In 1974 Deep Purple were in the midst of a renaissance. A couple of years prior their iconic Mark II line-up was no more when singer Ian Gillan quit the band and bassist Roger Glover was subsequently fired. Bringing in then unknown singer David Coverdale and up and coming bassist and vocalist Glenn Hughes helped blast them back into the stratosphere with their 1974 album Burn. This new happy family situation didn't last particularly long though, because within a year a storm was on the horizon with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore not liking the direction the band was going and thus wanting to quit. All of this and more can be heard in Mark III's 1974 final album Stormbringer.
Where Burn featured only occasional elements of funk and soul, Stormbringer brought them to the forefront as the main musical focus. Where Deep Purple had once been mainly focused on hard neo-classical meets blues rock, now they sounded like a Motown band out of Detroit for most of the album. In all fairness though, the heavy rock n' roll sound wasn't entirely gone as it is very much still present in songs like Stormbringer, Lady Double Dealer, The Gypsy, etc. The most well known song from this album however is an acoustic ballad by the name of Soldier of Fortune.
Love Don't Mean a Thing is the most funky, soulful, Motown-esque song on the entire album. It has that clavinet and bass driven groove that many of us who know 70's dance music are very much familiar with. The vocal falsettos get incredibly high and the harmonies absolutely tasty. I wouldn't by any means consider this a Deep Purple song, but I would be lying if I said I didn't absolutely love the way this song grooves.
Stormbringer is one of the only songs aside from Soldier of Fortune that Blackmore brought to the table for the writing of the album. It is a driving, powerful hard rock tune that I would even say is borderline heavy metal. The riff sounds like a very proto-metal kind of idea. The lyrics are very fantasy themed, but that is no surprise considering that is the kind of thing Blackmore is into. The musical themes of the solo would later go on to be used in Blackmore's new band Rainbow's masterpiece Stargazer. They are very gypsy scale oriented and bring a certain level of mystique to both songs.
This is not Deep Purple's greatest album by any means, nor is it even Mark III's best album. That said, it isn't a bad record at all. It's still REALLY good despite the tension that was going on and how phoned in Blackmore was being at the time. These are some good funky jams mixed up with some classic Deep Purple hard rock themes. They blend together in such a way where it isn't too jarring to go from one track to the next. This is definitely still worth checking out.
Stormbringer, by Deep Purple receives 3.8 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
1. Stormbringer
2. Love Don't Mean a Thing
3. Holy Man
4. Hold On
5. Lady Double Dealer
6. You Can't Do It Right (With the One You Love)
7. High Ball Shooter
8. The Gypsy
9. Soldier of Fortune
Buy the album on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Stormbringer-Deep-Purple/dp/B00123IAAG/ref=ice_ac_b_dpb?ie=UTF8&qid=1512720127&sr=8-1&keywords=Deep+Purple+Stormbringer
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