Deep Purple Covers Album Shows Ageless Band On Fire

Deep Purple’s new, vibrant covers disc, “Turning to Crime,” is a raucous, exhilarating effort, the latest achievement from a classic, timeless, and seemingly ageless band. Deep Purple make the songs their own not by rearranging them or making drastic changes but by simply putting their collective high-energy stamp and singular musicianship on the material. The band doesn’t just give the songs a boost; it’s more like a giant leap to a new level of excitement.

Focusing mainly on material from the sixties and seventies, the album kicks off with Love’s classic “7 and 7 Is” and from the start it’s clear that Deep Purple is having a blast and on fire. The band steamrolls through the track, which features all the signature Purple trademarks. It features Roger Glover’s fluid bass work and Ian Paice’s powerful drumming as well as Don Airey’s flourishing keyboards and guitarist Steve Morse’s fiery yet tasteful and melodic solos. And how could we forget singer Ian Gillan. The man’s inimitable vocals have aged more than gracefully over the past 50 years. The power in his voice hasn’t waned a bit, nor has his unique phrasing and sharpness.

The album makes good use of horns on rollicking numbers such as the dance-in-the-aisles take on Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” and Ray Charles and Quincy Jones’ exuberant “Let the Good Times Roll.” Elsewhere, the band does justice to Bob Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow” and takes a jam-like approach to the Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well. Elsewhere, Purple stays true to the garage rowdy garage rock of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels “Jenny Takes a Ride!”

The band also gives a boost of adrenaline to the Yardbirds “Shapes of Things” and exuberates joy on Cream’s White Room, and Lonnie Donegan and Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans.”

A fantastic medley of familiar favorites closes the album as the band switches to heavy blues for The Allman Brothers “Hot ‘Lanta,” Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” and other pieces.

Deep Purple over the past decade has astounded with a series of strong studio albums, and this lockdown-recorded covers album is no exception. So take a blast to the past while enjoying the current and hopefully near future original releases. Either way you can't lose.