” are among the highlights of the latest Whitesnake release simply titled The Purple Album.
This marks the first time this version of Whitesnake has recorded an album together, The band currently features drummer Tommy Aldridge, bassist Michael Devin and the very able guitar team of Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra. Michele Luppi provides keyboards.
From the first note of “Burn” to the last note of “Stormbringer”, The Purple Album takes the old material and gives it a fresh coat of paint so to speak. In some instances there is a fuller sound giving some of the songs a new life, while others remain true to their original form.
Songs such as “Holy Man” and “Sail Away” sound better than ever. Of the thirteen tracks The distribution of songs is as follows: the Burn album is represented by six songs, Stormbringer with five while Come Taste The Band clocks in with two cuts.
“It was a shared vision,” Coverdale says “Every member of the band came to the sessions fully loaded with ideas and talent and helped make this a memorable project for me.”
One has to remember that Coverdale helped write these songs at the start of his career way before Whitesnake was even born. Deep Purple fans from the Coverdale era will revel with delight as will Whitesnake fans who have clamored for Coverdale to revisit this part of his career making The Purple Album a necessity for fans of either band.
Track Listing
01. Burn
02. You Fool No One
03. Love Child
04. Sail Away
05. The Gypsy
06. Lady Double Dealer
07. Mistreated
08. Holy Man
09. Might Just Take Your Life
10. You Keep On Moving
11. Soldier Of Fortune
12. Lay Down Stay Down
13. Stormbringer
