Tracks
- Highway Star
- Child in Time
- Smoke on the Water
- The Mule
- Strange Kind of Woman
- Lazy
- Space Truckin'
Made In Japan is a lively album. The music is hard rock. It's a live album recorded in Japan. Four songs come from Machine Head and one comes from In Rock which are two albums already featured on the 1001 Albums list. For the live performances, the band extends the songs with guitar solos and jams.
Deep Purple sound louder, faster and fuller on a live recording than on a studio recording.
This is an outstanding album, even though its length despite so few songs can test your endurance. It's definitely worth listening to and is probably a better substitute for buying the three studio albums which the songs come from. I'm not sure it needs to be on the 1001 Albums. That it's such a good live performance and a model for future hard rock and heavy metal bands to emulate are two reasons for including it.
All of the songs quite good. The stand outs are Highway Star, Child in Time, Smoke on the Water, Strange Kind of Woman and Space Truckin'.
★★★★★★★★★★
Tracks
- Highway Star
- Maybe I'm a Leo
- Pictures of Home
- Never Before
- Smoke on the Water
- Lazy
- Space Truckin'
Machine Head is a toothless album. The music is hard rock. Each song is filled with guitar solos, riffs, grooves and hooks.
While there may not be much bite to this album, that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable or interesting. However, where Black Sabbath is dark and brooding and Led Zeppelin is aggressive and bombastic, Deep Purple is fun and easygoing. It's kind and gentle heavy metal.
The album is good, but it needs to rock harder and faster to make it all convincing. It's worth listening to because it's clearly an influential album for future hard rock and heavy metal bands. However, I don't think it needs to be on the 1001 Albums list.
All the songs on this album are quite good. The stand outs are Highway Star, Never Before, Smoke on the Water, Lazy, and Space Truckin'.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Tracks
- Speed King
- Bloodsucker
- Child in Time
- Flight of the Rat
- Into the Fire
- Living Wreck
- Hard Lovin' Man
Deep Purple In Rock is a hyperactive album. The music is heavy metal. Deep Purple's brand of heavy demonstrates a third kind of heavy metal emerging in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Black Sabbath has their own distinct brand which is slow, brooding and works off a groove. Led Zeppelin's brand is riff-based and thunderous. Deep Purple is also loud but, what makes them distinct is the extremely fast guitar playing and their music flirts with prog rock; in some ways, it's just hard rock on speed.
I do think Deep Purple's heavy metal is the least interesting of the three. They do rock and the speed is blazing, but it seems very detached and clinical. It could be the singer. Ozzy and Robert Plant are charismatic, but Ian Gillan doesn't come off being as charismatic. If it's not that then it could either be the lyrics or the production.
I do think this album is worth listening to and it certainly does deserve being on the 1001 Albums list. And while it might be an album to rock out to now and then, Sabbath and Zeppelin seem more desirable.
Most of the songs are quite good. The stand outs are: Speed King, Child in Time, Into the Fire and Hard Lovin' Man.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
