[.ca] Perfect Strangers

Unbeliavable return !!!!:
LEt's face it: when Ian Gillan sings, other singles seem like childrenin comparison!!! This return of the classic DEEp Purple formation is great, amazing, fantastic,actual!! Buy it now!

Deep Purple doing their best:
Probably, the strongest Purple album in musical sense - ever! After the hiatus in 1976, one of the greatest hard-rock bands of all time gathered together with their Mk.II (Gillan, Blackmore, Lord, GLover, Paice) to produce "Perfect Strangers". This is something that heavy metal missed in the beginning of 80's: classical and professional sound with no glam, wonderfully crafted melodies and quite driving heavy rhythm. The Godfathers of hard-rock at their best!

A triumphant return for the Mark II lineup:
Deep Purple has had many personell changes,but the most popular lineup,the Mark II lineup of Gillan/Blackmore/Lord/Glover/Paice makes a triumphant return after 11 years since Gillan and Glover left in 1973,and 8 years since Deep Purple disbanded in 1976. From 1976 to 1983 Ritchie Blackmore was enjoying success with Rainbow and had Glover on some of thier albums,Glover also was producing for other bands,Lord,Paice and Gillan's Deep Purple replacement David Coverdale stuggled with Whitesnake. Gillan fronted his own band for a while and filled in as a vocalist on Black Sabbath's 1983 album Born Again. In 1984,a miracle happened,the Mark II lineup reformed and recorded PERFECT STRANGERS. After everybody thought Deep Purple was dead,whammo! Resurrection! The album is very good,maybe not IN ROCK or MACHINE HEAD good,but good just the same. The beauty in this album starts with the opening track "Knocking at your back door". Not just because it's a great bluesy Deep Purple song,but the intro of the song hauntingly tells you that the Mark II lineup are back again after 11 years,starting with Jon Lord's trademark organ sound,then the bass of Roger Glover,then the crashing thunder of Ian Paice's drumming,and then the powerful bluesrock/metalsound of Ritchie Blackmore's guitar. The band just gels right into the song with of course Ian Gillan putting on the finishing touches with his vocals. That intro of "Knocking at your back door" says with it's music "Yeah,were back in the 80's with your Def Leppard and other 80's rock bands,well we can hang just the same"! And with PERFECT STRANGERS they did! The rest of the songs are preety good,but "Knocking at your back door" will give you chills up and down your spine if your familiar with Deep Purple's story and the Mark II lineup.

4.5 stars - the return of Deep Purple:
Perfect Strangers (1984.) Deep Purple's eleventh studio album. This is a reunion album, which reunites the classic Mark Two lineup. Deep Purple hadn't released a studio album since 1975's Come Taste the Band. Its members had all gone on to new projects, and thus many fans thought the band was dead. Ritchie Blackmore was playing guitar in his new band, Rainbow. Ian Gillan sang lead vocals in his own band, as well as for Black Sabbath on one album. Roger Glover had continued doing something he loved to do - produce records. Ian Gillan's inital vocal replacement David Coverdale became the lead singer in a new band called Whitesnake. But finally, in the early-mid eighties, Deep Purple's classic Mark Two lineup reunited. At long last Gillan, Glover, and Blackmore were reunited, and ready to rock the world once again. In 1984 the band released its first studio album in nine years - Perfect Strangers. Read on for my review of this album. The Perfect Strangers album isn't necessarily a return to normalcy for the band, nor is it a shift toward the rock trends that were emerging supreme in the eighties - it's a perfect mix of the two. The big hit to come off of this album was Knocking at Your Back Door. The opening to this track with the low-pitched violins is priceless, and the rest of the song is even better. Even after a decade away from the band, Ian Gillan's voice has not diminished at all. Mean Streak takes us back to the classic rock stylings the band used heavily in the early seventies, most notably in the Fireball era. Fans of classic Deep Purple are sure to love this track. And then, of course, we have the slower but still excellent Wasted Sunsets. This track shows the band's musical diversity very well. Hungry Daze is another excellent rocker, which features some of the band's best keyboard work ever. And who could forget Not Responsible? This track sounds very similar to the title track from 1974's Stormbringer album, and any Deep Purple fan knows that can only be a good thing. Although this was Deep Purple's first studio album in nearly a decade, it sounds just as good as anything they did back in the old days. Some versions of this album feature a bonus track - a lengthy instrumental entitled Son of Alerik. This is the way rock instrumentals are supposed to sound, no questions asked. When you purchase the album, make sure the version of the album you are buying is one that has this track. Overall this album was surprisingly good. I was surprised that the band was able to stay so close to their classic hard rock roots - even though they hadn't released a studio album in nearly a decade! If you're a fan of Deep Purple, you've gotta add this one to your collection.

"Perfect". That says it all.:
Sometimes a break can really be to an artist's advantage. They come back, refreshed, bursting with renewed enthusiasm & creative energy. Yes's "Going For The One", "Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe" and ELP's "Works Vol.1" come to mind. THIS is another superb example. Anyone trying to be cute might call this "Machine Head 2", and they wouldn't be far off. As if they stepped from a time warp, DP Mk2 reunited for the band's finest album since the infamous flare-gun incident. 8 songs. POWERFUL. BLUESY. HARD-ROCKING! "Knocking At Your Back Door", "Under The Gun" and "Perfect Strangers" are my faves, but this time, ALL the songs are equally good. SO good, in fact, that while they've had great tunes since, in my view no album after this has topped it-- or even come close.

• Knocking at Your Back Door
• Under the Gun
• Nobody's Home
• Mean Streak
• Perfect Strangers
• Gypsy's Kiss
• Wasted Sunsets
• Hungry Daze
• Not Responsible
• Son of Alerik \o*\c