| By virtue of its less-than-sober title, Bananas has already fallen foul of the more conservative elements of Deep Purple's fanbase: trenchant adherents who think that this sort of jocular impertinence doesn't befit the work of serious rock musicians (obviously they've never heard of Frank Zappa) and who have campaigned to get the album title changed. But no matter: Bananas ought to service the cravings of the riff-devouring faithful while enticing the uninitiated with some exceptional and entirely-out-of-character dalliances with distinctly non-Purple material. The current Deep Purple line up--Gillan, Glover, Paice, Morse (Ritchie Blackmore's replacement on guitar) and Don Airey (formerly of Rainbow and Ozzy Osbourne, an adept organ lick specialist who stepped into the breech following the recent amicable retirement of founder-member Jon Lord)--join-the-dots on such hackneyed rockers as "House of Pain" (music: think Rainbow's "All Night Long", lyrics: think "my woman's a bitch to me but that's the way I like it") and "Silver Tongue". To their credit, Purple recognise that no self-respecting middle-aged man can attempt to out-raunch Tom Jones and so "Doing It Tonight" is as tongue-in-cheek as it is hands-down-the-trousers, while the slyly funky "Picture of Innocence" could be Ian Dury's "Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll" for teetotal virgins. Steve Morse's guitar instrumental "Contact Lost" (a tribute to Deep Purple fan Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-born astronaut who was lost in the Columbia space shuttle disaster) and the new folk of "Never a Word" both tread new ground, while "Haunted" (a memorable, emotionally-engaging ballad with female soul singers) is the best Deep Purple song in living memory and could have been a recent No. 1 for someone like Richard Ashcroft. A few more numbers of this calibre and Bananas would have been an absolute peach. --Kevin Maidment |
