Slave To The Groove – 95%
Sweetie, November 18th, 2017
It absolutely baffles me that so many people act surprised over the fact that half of this record is littered with covers. This wasn’t uncommon in the ’60s (or even ’50s)! Look at all of the early Beatles records. Please Please Me, With The Beatles, etc. This was reminiscent of live shows, showcasing some original material, yet playing many covers to keep outsiders interested. One of Elvis’s biggest hits is a cover! So let’s not allow this to bring the beauty of this down, seeing it’s probably in the top five greatest Deep Purple records. Yeah yeah, this is before Gillian and Glover joined the band, Rod Evans was the singer, it was trippy compared to most Deep Purple, it’s not really metal, blah blah blah, let’s skip the stuff that everyone else has touched on, as well as being irrelevant to what makes an album great.
Well for starters, the atmosphere on this record is vital to the overall experience, especially if you own it on vinyl to just help add to the overall effect. Groovy bass-lines and wild drum beats are what really lay the foundation for all of this, allowing it to stand apart from most of their discography, even other early records. But what really drives it the whole way home is Jon Lord’s superior keyboard licks, drilling deep within every single track, acting as the lead role. Most of the time, it’s promoted to the front over Blackmore’s guitar work, as he takes control in the rhythm areas most of the time. “And The Address”, the opening instrumental is one example where this isn’t the case, and you can catch early hints of what a guitar God he is soon to become. But others, “Mandrake Roots”, “One More Rainy Day” and “Love Help Me”, he drives the rhythms along with steady but considerably harder riffs. Not to say he never breaks away with a solo, but the keyboards are absolutely crucial. Speaking of which, these also display a great deal of surf rock influence, especially with “Love Help Me”. Rod Evans couldn’t have done a better job with delivering fun and energetic vocals to go with this.
If songs such as “Help!” and “Hey Joe” weren’t such big hits, you’d think it’s original material. Why? Because they make the songs their own, coming off very different. “Help!” and “I’m So Glad” both proceed with intros that were not in the originals, as well as altering both to fit the theme and overall vibe of this record some more. And of course, the classic “Hush” can’t be missed either, and falls right into place after the opening instrumental piece. Whether it be slowing them down (that being the case with the Beatles), or just adding a surf/bluesy touch to them, these are phenomenal versions of these tracks.
The ultimate achievement here is the way that it utilizes melody the whole way through, maintaining the same sound and idea without getting boring at any parts of this. Fancy keyboard work adds spice to it, creative guitar licks and rhythms follow every track from start to finish, and backing vocals also bestow this beast. “Love Help Me” is probably the greatest track on here, hitting the surf-rock aspect the hardest, taking the backing vocals to great lengths, and including just about everything that makes Shades Of Deep Purple great, compiled into just one track. Maybe some lyrics are rather cheesy, maybe it’s half covers, and maybe it isn’t what the typical Deep Purple fan looks for. One way or the other, this is a criminally overlooked album, and I recommend it to anyone reading this.
rafazardly 