I have already reviewed the American release of this record, which had a slightly different track listing – it included the terrific “Strange Kind of Woman” in place of the also great “Demon’s Eye”. Both of the releases should have contained these two songs and left out the painfully dreadful “Anyone’s Daughter”, which is a bad joke that they should have kept to themselves.
This 25th Anniversary Edition has improved sound and also a bevy of bonus material. The original UK track listing is intact with “Strange Kind of Woman” added at the end, so you get the best of both worlds. The first bonus track is already better than the low points of the official release – “So Alone” has almost a Latin beat propelled by drum-master Ian Paice and fed with neat licks from Blackmore and Lord topped with a catchy melody. “Freedom” is purposely a mix of old school rock’n’roll (written to be a replacement of “Lucille” as an encore tune, with melodic references to this classic) and their brand of heavy rock and this works to great effect. Gillian stretches out with his patented high-pitched screams and Lord gets to work out on acoustic piano. Maybe they thought this was too derivative but again, this eclipses many of the previously released cuts.
Somewhat less successful is “Slow Train”, which has a great, rockin’ beat, and seems to be made up with bits and pieces that they instead used in other songs. Ian’s vocals and melodies are nothing special here, either – this one is understandable as an outtake. The re-mix of “Demon’s Eye” doesn’t change it very much to my ears, though I am not overly familiar with the song. “The Noise Abatement Society Tapes” show the band goofing off with familiar themes, such as the "William Tell Overture", but seemingly drunkenly and with much hilarity.
Also included is an instrumental version of “Fireball” (still mighty powerful), a solo piano track that was manipulated, taped backwards and put at the ending of “No One Came”, and, fittingly, a remix of “No One Came”.
Much improved from the original release, though still not the band’s best, by any stretch of the imagination. I’m not sure who was their producer at the time, but the final track listing of the LP would have been much better with a couple of these bonus tunes replacing some of the final tracks and this album would be remembered much more fondly. Ah, but such is hindsight…
(PS - the full color, 28 page booklet is a wonderful addition, too!)
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